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🚨🇺🇸 MYANMAR’S RARE EARTH BOOM IS TURNING RIVERS TO POISON Rivers flowing from Myanmar into Thailand are turning toxic thanks to a rush for rare earth metals, leaving locals with skin rashes and water laced with arsenic levels nearly four times higher than what the World Health Organization says is safe. Rare earths are critical for stuff like electric cars, smartphones, and fighter jets, but mining them is filthy work. China used to keep most of it at home until stricter environmental rules in 2015 pushed companies to set up shop next door in Myanmar, where regulation basically doesn’t exist. In Myanmar’s Shan state, the United Wa State Army, an armed militia known for drugs and guns, controls the mining zones and dumps waste straight into rivers like the Kok and Sai, which flow into the Mekong and supply millions of people with drinking water and irrigation for crops. Thai activists are warning that this mess could destroy not just human health but also animals and crops, and elephant camps that once bathed their animals in the rivers now keep them away so they don’t end up soaking in a toxic soup. Source: NPR, AP