Microscopically small molecules containing rare earth materials have been greatly magnified into large brightly colored ceramic objects. Their giant size is matched to the huge impact these materials will have in our society in the next decades. Though the molecules seem whimsical from a distance, they actually mean serious business.
Critical Raw Materials (CRM’s) are the key to society’s transition to clean energy and a green society. We desperately need these metals, minerals and other rare earth materials to manufacture our renewable energy and other critical technologies, as developed by our knowledge based industry. Technologies that form the engine of our prosperity and security.
However, these materials are often rare, mostly mined and refined by just a handful of countries (almost none of them in Europe), and practically impossible to recycle within our current lacking supply-chain system. Moreover, in the next two decades our demand for these materials will skyrocket as we aim to decarbonize our economy by 2050.
Critical Raw Materials producing countries have been buying mines internationally and placing export restrictions on their production. Both start (extraction) and end (disposal) of the supply chain of these scarce materials happen out of our sight and are paired with large environmental and social harm to which we seem oblivious in our daily life. CRM’s form important bargaining chips in the geopolitical arena.
The necessity for a carbon neutral society is evident, but is our current approach on a collision course with reality? Mind over Matter or Matter over Mind?
