Most China experts take it as an article of faith that one day ordinary people like Mr. Wei will rise up and demand environmental protections from their government, like the kind we have in the West. If you take a tour of the illegal rare earth mines in the mountains of Ganso, you'll understand that this is and will always be wishful thinking. As much as we want the rare earth story to be a story about technology, business or politics, it's a story about the earth itself.