When Rare Earths Get Rarer

In the book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, by Tom Friedman, he encourages green technology, something that will free us from oil/gasoline dependency and for a better environment and future.

During the summer break, China’s commerce ministry cut export quotas for so-called rare earth elements by 72 percent for the second half of this year.
This has serious implications. Rare earth elements are playing a rapidly growing role in our drive toward a high-tech, low-carbon economy, in everything from batteries for hybrid and plug-in cars to catalysts in energy-efficient light bulbs.
The rare-earth element terbium, for example, can cut the electricity demand of lights by up to 80 percent, while fractions of dysprosium can significantly reduce the weight of magnets in electric motors. Rare earth elements also have found military applications.
China holds the largest reserves of rare earths and is responsible for over 95 percent of their current global production. Beijing is well aware of the importance of these strategic resources. In 1992, Deng Xiaoping noted that “the Middle East has its oil, China has rare earth.”

This is very interesting and exiting, knowing that China is a big, big manufacture in the world. If China succeeds at this green technology plan, because it is China, the the whole world can benefit greatly from it. This can expand our possibility of energy use and other researches of green technology. This is another stepping stone for low-carbon, high tech economy which the world desperately needs.