scte long read
Refuse, Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Refurbish, Remanufacture, Repurpose and Recover
Teesside in the north of England. In doing so, Mr Trump has unwittingly accelerated innovation, forced countries spooked by his erratic behaviour to pull back on reliance with an unpredictable US and a dominant China and prompted a strategic rethink about how to approach a future that is hurtling towards us faster than any of us would like. Reasons to be Cheerful While AI is being offered as the panacea for most modern problems (unless you’re editing a magazine, in which case it causes more than it solves), AI is also responsible for a gigantic surge in energy consumption, ten times as much, as well as ten times more hardware required in data centres. AI is likely to aid as much as hinder, and we should be cautious. While none of this is good news, innovation – much of it employing AI and quantum computing - continues at an incredible pace. We should take comfort from the fact in the last year alone, blood tests to detect Alzheimer’s have been developed, carbon-capturing microbes have been engineered to remove CO 2 from the atmosphere, weight loss drugs are changing the lives of millions, private space travel is now a reality and lung cancer can be detected through a person’s breath. Read that back again – that’s in the last year alone.
We must remain optimistic. The technology that is currently missing in recycling rare earth minerals will doubtless emerge and the cost of it will fall. Likewise, the prevailing attitudes towards it will soften as the issue of scarcity and rising costs for tech producers becomes more real. Victoria D’Arcy is relentlessly positive. “I’m whale hunting with these big tech manufacturers to say, I’ll build you a programme, I’ll show you how to do it, how to make money from it. It’s margin rich. Look at your iPhone, you’ve already paid to mine it, put it together, you’ve got sunk costs, and you’ve actually achieved a margin on that when you sold it the first time. So, the second time, if you just put a license on it, that’s pure margin. “Now where tech manufacturers can’t get over is they want to make margin on the second sale on the hardware. If you realise the margin on the hard-earned purse sale, and accept that when you relicense it, then it’s pure margin, you will create a wonderful business model.”
deliberately obtusely. Climate deniers like telling you it’s ‘just weather’, for example.
Unintended consequences
In levying tariffs worldwide in early April the Trump administration caused significant alarm in global markets, and the President’s idiosyncratic habit of issuing orders via social media first, ignoring Congress then often rowing back has not helped stabilise relationships or the global economy. Everyone remains on high alert; those with weak hearts should probably look away for the duration of this administration. However, whatever the methodology, Mr Trump’s tariffs have shone a glaring light on the over-reliance on Chinese exports worldwide, exposing an uncomfortable level of complacency and forcing industries to look for a workaround, and quickly. While rooted in a sensible objective to bring the control of processing and manufacture of rare earths back to the US and ease the reliance on China, such action has also prompted urgent action from territories worldwide, who have galvanised quickly in response. Processing mines are being developed in Saskatchewan, Canada, Angola, with plans for more in Australia, South Korea, Norway, Sweden, Texas and even
Attitudes will probably soften quite a bit hearing news like that.
20
May 2025 Volume 47 No.2
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker