Sewage is back in the headlines, for all the wrong reasons. But how did we end up here, and how could/should we manage our rivers when we're expecting themto be water sources, trade routes, boundaries, drains, wildlife habitats, and rubbish dumps & more? On Rare Earth we dug deep into all this just 3-4 weeks ago, and it's still available to listen here:
According to the International Energy Agency, demand for 🔸rare earth elements 🔸 is expected to reach 👉three to seven times current levels by 2040;
demand for other critical minerals such as 🔸lithium 🔸may 👉multiply 40-fold.
Delivering on the 2016 Paris Agreement, under which signatory nations are obligated to reduce emissions to cap the global temperature increase, would require the global mineral supply to quadruple within the same time frame. At the current rate, supply is on track to merely double.
Obtaining rare earth elements begins with obtaining source materials, which can happen, broadly, in three ways:
🔹primary extraction, or mining directly from the earth;
🔹recovery from secondary sources, such as end-of-life electronics;
🔹and extraction from unconventional sources, including industrial wastes like coal ash and waste products from mines.
But China so dominates the market—it controlled 60% of global production in 2021—that other countries are at a disadvantage.
After China announced export restrictions in 2023 on gallium, germanium, and graphite, nations scrambled to find alternative sources in anticipation of future restrictions.
An exciting new project for 2024 and beyond: RARE EARTH is coming soon: a new BBC Radio 4 climate and environment series hosted by me and the excellent Tom Heap. The first broadcast will be on January 19th.
La Terre est la seule planète que nous connaissons où il y a des plages et des Pina Coladas... Qu'est-ce qui rend notre planète si spéciale ? notamment par rapport à Vénus et Mars ? La Terre est-elle une planète si particulière ? Notamment quant aux conditions qui ont permis la vie ?
Nouvelle étape du parcours #AstrobioEducation, avec Sean Raymond, en 8 minutes 30 seulement, ne dites pas que vous n'avez pas le temps !
🎧 In 1969, the #Detroit band #RareEarth recorded and released a cover of #TheTemptations' "Get Ready" written by #SmokeyRobinson. The radio version was straight-ahead blues-rock and a top-40 hit. Have a listen to the 22-minute psychedelic jam version here. This was also #Motown, released on their Rare Earth label. It was the late 60s, man.
Still looking for a good hashtag to file all these #LimitedResources stories under. It's the problem that is just mostly ignored via magical thinking. "The entire fleet needs to be #EVs" is met with hurrahs. Very few people realize what that means in terms of #resource#extraction, the hard limits on #lithium or #RareEarth reserves or refining capacity or GeoPolitics.
We can't consume our way out of something that is an #OverConsumption problem at its core.