Arctic sounds another warning on climate
The climate foghorn has been going off at increasingly shorter intervals over the past few years — from the 1.5 degrees C threshold being breached for the first time to record glacial melts. The latest warning sounded is the Arctic heatwave that has clocked historical highs, largely due to the climate crisis. The World Weather Attribution has concluded that climate change added 3 degrees C to heat conditions in the region — which caused Greenland's ice sheet to melt 17 times the normal rate last month.
Arctic heat, as scientists have long warned, compounds planetary warming with severe climate impacts, given depletion of the sea ice cover will expose the darker ocean which will absorb significant heat from the sun instead of reflecting it (as ice does). The impact is well known, from rising sea levels to severely disrupted weather patterns, threatening coastal human habitations and marine ecosystems. In the short run, the latest bout of Arctic fever has implications far away from the region, given its association with the South Asian monsoon and extreme rainfall in this part of the world.
The imperative for urgent climate action was clear a decade ago, which got the global community to sign the Paris accord. Now, even elementary agreements on actions and responsibilities lie in tatters, with the US under Donald Trump playing spoiler. The path from here to limit warming to avoid its worst impact isn't visible, with parties to the UN climate convention not even filing revised ambitions on climate action. With time running out, hesitation on rebuilding the consensus pushes the planet further towards climate peril — despite the momentum in energy transition and individual jurisdictions acting on climate goals. Concerted action has always been the cornerstone of climate efforts, and there is no wishing it away.
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Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Hindustan Times
Arctic sounds another warning on climate
The climate foghorn has been going off at increasingly shorter intervals over the past few years — from the 1.5 degrees C threshold being breached for the first time to record glacial melts. The latest warning sounded is the Arctic heatwave that has clocked historical highs, largely due to the climate crisis. The World Weather Attribution has concluded that climate change added 3 degrees C to heat conditions in the region — which caused Greenland's ice sheet to melt 17 times the normal rate last month. Arctic heat, as scientists have long warned, compounds planetary warming with severe climate impacts, given depletion of the sea ice cover will expose the darker ocean which will absorb significant heat from the sun instead of reflecting it (as ice does). The impact is well known, from rising sea levels to severely disrupted weather patterns, threatening coastal human habitations and marine ecosystems. In the short run, the latest bout of Arctic fever has implications far away from the region, given its association with the South Asian monsoon and extreme rainfall in this part of the world. The imperative for urgent climate action was clear a decade ago, which got the global community to sign the Paris accord. Now, even elementary agreements on actions and responsibilities lie in tatters, with the US under Donald Trump playing spoiler. The path from here to limit warming to avoid its worst impact isn't visible, with parties to the UN climate convention not even filing revised ambitions on climate action. With time running out, hesitation on rebuilding the consensus pushes the planet further towards climate peril — despite the momentum in energy transition and individual jurisdictions acting on climate goals. Concerted action has always been the cornerstone of climate efforts, and there is no wishing it away.
