The BBC piece is an interesting attempt at garnishing attention. The reporter provides the google maps link to show how large and disgusting the process is. But it is actually a very small lake, if you compare it to things such as oil extraction. Take a look at the oil sands of Fort Mcmurray, Alberta; and at the same zoom level as the reporter uses, you'll see this is absolutely massive and diminishes the "massive" rare earths waste lake by orders of magnitude: https://www.google.com/maps/@57.0304073,-111.55372,6025m/dat...

I don't think it is good, but let's be reasonable in comparing environmental harm.

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soperj 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

I don't think that lake tailing pond even exists any more.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Mildred+Lake,+AB+T9K+2Z1/@...

Check the previous dates. 2018 yes, 2022, no.

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jcranmer 4 days ago | parent [-]

If you go down the road a bit so that you don't have the shrubs screening the view, it clearly still exists: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Et9kyrQ3DFSto6ap7

	▲	soperj 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Ahh, crafty. Thanks for that!

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MisterTea 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

That is a whataboutism.

This isn't about China or the size of the lake, but the fact that there is a lake because the effluent is difficult to dispose of and currently has no use.

Edit: to further clarify, I am not against refining them in the USA. Just that we have to also address the consequences of doing so.

	▲	bdamm 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		"Difficult to dispose of and has no use" is the very definition of a tailings pond, and you'll find them all over the place if you care to look. Environmental catastrophies are happening all over the globe on a massive scale. My point is exactly that; yeah it's toxic, but so is basically every mine and many oil refineries too. Check out the rate of cancer around coal mines or refining hubs, you might be surprised.