Thanks to Ben Bishop for the tipoff to the Rare Earth Podcast from February this year.
It explores the importance of rare earth elements / critical minerals.The transition to an economy based on renewable energy and electric cars needs huge quantities of materials like copper and rare earth metals. Sourcing them can be a problem. Mining damages the surrounding landscape and many of the materials come from unstable regions with poor records on child labour and environmental regulation. Are there alternative materials or do we simply need to consume less? Tom Heap and Helen Czerski investigate.
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