"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
...
A few weeks ago, there was a professor talking on a UK radio show, about
the eco-credentials of the windmills that are springing up all over the UK
in an effort to satisfy the goals for renewable power, that have been
foisted on us by Brussels. He enthused like an evangelical preacher about
the brilliant efficiency of these machines which, he said, was due in no
small part to the use of neodymium magnets in the generators. I understand
that high power neodymium magnets are also used in the motors for electric
eco-cars. Fair enough all round. However, in last Sunday's newspaper
supplement, I read a rather disturbing story about this material.
Apparently, almost all 'rare earth' metals are mined and processed in
China. Since the boom in wind turbines and electric cars started, the
demand for neodymium has gone sky high. The only problem is that extracting
it from the ground and other metals that it co-exists with, involves the
use of very concentrated acids which are pumped into the ground, as well as
being used in the refinement process. There is also radioactivity involved
somewhere in the process. Once the neodymium has been extracted and
processed, the highly acidic and radioactive 'tailings' are dumped in a
huge and highly toxic lake that is now over 10 feet deep. Local people are
getting sick and dying at an alarming rate, and birth defects are common.
The water supply and crops are being poisoned, and the whole affair is
being talked of in terms of an "ecological disaster".

So here we have another bit of western eco- think of dubious practicality
in terms of the amount of power that can actually be realistically
produced this way, that's having a seriously negative ecological effect on
the other side of the world. But I suppose all the eco-warriors and euro
pen-pushers that support this 'non-polluting' power generation technology,
would rather that we didn't know about the wider implications ...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/mosl...ous-scale.html

Arfa

Whats that old saying.. Theres no such thing as a free lunch..I think this
applies to enery too.. Theres no such thing as (poloution) free energy.

I don't know what the answer is to the energy problmes we face, but wind
power isn't the answer. Solar isn't so promising either.

Mike