Time of India
a day ago
- Time of India
Trump plan to kill dozens of NASA missions threatens US space supremacy
NASA 's car-sized Perseverance rover has been roaming the surface of Mars for four years, drilling into the alien soil to collect dirt it places in tubes and leaves on the ground. Engineers designed Perseverance to be the first step in the agency's exploration of the Red Planet. In the future, more robotic spacecraft would arrive to sweep up the capsules and rocket them back to Earth, where scientists could look for signs that Mars once was, or is, a world with life. The wait for answers may be about to get longer. President Donald Trump 's proposed 2026 budget for the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration would cancel the planned follow-on mission, potentially abandoning the tubes for decades to Martian dust storms. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like New Container Houses Vietnam (Prices May Surprise You) Container House | Search ads Search Now Undo The White House is calling for a roughly 50% cut to NASA's science spending to $3.9 billion, part of an overall pullback that would deliver the lowest funding level in the agency's history and kill more more than 40 NASA science missions and projects, according to detailed plans released last month. The Trump administration has also left the agency without a permanent leader and without a vision for how America's civilian space policy is going to work with US allies and compete with China and other rivals. The cuts would follow a shift in how the American public thinks about space. NASA has long enjoyed a unique place in US culture, with its exploits celebrated by movies, theme parks and merchandise — but companies like Elon Musk's SpaceX have begun to capture more attention. Live Events For decades, NASA's scientific undertakings have provided critical groundwork for researchers seeking to understand the structure of the universe, study how planets form and hunt for evidence that life might exist beyond Earth. Pictures from NASA craft like the Hubble Space Telescope and the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope have inspired and delighted millions. Now, the agency's position at the vanguard of discovery is facing foreclosure. Among the other programs set to lose funding are a craft already on its way to rendezvous with an asteroid that's expected to pass close to Earth in 2029, and multiple efforts to map and explore the acidic clouds of Venus. Researchers worry that abandoning missions would mean investments made by earlier generations might be lost or forgotten. 'Once you launch and you're operating, then all those costs are behind you, and it's relatively inexpensive to just keep the missions going,' said Amanda Hendrix, the chief executive officer of the Planetary Science Institute, a nonprofit research organization. 'So I'm very concerned about these operating missions that are still producing excellent and really important science data.' The Trump administration's narrower vision for NASA comes as it is seeking to reduce waste and jobs in the US government. Critics have faulted NASA over sluggish management of key programs, spiraling costs and delays. Still, the administration is eager to pour more money into putting people in space. It wants to use $7 billion of the $18.8 billion it would allocate to NASA overall to ramp up efforts to return people to the moon, and invest $1 billion more in sending people to Mars. 'This is a NASA that would be primarily human spaceflight focused,' Casey Dreier, chief of space policy for The Planetary Society, a nonprofit that advocates for space science and exploration, said of the proposed changes. 'This is a NASA that would say, 'The universe is primarily the moon and Mars,' and basically step away from everything else.' There are signs that the administration's proposed cutbacks won't satisfy lawmakers who view space as vital to US interests. Senator Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who leads a committee that oversees NASA, has proposed legislation that would would provide nearly $10 billion to the agency. 'American dominance in space is a national security imperative,' Cruz said in a statement to Bloomberg. 'The Commerce Committee's bill carefully invests in beating China to the Moon and Mars — while respecting every taxpayer dollar. It's rocket fuel for the commercial space companies and NASA that are working to keep America ahead of China in the Space Race.' As Trump's spending proposal moves through Congress, NASA has been left without a strong leader who can press its case after the president withdrew his nomination of billionaire commercial astronaut Jared Isaacman to run the agency. In a recent interview on the All-In Podcast, Isaacman appeared to suggest Trump pulled his nomination because of his close ties to Musk, who had a public falling out with the president. Trump threatened to cancel SpaceX's government contracts amid the row, but has since backed down. 'Stopping Jared from becoming confirmed is only going to hurt NASA's ability to push back on budget cuts,' Jim Muncy, a space consultant and lobbyist with PoliSpace, said before Isaacman's nomination was pulled. Spaceflight Shift For decades, NASA handled every step of launching rockets, probes and people into space, from developing, building and launching vehicles, to running missions. Only the government had the resources and the capacity to shoulder the risks without returning a profit. That all changed in recent years with the emergence of a vibrant US space industry dominated by wealthy entrepreneurs with a passion for spaceflight and the financial wherewithal to withstand repeated failure. Over time, NASA has ceded more design, development and production work to those companies. SpaceX is carrying cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station, and sending probes into deep space from a rented launchpad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. After helping to spur the development of SpaceX hardware, NASA is now one of the company's biggest customers. 