Bye-bye Pacific Ocean!

Last year, China caused a minor international incident when they announced that China will be severely decreasing the exports of rare earth minerals. This caused terror in the international scene as China account for about 90% of the rare earth minerals in the world market. Great pressure was exerted on China and an annoyed Chinese government basically told the world that if they are not happy with the decision, they can extract rare earths from their own countries.

Countries like the U.S. and Japan have been trying to get other countries like Mongolia to set up a rare earth mining industry but so far, there have been no takers. It seems that rare earths minerals aren’t actually rare but few countries mined it because the industry cause great pollution to the environment. It says a lot when even the China government, not a lover of the environment by any standard, are so worried about pollution that they intend to cut production of the minerals.

Well, the U.S. and Japan now have a lifeline as vast deposits of rare earth minerals have been found on the floor of the Pacific Ocean. Japanese scientists who found the site says that the world can readily extracted the minerals as the deposits sits in international waters. He can say that because as the deposits sits in international waters, no one will give a damn about pollution in the area!

And there goes the sea life of the Pacific Ocean.