perihelions 5 hours ago

- "Just five years of mining waste from a single iron ore site in Inner Mongolia contains enough thorium to meet US household energy demands for more than 1,000 years, according to the report published in Chinese journal Geological Review in January."

Remarkable that Chinese writers reference *American* household energy use as their benchmark. This must be the zeitgeist of the time: "rising middle class approaching American living standards". Americans are ashamed of what they perceive as their own energy decadence. But Chinese validate material wealth.

I read an unrelated article the other day which dovetails in to this: a Chinese paper heralding a figure of double-digit growth in... energy consumption. They wrote about it as a barometer of economic health. The difference between East/West mindsets is just so stark!