The cost of a green economy

China's cancer villages and their frightful human misery now include communities in the toxic landscape around the rare earth mines in Inner Mongolia, Guangdong, and Jiangxi.

Every government has a duty of care and legislation to protect the health and safety of its population, as well as its environment and water supplies. China has such legislation but blatantly chooses to ignore its duty of care, prioritising revenues from the rare earth mines above human and environmental welfare.

Condoning such atrocious and callous operations that have such far-reaching and devastating consequences can only be described as the act of a reckless and irresponsible government.

Offsetting a green world with environmental vandalism

Environmentally conscious consumers readily support "environmentally friendly" products and green technology. Condoning the mining of rare earth elements in China now poses a direct challenge to the priorities behind that thinking. Does it mean the "cheaper price" for these elements and the related benefit to global warming outweigh the abuse and misery generated?

The expanding, devastated landscape around these mines and processing plants is just another addition to China' accelerating environmental degradation and decline. Renewable technologies reliant on rare earth elements may have real economic and human benefits, but they are currently offset by a totally unacceptable and horrific downside.

Will green consumers really regard such practices and effects as "acceptable sacrifices" for lifestyle's new accessories, or even "collateral damage", in the war against global warming?

Beijing knows there is no magic bullet to fix its rapidly decaying environment and the cost of rectification is accelerating daily. Beijing's misguided policies are pushing the ability to recover, beyond the tipping point.

Be it climate change, or just sustainability, the world must face the fact that survival has a substantial financial cost that in turn will demand reassessment of lifestyle and downsizing expectations. It is quite simple.

Can we ignore the risks and not prepare to adapt to meet the challenge for that possibility? The time for rhetoric, political, corporate, and individual egos is past.

Government needs to acknowledge its responsibility to plan and prepare for both current and future generations, and this is achievable only via collaborative international and national efforts.

Copenhagen clearly highlighted that nothing can be achieved by mammoth talk-fests with a cast of tens of thousands with too many individual goals and egos. Governments and oppositions around the world will have to weigh lifestyle and populist policies against harsh fiscal management to ensure sustainability, be it at a level below expectations.

An ETS is just another financial market that contributes to green projects in other countries and plays no real effective role in cutting back on total emissions. Because it lacks specific penalties for failing to reduce emissions an ETS is ineffective.