Getting straight to the point, the writer says “So let me put it straight here at the top, before I elaborate later: Any imperfect solution to our current civilization-threatening predicament must include dialing down our energy consumption rather than coming up with high-tech visions that keep accelerating it. Since the 1970s, society’s growing addiction to toxic rare earth minerals (needed to make the magnets to run our electronic gadgetry from driverless cars to guided missiles) has largely gone unnoticed in the media. Technological society (and green tech is part of this self-augmenting machine) now consumes rare earth minerals the way steam engines once inhaled tonnes of coal.
“Grandiose dreams built on irony and paradox…”
The article is summarized from existing works, of geologists, journalists, physicists and energy experts — including Simon Michaux, Siddharth Kara, Vaclav Smil, Guillaume Pitron, Alice Friedemann, Nate Hagens and Tom Murphy — who have done the critical math. The ecologist William Rees, the physicist Antonio Turiel and oil analyst Art Berman also have all made important contributions to this conversation.