Rare Earth Minerals

As the reality of anthropogenic climate change bears down on us, a foreboding cloud over our planet’s future, the need for renewable alternatives to fossil fuels becomes more critical. However, our journey to a cooler planet is being hindered by one key player that most people are unaware of: rare earth metals. Making up the lanthanide series in the periodic table, these elements are an integral part of almost all renewable energy technologies, as well as most of the electronic devices we use on a daily basis. They are difficult to find, expensive to refine, and their use can have disastrous environmental impacts. Read on to learn more about rare earth metals: their origins, the politics surrounding their extraction, and much more.