ARTICLE
So it turns all those hybrid car owners who turn their environmentally conscious noses up have an unexpected caveat to their green-ness--their cars are sucking up rare earth metals at a disturbing rate.
Rare earth elements take up 17 slots on the periodic table, and are named not for their overall scarcity (they're actually quite common in trace elements throughout the Earth's core) but for the relatively uncommon minerals in which they were originally found; few rare earth elements exist in pure elemental form naturally.
Reuters spoke with commodities trader and "strategic metals expert" Jack Lifton, who claims hybrids such as the Prius uses more rare earths than any object in the world. Neodymium and lanthanum--used in allows in a hybrid's batteries and electric motor's magnets--could become increadibly scarce or even disappear altogether within the next several years. Each Prius uses 2.2 pounds of neodymium in its electric motor magnets, and 20-30 pounds of lanthanum in the batteries. And those amounts will only go up as the Prius's powertrain continues to evolve for more efficiency.
Wind turbines, another green power source, also utilize rare earth metals, and when combined with increased consumption for hybrid cars, total future demand could exceed current supply by up to 40,000 tons.
In my opinion, if people keep exploiting neodymium and lanthanum for the batteries and magnets of the car these rare elements will no longer exist. They just want to produce more cars and don't care about the consequences in the future. The decreased CO2 production is worth the over usage of rare elements
ReplyDeleteHannah
I kind of agree to Hannah
ReplyDeleteI don't think cars MUST need elements to operate, since i went to the Shanghai expo the cars on are using eletrcity even though the speed is not as fast as normal i think we need to be aware of our resources in furture.
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ReplyDeletePersonally, i think the main reason that sold hybrid cars was that they were "environmentally friendly and safe" but in reality using up rare elements is not considered environmentally friendly at all. I completely agree with Hannah and Terence in saying the decreased CO2 production is not worth the over usage of rare elements.
ReplyDelete-Shakana
i disagree them i think ON Today's social development more resources is important to make use of neodymium and is a kind of development to resources toby
ReplyDeleteat this moment , the earth is becoming warm and warm. but on the other hand , the rare metals is becoming less too. But i think we should use rare metal like neodymium and carbon together. try the best to reduce the co2 and to protect the rare metal. try to find some way to reduce pollution from the common elements.
ReplyDeletelamlery
In my opinion, people use hybird cars at first baceuse they want to protect the environment from CO2 pollution. But with the deep research, people may use another elements instead of others. So its also a kind of pollution of the rare element. Just like the article said.
ReplyDeleteNia
this posting is now closed! Thanks for your great answers!
ReplyDeletewait for me !
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, if this action can decrease the co2, the use of rare metals will be worth, someone will say that there are rare metals, well, even rare metals are kinds of resources, what is the fubction of "resource?"----to use! But, rare metals are not reusable resource, so it is very important to figure out how to use that reasonablly and appropriatly. For instance, we can update our technology to decrease the rate of the use of rare metals to make batteries(coumpound with other elements).
ReplyDelete