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Something to ponder, by Jim Hopkins
“Well, they work like a dream, Indeed they are, though there’s actually 17 Rare Earths nowadays. Another’s been discovered since those Swedish schnapps sippers started singing in their underground Abbatat. And all 17 have “names as strange as you’ll find.” Imagine calling your offspring Yttrium or praseodymium, gadolinium, emporium or linoleum. Fine for a mad Roman emperor or loony pop star but no-one else would choose niobium, tantalum, praesidium, lutetium, dysprosium or terbium. Well, maybe terbium. That’s got a ring to it. Should James Cameron ever make a movie about a benevolent lignite mining magnate donating his copy of the Kohinoor diamond to help the Royal Na’vi, he could well call his hero Sir Terbium Titchall. (Unless he called him Major ‘Turbo’ Terbium or something equally terbious.) Or should that be dubious? One of the interesting things about Rare Earths (apart from their names) is that they aren’t rare at all. They’re called ‘rare’ because Yttrium comes from an oxide mineral which, originally, was only found in Ytterby - hence the name, and the generic title, ‘Rare’ Earths. A whopping 124,000 tonnes were mined in 2008, worth (count the hip replacements) US$1,250,000,000. They may be (un)Rare but they’re definitely cool - an essential part of the new age. Our sustainable salvation depends on gizmos that can’t be made without Rare Earths. They’re where it’s at, man, especially if you’re in China. More than 95 percent of the world’s supplies come from China. Years ago, the Chinese decided to corner the market. And they have. If we need Rare Earths (and we do) there’s only one place to get ‘em. Except the Chinese are now limiting exports because, they say, ‘we need our RE’s here’. Which isn’t surprising, given that everything in the world is made in China. But wait! The paranoid insist China’s export cut is really a cunning plan to bring the West to its Rare Earth knees. And brought the West could quickly be. Before long, world demand for RE’s will exceed supply by 40,000 tonnes unless new sources are developed. This is an eco-calamity of Global Warming proportions!! It could see the Age of Sustainability either postponed or, worse still, cancelled!! By rights, Green Leader of the Joint Party, Dr Russel Norman and his fragrant colleague, Sue Kedgely should be denouncing this imminent catastrophe now! They should be saying, “Guys, we‘ve got Rare Earths here, and if we want hybrid cars, wind turbines, catalytic converters, better batteries, new medical technologies, computers, iPads and all that other plant-saving stuff, then we gotta dig ‘em.” Indeed we do. They’re indispensable. A Green future needs Rare Earths. But Lucy Lawless isn’t demanding more mining – “because there’s no Planet B.” Sea Shepherd isn’t ramming any of the illegal Rare Earth mines polluting rivers and killing people in rural China. Greenpeace isn’t insisting our moral obligation to increase Rare Earth extractions equals our obligation to reduce carbon emissions. The champions of a cleaner, greener future are deafeningly silent. So let the word go forth from this great journal. Gerry Brownlee has a duty to Lucy and Keisha and Greenpeace and us. He must do Gaia’s work. He must sacrifice a little bit of New Zealand to save the world. ‘A hole for the whole’ should be our cry. If WW2’s message was, “Dig for Victory” today’s must be, “Dig for Green Victory”. Come, Russel, come Sue, to the mines! There’s a shaft to sink and a song to sing!!!
Energy NZ Vol.4 No.3 May-June 2010 |
Long ago and faraway, in the tiny town of Ytterby, a merry band of miners – armed only with a canary in their pocket and a firkin of schnapps – would stride to the face and there, as their picks rang sharp on the hard basalt rock, they would sing a cheerful song, loosely based on that grand anthem, “You’re 16, you’re beautiful, and you’re mine.”