'This has kind of been the tension with the rise of commercial space,' said Mike French, a consultant for the Space Policy Group . 'NASA has gone from 'We're operating these things; we're building these things' to 'We've gotten really good at buying these things.'' During Trump's presidency, NASA's transformation into an incubator for private industry is likely to gain speed. Throughout its budget proposal, the White House calls for mimicking past programs that have leaned more on outsourcing to the private sector. 'With a leaner budget across all of government, we are all taking a closer look at how we work, where we invest, and how we adjust our methods to accomplish our mission,' NASA's acting administrator, Janet Petro, wrote in a message accompanying the plan. 'At NASA, that means placing a renewed emphasis on human spaceflight, increasing investments in a sustainable plan to return to the Moon for long-term human exploration and accelerating efforts to send American astronauts to Mars.' NASA declined to comment beyond Petro's statement. NASA contracts remain one of the most significant and steady sources of funding for the space industry, which has allowed the agency to set the direction for many businesses. But that balance of power is shifting, and cuts to NASA's funding could cause its leadership to fade. 'NASA would, in a sense, define access and define the culture of spaceflight and define the ambitions of spaceflight,' Dreier said. 'Now, they have competitors for that, and frankly, some of their competitors are laying out more ambitious programs.' Challenging Missions While NASA has evolved into a technical adviser and financial backer for space companies, pure science has remained part of its mission. NASA's transition to more commercial partnerships was started, in part, to free up money to spend on exotic, challenging missions with no obvious near-term commercial rewards. Pulling back is likely to have consequences. Trump's broader push to curtail funding for science — the administration has choked off money for medical, climate and other research — risks eroding an important source of American soft power. After the end of the Cold War-era space race, NASA became a vessel for international cooperation, proving countries with lofty goals can work together. Many of the NASA missions Trump has proposed canceling or pulling away from entailed collaboration with European allies. The prospect of reduced funding is also causing worry about agency talent. Already, NASA is competing with the private space industry for engineers. Shutting down missions could push agency scientists to seek other opportunities. 'Folks are very worried about what they're going to do now with their lives, and where they're going to go,' said Hendrix, the Planetary Science Institute's CEO. The long-term outlook for NASA is difficult to discern. In the coming years, it is expected to continue its Artemis moon program, and start a new program for human exploration of Mars, with commercial companies at the forefront. But the scientific ambitions that long helped define NASA appear likely to become more limited. 'If we elect to say we no longer want to understand our origins, or we no longer want to challenge ourselves to see if there's life out in the cosmos, that is the equivalent of turning our heads down and burying ourselves in our cell phones when we're standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon,' said The Planetary Society's Dreier. 'We miss something more profound and big and deep that we otherwise have no access to in our modern society.'
News18
a day ago
- News18
What Are Rare Earth Minerals And Why China's Grip Has Nations Racing For Alternatives
From missiles to smartphones, rare earth minerals power the modern world. But China's dominance has triggered a global race for alternatives Why Are Rare Earth Minerals In The News? In June 2025, rare earth minerals became a flashpoint in US-China relations once again. In early April, China suspended export licences for several key rare earth elements, including neodymium and dysprosium, citing national security and environmental concerns. These minerals are critical to technologies ranging from electric vehicle motors to advanced missile systems. The move drew sharp condemnation from US President Donald Trump, who labelled it a strategic weaponisation of essential materials. Following weeks of negotiations, China in June agreed to temporarily resume exports to the United States under a six-month licensing arrangement. This move reminded the world just how reliant major economies are on China for these seemingly obscure but critically important elements. That a handful of elements could hold such sway over global supply chains has sparked renewed attention on rare earths. What Are Rare Earth Elements? Rare earth elements (REEs), also commonly referred to as rare earth minerals (REMs) in industry contexts, comprise a group of 17 chemically similar metals: the 15 lanthanides on the periodic table, along with scandium