First it is deceptive that they put solar panels on the picture. Solar panels don’t use much in the way of rare earth metals and I don’t think crystaline panels (most of them and what is in the picture) require them at all. They are used in magnets and batteries and wind turbines use magnets. What’s really BS about this very common reporting and what gives it away as fossil fuel sponsored propaganda is pretty similar to the wind kills birds propaganda (in that conventional power kills 10x as many birds per unit energy).
Rare earth metals (which aren’t necessarily rare and can be recycled) are used in lots of applications including conventional fossil fuel based energy production. Wind power or renewables generally are not an especially big user.
Basically, no. Every story about future resource shortage basically boils down to the observation that we don’t currently mine a shitload of neodymium (or whatever) that no one has a use for, so if we start using more neodymium than we currently do, we’ll need more to mine more neodymium too. BUUUUT, if you assume that it’s impossible to ever mine more neodymium, then we’ll have terrible shortages and you can write an article about it.
It’s especially crazy for rare earths, because the U.S. has an enormous rare-earths mining complex that isn’t currently operational because China produces enough to satisfy world demand at lower cost:
There’s a great book about rare earths if you’re interested in reading 300 pages about this stuff:
It’s a fascinating subject, because all these elements are like magic fairy dust for the various things they can be used for. Like you sprinkle in 0.1% niobium in your steel and it becomes much stronger. Mix some neodymium with iron and you have an insanely powerful permanent magnet.
What’s the harm? I have nothing to hide, and I’m sure you can trust a commercial site that somehow managed to snag a .edu TLD. No alarm bells ringing for me at all here.
It’s so absurd. “If she’s not a good enough squash player she’s going to Ohio State.” You can get a great education at Ohio State. You can also spend five years getting drunk but you can do that at Harvard too. Who gives a shit. This crazy mindset didn’t exist 25 years ago, it was up to the kids to get their college resume together.
The people in the article are disgusting, reprehensible, irredeemable and ultimately depressing. They’re atrocious parents and its no wonder they raise monsters like Nazi Barbie and Hope Hicks.
I think that bolded is a bit much, but I’ll co-sign on the ultimately depressing.
Hicks apparently grew up in Greenwich, played LaCrosse, was a child model, and ended up at SMU for undergrad. It’s a wonder her parents didn’t commit Seppuku after that.
It is. But the MCG is the “spiritual home” of Australian sport and it seats 100,000. If we had the grand final in Adelaide, for example, it would be at the Adelaide Oval which only seats 53,000. Gotta get that money.
In the upper-class, it’s all about status and image.
Parents want this for their reputation and image not their kids but for themselves. Had a former roommate who was exactly like that. Rich boy from a rich neighborhood who told me that his parents paraded their kids’ accomplishments to impress their neighbors. He was completely insufferable as were his asshole parents. He was mentally fucked up. A total nutcase which is no surprise given his upbringing.
It’s typical one-upmanship among the top 10% in the country. Everybody want to be the richest and best among their community and since the parents can’t do it they push their kids to do it for them. It’s a great way to leave their status-seeking neighbors seething with jealousy.
To me, it’s child abuse. To the upper-class but not quite 1%, it’s a way of life.
