Rare Earth Elements Are Important for Just About Everything

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People woke up one morning to this headline that china and bargod rarers to japan. And they had to learn a couple of things very quickly. Wait watar, rare earth elements. What are they used? Where are they mined? These have been relatively under the radar outside of specialist audiences. So all of a sudden people got really worked up. They thought, oh my gosh. Well, if china is flexing its geo economic muscle and the whole world is dependent on china for rare earth exports, they could just decide to hold the world hostage. That's not what happened,. But because rarerth elements are really important for just about everything. If we

Paris Marx is joined by Julie Michelle Klinger to discuss the myths around rare earth elements and how they’re fueling a movement to enclose and mine space. But a better, more collaborative future that treats space as a commons is still possible, and the Global South may show us the way forward.

Julie Michelle Klinger is the author of “Rare Earth Frontiers: From Terrestrial Subsoils to Lunar Landscapes” and an Assistant Professor of Geography & Spatial Sciences at the University of Delaware. Her argument about why space is not the final frontier was recently published on urbanNext. Follow Julie on Twitter as @Prof_Klinger.

Tech Won't Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter.

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