er, so where does the plastic come from? Oil? coal-to-liquids? Plant-based? Even if plant based, it's all about scale, as ever. I'm not saying it isn't better than mining rare earth metals but it doesn't avoid the unpopular questions surrounding growth and absolute levels of consumption. I might consider it an interim silver lining if the plastics could be made from waste. Imagine we could clean up the floating masses of plastic in the oceans to make them but I doubt that's technically possible given the size of many of the particles & certainly isn't economically viable.
Radio 4 ran a series called The history of the world in 100 objects. The last one was last night and the object was a solar-powered lamp and charger (listen here http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00vcqvb/A_History_of_the_World_in_100_Objects_The_World_of_Our_Making_(1914_2010_AD)_Solarpowered_lamp_and_charger). It made a good point about how those with no access to electricity can benefit greatly from cheap solar devices but our enormous consumption in the 'developed' countries make it prohibitively expensive to replace fossil fuel-derived electricity with solar.
With all the alternatives to fossil fuels or other non-renewable resources I'm not saying that they aren't valid as potential alternatives but that our consumption rates have to reduce and no one seems willing to say that.
Mandy
http://mandymeikle.wordpress.com/
_________________________
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
Aldous Huxley, "Proper Studies", 1927
----- Original Message -----
From: Chris Keene
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Saturday, October 23, 2010 8:54 AM
Subject: Fwd: [CCG] A silver lining in the "Rare earth as political pawn" cloud
-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [CCG] A silver lining in the "Rare earth as political pawn" cloud
Date: Sat, 23 Oct 2010 01:26:32 -0000
From: Thecanadianone <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Earlier today, i passed along an article about how China is, and is likely to continue to use rare earth metals (like rubidium and irridium) as an economic and political tool to help it achieve its various goals. Like almost all problems, this one brings with it "Silver linings" - which include an added incentive to step up research into ways of achieving equal or better (and cheaper!!) results by using materials which don't involved metals at all, let alone those of the "rare earth" variety. The rapidly emerging field of plastic conductors is an excellent example:
