ALBERT

Description / Table of Contents: Introduction --- 1. What Are Rare Earth Elements? --- 2. Placing China in the World History of Discovery, Production, and Use --- 3. "Welcome to the Hometown of Rare Earths" --- 4. Rude Awakenings --- 5. From the Heartland to the Head of the Dog --- 6. Extraglobal Extraction --- Conclusion --- Appendix --- Notes --- References

Description / Table of Contents: This report details the water challenges that are currently facing China. It was developed out of a joint project between Jennifer Turner at the Woodrow Wilson Center's China Environment Forum (WWC/CEF) and Kenji Otsuka at the Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization (IDE-JETRO). Information is provided about numerous water crises, such as contaminated rivers and lakes, pollution from unregulated industries and wastewater sewage, water shortages, and flood disasters caused by the deforestation and destruction of wetlands. Efforts are being made not only to protect China's fragile ecosystems, but also to strengthen laws and policies to promote integrated river basins and to allow for greater participation from citizens and NGOs in decision-making and river development and protection.

Description / Table of Contents: China’s change to a new model of growth, now called the ‘new normal’, was always going to be hard. Events over the past year show how hard it is. The attempts to moderate the extremes of high investment and low consumption, the correction of overcapacity in the heavy industries that were the mainstays of the old model of growth, the hauling in of the immense debt hangover from the fiscal and monetary expansion that pulled China out of the Great Crash of 2008 would all have been hard at any time. They are harder when changes in economic policy and structure coincide with stagnation in global trade and rising protectionist sentiment in developed countries, extraordinarily rapid demographic change and recognition of the urgency of easing the environmental damage from the old model. China’s economy has slowed and there are worries that the authorities will not be able to contain the slowdown within preferred limits. This year’s Update explores the challenge of the slowdown in growth and the change in economic structure. Leading experts on China’s economy and environment review change within China’s new model of growth, and its interaction with ageing, environmental pressure, new patterns of urbanisation, and debt problems at different levels of government. It illuminates some new developments in China’s economy, including the transformational potential of internet banking, and the dynamics of financial market instability. China’s economic development since 1978 is full of exciting change, and this year’s China Update is again the way to know it as it is happening.

Description / Table of Contents: Introduction --- HP–UHP metamorphism and tectonic evolution of orogenic belts: introduction / Lifei Zhang, Zeming Zhang, Hans-Peter Schertl and Chunjing Wei / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 474, 1-4, 2 January 2019, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP474.15 --- New developments in the determination of metamorphic P–T conditions and their timing --- Tso Morari coesite eclogite: pseudosection predictions v. the preserved record and implications for tectonometamorphic models / Patrick J. O'Brien / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 474, 5-24, 19 December 2018, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP474.16 --- Phase relations in metabasic rocks: constraints from the results of experiments, phase modelling and ACF analysis / C. J. Wei and Z. Z. Duan / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 474, 25-45, 11 May 2018, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP474.10 --- Garnet Lu–Hf and Sm–Nd geochronology: a time capsule of the metamorphic evolution of orogenic belts / Hao Cheng / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 474, 47-67, 11 May 2018, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP474.7 --- The validity of Ti-in-zircon thermometry in low temperature eclogites / Meng Lin, Guibin Zhang, Shuguang Song, Huijuan Li and Lijuan Zhang / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 474, 69-87, 14 September 2018, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP474.13 --- Overview papers of well-known HP–UHP metamorphic belts --- Ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic rocks in the Dabie–Sulu orogenic belt: compositional inheritance and metamorphic modification / Yong-Fei Zheng, Zi-Fu Zhao and Ren-Xu Chen / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 474, 89-132, 15 May 2018, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP474.9 --- Ultrahigh pressure metamorphism and tectonic evolution of southwestern Tianshan orogenic belt, China: a comprehensive review / Lifei Zhang, Yang Wang, Lijuan Zhang and Zeng Lü / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 474, 133-152, 25 September 2018, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP474.12 --- Two contrasting accretion v. collision orogenies: insights from Early Paleozoic polyphase metamorphism in the Altun–Qilian–North Qaidam orogenic system, NW China / Jianxin Zhang, Chris Mattinson, Shengyao Yu, Yunshuai Li, Xingxing Yu, Xiaohong Mao, Zenglong Lu and Yingbao Peng / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 474, 153-181, 18 May 2018, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP474.8 --- Geochronological enigma of the HP–UHP rocks in the Himalayan orogen / Hafiz Ur Rehman / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 474, 183-207, 23 October 2018, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP474.14 --- The metamorphic evolution and tectonic significance of the Sumdo HP–UHP metamorphic terrane, central-south Lhasa Block, Tibet / Cong Zhang, Thomas Bader, Herman van Roermund, Jingsui Yang, Tingting Shen, Tian Qiu and Peng Li / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 474, 209-229, 22 March 2018, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP474.4 --- Research papers for some newly discovered and/or less well understood HP–UHP belts --- Petrography, mineralogy and geochemistry of jadeite-rich artefacts from the Playa Grande excavation site, northern Hispaniola: evaluation of local provenance from the Río San Juan Complex / Hans-Peter Schertl, Walter V. Maresch, Sebastiaan Knippenberg, Andreas Hertwig, Adolfo López Belando, Reniel Rodríguez Ramos, Laura Speich and Corinne L. Hofman / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 474, 231-253, 12 March 2018, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP474.3 --- Eclogites from the Marun-Keu Complex, Polar Urals, Russia: a record of hot subduction and sub-isothermal exhumation / Y. Y. Liu, A. L. Perchuk and P. Philippot / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 474, 255-274, 22 March 2018, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP474.6 --- Two epochs of eclogite metamorphism link ‘cold’ oceanic subduction and ‘hot’ continental subduction, the North Qaidam UHP belt, NW China / Shuguang Song, Yaoling Niu, Guibin Zhang and Lifei Zhang / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 474, 275-289, 22 March 2018, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP474.2 --- Early Cenozoic thickening and reworking of the eastern Gangdese arc, south Tibet: constraints from the Oligocene granitoids / Huixia Ding and Zeming Zhang / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 474, 291-308, 16 May 2018, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP474.5 --- Thermal structure of the Dabie eclogite-bearing terrane revealed from the results of Ti-in-zircon thermometry / Jingbo Liu, Lingmin Zhang, Nanfei Cheng, Yijie Gao and Liewen Xie / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 474, 309-330, 12 March 2018, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP474.1 --- Constraining the age of high-pressure metamorphism of paragneisses from the Eastern Himalayan Syntaxis using zircon petrochronology and phase equilibria / Zuolin Tian, Zeming Zhang and Xin Dong / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 474, 331-352, 8 June 2018, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP474.11