Opinion: What is Canada’s place in the new Great Game, over the control of critical minerals and rare earths? - The Globe and Mail

In order to achieve the agreement’s targets by 2050, more than 60 per cent of installed power capacity will need to come from a combination of solar plants, wind farms, hydropower, bioenergy, geothermal reservoirs and batteries to power electric vehicles. But scaling these climate-friendly technologies comes with a catch: a sixfold increase in the sourcing of so-called critical minerals such as nickel, copper, lithium and cobalt as well as rare earths, by some estimates.

I’m left, as ever, wondering too how much of the equation should be… less consumerism. With less wanting, surely we could avoid at least some of that sixfold increase in critical mineral demand—and the related security instability sure to come with it.