A Problem for Climate Change Alarmists, By James Reed

The environmental doomsters have, at least since the publication of the Club of Rome's The Limits to Growth (1972), been proclaiming that the key elements for techno-industrial society are being rapidly depleted. The Peak oil craze, some years back was an example, where supposedly we have reached the peak of oil production and it is downhill from now on. These folk are quiet nowadays, as increased reserves have constantly been discovered and hard-to-get oil like oil shale have been obtained by technological advancements. And the same limits idea was proposed for minerals, and still is. Thus, researchers at the Beijing Institute of Technology have claimed that critical minerals to build "green energy" technology could run out in as little as 10 years if every nation jumps on the alternative energy band wagon.However, innovation is very likely to solve this problem as well. But if not, it is back to reliable, abundant fossil fuels like glorious coal, and an end to the climate change alarmist mania:

"Researchers at the Beijing Institute of Technology found that if the world attempted to build enough clean technology to limit climate change to 2°C above pre-industrial temperatures, it would exhaust known reserves of several minerals within decades.

Reserves of tin, which is used in wind turbines and solar panels, could be exhausted by 2085, while cadmium, used in control rods of nuclear reactors, could run out by 2060. Indium, a crucial ingredient in specialist thin-film solar panels, could be used up by 2035.

The researchers said that their results showed the need to look for new reserves, particularly in under-explored regions such as Africa and central Asia, as well as scaling-up recycling, and substituting more common minerals for scarce ones.

Worries about the scarcity of cobalt, 70% of which is sourced from the Democratic Republic of Congo, have already led carmakers to use less of it in electric vehicle batteries. Bloomberg New Energy Finance has estimated that almost half of EV batteries manufactured this year would instead be made from lithium iron phosphate.

Another reason to think that the world may overcome these resource constraints is that in the past, known reserves have grown quickly once companies are incentivised to look for them. The researchers estimated that if known reserves of critical minerals grow as quickly as those of petroleum have since 1980, then shortages of many minerals would be avoided.

Yet with critical minerals distributed unevenly around the world, the researchers stressed the need for countries to trade openly together to prevent the clean energy transition being held back by resource constraints."

https://dailysceptic.org/2025/08/08/minerals-needed-for-green-energy-could-run-out-within-10-years/

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/environment/article/minerals-green-energy-run-out-zk9f20bmh