and yttrium. Despite the misleading name, these elements are not especially rare in nature. What makes them 'rare" is the difficulty of finding them in concentrations high enough for economical extraction, and the complexity of separating them from each other. Their value lies in their unique physical and chemical properties, such as high magnetic strength, conductivity, and luminescence, which make them indispensable in a wide range of modern technologies. Without REEs, the world would struggle to manufacture smartphones, power clean energy solutions, or advance military technologies. Key Uses And Applications Rare earths are embedded deep in our modern lives. They are essential for technologies ranging from the mundane to the cutting-edge. Smartphones and flat-screen TVs rely on europium and terbium for colour and brightness. Wind turbines and electric vehicles use neodymium and dysprosium in their permanent magnets. Military-grade night vision, radar systems, and precision-guided munitions all depend on rare earths to function reliably. Even in medicine, these elements are crucial: magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines use gadolinium, and various REEs help in producing contrast agents and laser surgery equipment. Their versatility across industries has earned them the label of 'industrial vitamins"—used in small amounts but critical for end-product performance. Global Distribution: Where Are They Found? Although rare earths are scattered across the planet, few countries have succeeded in harnessing them at scale. China dominates the landscape, particularly with the Bayan Obo mine in Inner Mongolia, which is the largest rare earth deposit globally. Australia, through Lynas Rare Earths, has emerged as a significant non-China producer. The United States is home to the Mountain Pass mine in California, which has seen a revival in recent years, though it still depends on China for refining. India, meanwhile, holds considerable untapped reserves, especially in monazite sands found along the coastal regions of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. Other countries with potential include Brazil, Vietnam, Russia, and Canada, but infrastructure and policy limitations have held back their development. The China Factor: Monopolising The Supply Chain China's dominance in rare earths isn't due to geology alone; it's the result of long-term strategic planning. Over the decades, China built a vertically integrated industry encompassing everything, from mining and refining to magnet manufacturing. By offering low costs and lax environmental regulations, it pushed competitors out of the market. In addition to subsidising its domestic industry, China cornered the market by acquiring processing rights abroad and investing in foreign mines. Today, it controls about 85 to 90 per cent of global rare earth refining capacity. And when geopolitical tensions rise, Beijing does not hesitate to flex its mineral muscles, halting exports to Japan in 2010, and imposing restrictions on the US in 2025, as recent examples. Ukraine's Untapped Potential Ukraine, too, has become a focal point in rare earth geopolitics. The country holds promising deposits of rare earth elements, particularly in regions like Kirovohrad and Zhytomyr. Though these reserves remain largely undeveloped due to the ongoing war, they have caught the attention of the United States for one major reason: the minerals could provide a long-term hedge against dependence on China. In early 2025, US President Donald Trump proposed linking continued military and financial aid to long-term access to these mineral reserves. Arguing that rare earths were vital to US national security and worth hundreds of billions, Trump framed the deal as a necessary exchange for the billions already committed to Ukraine's defence. The Extraction And Refining Challenge Processing rare earths is as much a chemical challenge as a logistical one. These elements are often found mixed together, requiring sophisticated techniques to separate and purify them. Moreover, the extraction process often generates toxic and radioactive waste, making it both environmentally hazardous and politically controversial. Western nations once had thriving rare earth industries but gradually offshored them to China due to high costs and environmental opposition. Now, as geopolitical risks rise, there's renewed urgency to reshore these capabilities despite the regulatory and financial hurdles involved. India faces similar challenges. Although rich in monazite sands, the country lacks large-scale refining units and downstream industries that can turn raw material into usable components like magnets or phosphors. Most of its output is processed abroad or remains untapped. Supply Chain Risks And The Global Push For Diversification The Covid-19 pandemic, the Russia–Ukraine war, and China's export restrictions in April 2025 on key rare earth elements have collectively underscored the vulnerability of global supply chains, bringing rare earths into sharper strategic focus. In response: In March 2025, the United States invoked the Defence Production Act to support domestic mining, refining, and separation infrastructure for rare earths. The European Union finalised the Critical Raw Materials Act in late 2024, setting 2030 targets of at least 10 per cent domestic extraction, 40 per cent processing, and 25 per cent recycling, while limiting reliance on any single country to 65 per cent. Japan has expanded efforts to recycle rare earths from electronics and industrial