Hidden in an unknown corner of Inner Mongolia is a toxic, nightmarish lake created by our thirst for smartphones, consumer gadgets and green tech, discovers Tim Maughan.
From where I'm standing, the city-sized Baogang Steel and Rare Earth complex dominates the horizon, its endless cooling towers and chimneys reaching up into grey, washed-out sky. Between it and me, stretching into the distance, lies an artificial lake filled with a black, barely-liquid, toxic sludge.
!['Whether she is writing of Kashmir or of the Palestinians, of American foreign policy or of terror in the Middle East, of environmental degradation or of the threat posed by nuclear proliferation, [author and activist Arundhati] Roy,' writes Johnson, 'maintains a sense of hope, one that jumps from the page even in the midst of her devastating polemics.' (Photo: jeanbaptisteparis/flickr/cc)](https://ecosocialistsvancouver.org/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/article-image/arundhati_roy.jpg?itok=Oo5ZSczB)
