Essay on the Environmental Pricetag China will have to pay in dominating the Global Rare Earth Element (REE) Market. REE make flat screen and iPhone's possible and are called the green elements because they are vital to many renewable energy technology. China was able to undercut the competition due to their unregulated mining industry but caused vast environmental damage.  The refining of rare earths yields a by product of toxic and sometimes radioactive pollutants. These pollutants were for dumped into the Yellow River Basin for decades making it biologically dead and causing the extinction of several rare species of fish. Millions of people that relied on the Yellow river for their water source are now terminally ill from cancer. The water was also used to irrigate crop lands transferring the toxins into vegetables and sickening many who ate from the toxic crops. The pollution follows the current all the way into the Yellow sea and beyond into the sea of Japan where the polluted waters created conditions favorable to the massive blooms of giant jelly fish essentially wiping out the entire fishing industry.