Cerium, praseodymium, scandium \u2013 silvery, malleable, flammable, exhilaratingly versatile. Listening back to Julie Klinger<\/a>, author of <\/span>Rare Earth Frontiers<\/span><\/i>, in conversation with Misha Glenny, at the Vienna Humanities Festival 2024, one can\u2019t help but feel the thrill of rare earths for their impact on renewables. These materials are abundantly present in daily life: powering everything from phones and vaping pens to wind turbines and electric vehicles enabling the green transition.<\/span><\/p>\n The industries behind mining and processing these metals operated quietly for a long time. That is, until Japanese coastguards arrested a Chinese fisherman in September 2010 after a collision in disputed waters, an area claimed by both nations. When conflict ensued, the <\/span>Chinese government abruptly cut off its exports<\/span><\/a> of rare earths and raw materials to Japan. The result was no less than a global shock, as the prizes of rare earths soared. The move demonstrated China\u2019s dominance, at that point controlling over 70% of the world\u2019s rare earth extraction and processing, raising alarm bells for governments and companies all over the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Today, the scramble for rare earth elements is not merely competition between global superpowers for raw materials to meet energy transition goals. It is also heavily connected to military developments worldwide, as rare earths are increasingly integrated into modern weapon technology. According to Klinger, this is where the West\u2019s true vulnerability lies, giving the US as example: \u2018one of the conclusions in the recent Department of Defence report, which projected out the material needs for a hypothetical war with China by 2027, was that it wouldn\u2019t be feasible, because so much of the important components for defence technologies come from China.\u2019 Her audacious remark uncovers how deep the rare earth industry cuts into the future of all technology, and how current Western attempts to reduce dependency are merely scratching the surface.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Lithium. Image by James St. John, via Wikimedia commons<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The EU\u2019s initial response to the scramble was officially listing those raw materials critical to the green transition in 2011. In 2024, the list formed the basis of the Critical Raw Materials Act,<\/span>\u00a0promising to reduce dependency on China by \u2018diversifying the supply\u2019. But how\u2019s that going?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n One of the EU\u2019s biggest hurdles in the quest for more materials \u2013 one could say somewhat lavishly \u2013 is democracy. Rare earth mining is a dirty business and local communities fear pollution and environmental destruction. <\/span>Opposition to mining<\/span><\/a> is therefore building across Europe. And understandably so: \u2018if 2%\u2019 \u2026 of a mined area \u2026 \u2018contains rare earth elements, that\u2019s considered a really good deal,\u2019 says Klinger. \u2018When dug up, everything else, whatever it may be, whether it\u2019s gold or silver or phosphate or uranium or thorium or arsenic, is left above ground. \u2026 Think about that: in a good scenario, 98% of the stuff that\u2019s dug up is left behind as waste.\u2019 In China, despite the processing and capture of these elements, decades of chemical build-up has made its way into the waterways, resulting in long-term impacts on children\u2019s cognitive development and animal life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.eurozine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/2048px-Lithium_Element_-_3_2.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMeanwhile in Europe<\/h2>\n
![Wikimedia commons<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nMeanwhile in Europe<\/h2>\nThe EU\u2019s initial response to the scramble was officially listing those raw materials critical to the green transition in 2011. In 2024, the list formed the basis of the Critical Raw Materials Act,<\/span>\u00a0promising to reduce dependency on China by \u2018diversifying the supply\u2019. But how\u2019s that going?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOne of the EU\u2019s biggest hurdles in the quest for more materials \u2013 one could say somewhat lavishly \u2013 is democracy. Rare earth mining is a dirty business and local communities fear pollution and environmental destruction. <\/span>Opposition to mining<\/span><\/a> is therefore building across Europe. And understandably so: \u2018if 2%\u2019 \u2026 of a mined area \u2026 \u2018contains rare earth elements, that\u2019s considered a really good deal,\u2019 says Klinger. \u2018When dug up, everything else, whatever it may be, whether it\u2019s gold or silver or phosphate or uranium or thorium or arsenic, is left above ground. \u2026 Think about that: in a good scenario, 98% of the stuff that\u2019s dug up is left behind as waste.\u2019 In China, despite the processing and capture of these elements, decades of chemical build-up has made its way into the waterways, resulting in long-term impacts on children\u2019s cognitive development and animal life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPredrag Mom\u010dilovic writes on one of <\/span>Europe\u2019s largest mining resistances<\/span><\/a>: protests against Rio Tinto\u2019s project to open lithium mines in Serbia. The plans, which had seemingly been shelved, <\/span>came back in full force<\/span> when <\/span>Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107 was re-elected president in 2022. Some of Serbia\u2019s main prospective customers for the project are Olaf Scholz\u2019s government and the EU. While Vu\u010dic and his right-wing government are repeatedly criticized for dismantling Serbian democracy, Germany and the EU continue with the planned collaboration.<\/span><\/p>\nAccording to Mom\u010dilovic, one effect of these double standards could be the continued decline in Serbian citizen support for joining the EU. Serbians fear that the country will be \u2018a sacrificial zone for the European green transition\u2019, as the crucial environmental impact hasn\u2019t been significantly considered. \u2018It appears geopolitics has once again prevailed over ideals, and the priority is to secure Serbia\u2019s lithium before China or Russia,\u2019 writes <\/span>Mom\u010dilovic.<\/span><\/p>\nIndustrial nationalism<\/h2>\nMom\u010dilovic\u2019s essay defines how the scramble raises a conflict of interest in the EU. Europe\u2019s reliance on rare earth supplies from China is creating fear of yet another energy dependency situation, which, despite planning efforts, hasn\u2019t shrunk yet. <\/span>The fact that the EU has managed to reduce its dependence on Russian gas to some extent should perhaps indicate\u00a0 an opportunity here, too. However,<\/span> the need for European mining agreements will likely be unpopular and no doubt press on the EU\u2019s democratic principles.<\/p>\nWithin this conflict of values, a type of \u2018industrial nationalism\u2019 is being formed, which legitimizes protectionism against superpowers such as China and Russia. The mine is being presented as the most politically viable symbol for this movement, as the extraction of the raw material is the most obvious step towards desired independence. What isn\u2019t being mentioned, however, is how Europe would still be almost fully dependent on China for its processing needs.<\/span><\/p>\nThe EU has been caught short in trying to seize power over a commodity whose processing technology was determined decades ago. And in that rather futile struggle, the possibilities for other solutions have also disappeared. Research into rare earths has been chronically under-prioritized. And no one has so far come up with an effective means to recycle lithium-ion batteries. Somewhere along the line, the actual purpose of mining these materials \u2013 the hope of a fossil fuel-free and green future \u2013 has been buried.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n[ad_2]\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[ad_1] Cerium, praseodymium, scandium \u2013 silvery, malleable, flammable, exhilaratingly versatile. Listening back to Julie Klinger, author of Rare Earth Frontiers, in conversation with Misha Glenny,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":278632,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[154],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278631"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Lithium_(Element_-_3)_2.jpg\"){kind=link}