waste, reflecting growing concerns over supply-chain security. Private companies such as Apple (through its 'Daisy" disassembly robot) and Tesla (via rare-earth-free motor research and alternative sourcing strategies) are investing heavily in urban mining and material substitution. Within the Indo-Pacific, Quad nations—India, Australia, Japan, and the United States—are collaborating on critical mineral development, sustainable sourcing, and end-to-end supply chain resilience. India's Position: Potential Vs Preparedness India has long held a geological advantage in rare earth elements, particularly through monazite-rich beach sands along its eastern and southern coasts. However, policy constraints and institutional bottlenecks have limited its ability to capitalise on this potential. The sector remains dominated by IREL (India) Limited, a public sector enterprise under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), which oversees the exploration and processing of monazite due to its thorium content. Under current regulations, monazite is classified as a 'prescribed substance" under the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, which effectively bars private players from mining it. In addition, restrictions on the export of unprocessed rare earths—requiring clearances from both the DAE and the Directorate General of Foreign Trade—further dampen commercial incentives. Recognising the strategic urgency, the government introduced a Critical Minerals Strategy in 2023 and has accelerated exploration through the Geological Survey of India (GSI) and Mineral Exploration and Consultancy Limited (MECL). Production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes aimed at boosting electric vehicle and electronics manufacturing are indirectly creating demand for rare earth-based components such as magnets, batteries, and phosphors. However, without reforming mining laws, enabling responsible private-sector participation, and investing in large-scale refining and magnet-making infrastructure, India risks remaining a supplier of raw material rather than a stakeholder in the rare earth value chain. Environmental And Ethical Concerns China's rare earth industry has caused severe environmental damage in regions such as Inner Mongolia, particularly around the Baotou area, where years of rare earth processing have produced toxic sludge ponds and radioactive tailings. The tailings dam near Baotou—often referred to as the 'rare earth lake"—has contaminated soil and water, exposing nearby communities to long-term environmental and health risks. Additionally, human rights concerns have surfaced regarding the use of forced labour in China's Xinjiang region, with some allegations linked to industrial supply chains, including critical minerals. Meanwhile, illegal and unregulated rare earth mining in Myanmar, especially in the Kachin state, has raised alarms over deforestation, land degradation, and labour exploitation—much of it feeding into Chinese processing facilities. As countries like India and others work to scale up rare earth production, there is a growing international consensus that new supply chains must prioritise not just security and self-reliance, but also environmental and ethical sustainability. Ethical sourcing, community consultation, and cleaner refining technologies will need to become non-negotiable pillars of any responsible rare earth expansion. The Future Of Rare Earths The next chapter in rare earths will be shaped by innovation as much as geopolitics. Research is underway into synthetic substitutes for rare earth magnets, while recycling initiatives are gaining momentum under the banner of circular economy. Deep-sea mining, though highly controversial, also looms as a potential game-changer, with rich deposits found on the ocean floor. India, the US, the EU, and others are now treating rare earths not just as resources but as strategic assets. Control over them could define technological sovereignty for decades to come. The Geopolitics Of The Periodic Table Rare earth minerals are no longer viewed merely as industrial inputs, they have become strategic commodities essential to national security, advanced manufacturing, and clean energy transitions. Their limited availability in extractable forms, complex processing requirements, and widespread applications have turned them into a focal point of global competition. top videos View all China's long-standing dominance over refining and supply has exposed systemic vulnerabilities, prompting countries around the world to diversify their sources and invest in alternative supply chains. For India, this global push presents both a challenge and a window of opportunity. With policy reforms, enhanced investment, and greater international cooperation, India could position itself as a meaningful player in the rare earth ecosystem. However, bridging the gap between potential and preparedness will require focused, time-bound efforts. About the Author Karishma Jain Karishma Jain, Chief Sub Editor at writes and edits opinion pieces on a variety of subjects, including Indian politics and policy, culture and the arts, technology and social change. Follow her @ More Get Latest Updates on Movies, Breaking News On India, World, Live Cricket Scores, And Stock Market Updates. Also Download the News18 App to stay updated! tags : rare earth elements US-China ties Location : New Delhi, India, India First Published: June 12, 2025, 11:20 IST News explainers What Are Rare Earth Minerals And Why China's Grip Has Nations Racing For Alternatives | Explained
