‘Anything we planted just withered, then our animals started to sicken and die.’ ‘It turned into a mountain that towered over us,’ says Mr Su. What he found was truly haunting:Īs more factories sprang up, the banks grew higher, the lake grew larger and the stench and fumes grew more overwhelming. Simon Parry from the Daily Mail traveled to Baotou, China, to see the mines, factories, and dumping grounds associated with China’s rare-earths industry. One such component are magnets made from neodymium and dysprosium, rare earth minerals mined almost exclusively in China, which controls 95 percent of the world’s supply of rare earth minerals. A typical wind turbine contains more than 8,000 different components, many of which are made from steel, cast iron, and concrete. Manufacturing wind turbines is a resource-intensive process. It’s a story Big Wind doesn’t want you to hear. that restrict rare earth mineral development and China’s poor record of environmental stewardship, the process of extracting these minerals imposes wretched environmental and public health impacts on local communities. Unfortunately, given federal regulations in the U.S. Modern wind turbines depend on rare earth minerals mined primarily from China. The further truth is that affordable, abundant energy has made life for billions of people much better than it ever was.Īnother environmental trade-off concerns the materials necessary to construct wind turbines. The truth is, all energy sources impact the natural environment in some way, and life is full of necessary trade-offs. Any marginal reduction in emissions comes at the expense of protected bird species, including bald and golden eagles. As IER pointed out last week, even if wind curbs CO 2 emissions, wind installations injure, maim, and kill hundreds of thousands of birds each year in clear violation of federal law. For example, the industry claims that wind energy reduces carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming.īut there are many ways to skin a cat. The wind industry promotes itself as better for the environment than traditional energy sources such as coal and natural gas.
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