From Watts Up With That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

Apparently, the USA has to stay dependent on China for Rare Earths, otherwise the planet will suffer a climate catastrophe.

Global race to secure critical minerals for weapons threatens climate, warns report

Study reveals US earmarked billions to stockpile critical minerals for military use, including precision-guided weaponry and AI-driven warfare

Matthew Taylor and Oliver Milman
Thu 4 Dec 2025 23.00 AEDT

The accelerating global arms race is hindering climate action as critical minerals that are key to a sustainable future are being diverted to make the latest military hardware, according to a report

The study from the Transition Security Project – a joint US and UK venture – reveals how the Pentagon is stockpiling huge stores of critical minerals that are needed for a range of climate technologies including solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles and battery storage.

It found that since the US president, Donald Trump, passed his “one big beautiful bill” earlier this year, the Pentagon – through its National Defense Stockpile programme – has earmarked billions of dollars to secure a growing list of critical minerals for use in military hardware – from precision-guided weaponry and advanced communication systems to an emerging arsenal of military technologies such as “AI-driven autonomous warfare platforms”.

Khem Rogaly, co-director of Transition Security Project, said: “The Pentagon’s trillion dollar budget supports a global infrastructure designed for US military domination, not national security. Using precious resources to feed the expanding military industrial complex, rather than addressing the existential threat of the climate crisis, demonstrates the global insecurity produced by the Pentagon.”

…Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/dec/04/critical-minerals-military-us-pentagon-climate-crisis

The executive summary of the study;

Mining for War: Assessing the Pentagon’s Mineral Stockpile

How can the Pentagon’s energy transition mineral stockpiles be repurposed toward the green transition?

4 December 2025 
Lorah Steichen

Executive Summary

Driven by concerns about supply chain vulnerabilities amid escalating great power competition with China, the Pentagon is accelerating efforts to secure access to the so-called critical minerals, which are essential to military industries. Central to this push is a ramped-up effort to stockpile these materials within the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) National Defense Stockpile. The Pentagon’s expanding demand for critical minerals risks diverting vital resources away from civilian decarbonisation initiatives and accelerating militarised competition at a time when global collaboration is essential for a just climate transition. When industrial strategy is shaped by military and national security priorities, it not only entrenches geopolitical conflict but also distorts pathways for equitable climate action, redirecting public resources and state capacity away from the broader demands of rapid and just decarbonisation. This briefing examines how the Pentagon’s role in mineral supply chains, particularly through stockpiling, challenges the global energy transition.

Key findings:

• Since the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which earmarked billions of dollars to bolster the National Defense Stockpile, the DLA has solicited contracts to stockpile a growing list of critical minerals, including several materials essential to the energy transition.
• The DLA plans to stockpile almost 7,500 metric tons of cobalt. That amount of cobalt could be used instead to produce 80.2 gigawatt hours of battery capacity — more than double existing energy storage.
• The DLA’s planned cobalt and graphite stockpiles could be used instead to produce approximately 100,000 electric buses — fifteen times more than are currently in operation across the United States.

…Read more: https://transitionsecurity.org/mining-for-war/

One of the recommendations is to improve relations with China, rather than trying to secure independent sources of critical minerals;

…

4. Foster global solidarity

Build international cooperation, including coordination with China on climate technology collaboration to reduce duplication in supply chains, lower mining demand and ease geopolitical tensions impacting mineral markets.

…Read more: same link as above

The About Page of Transition Security Project, a group I never heard of before, contains the following acknowledgement: We are grateful for the support of Polden Puckham Charitable Foundation, Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and Rockefeller Brothers Fund. We only accept funding from charitable foundations and trade unions.

The Polden Puckham Charitable Foundation seems to be a small affair, but one of the biggest donors to the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust in 2024 was the UK branch of DeSmog. Desmog is a significant international green energy pressure group founded by James Hoggan.

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the third listed contributor, has some interesting connections to China according to the Washington Examiner.

Rockefeller Brothers Fund spent past four years pumping cash into Chinese government-linked groups

By Robert Schmad

The primary philanthropic arm of the influential Rockefeller family has given millions of dollars to arms of the Chinese government as well as organizations with strong links to the Chinese Communist Party.

Between April 2020 and August 2024, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund donated $7.4 million to organizations that are either part of the Chinese government, led by members of the CCP, or engaged in partnerships with China, according to a Washington Examiner analysis of grant records. The bulk of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund’s philanthropic activity in China went toward assisting Beijing in meeting its goals for green energy production and transition.

…Read more: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/3248834/rockefeller-brothers-fund-cash-chinese-government-linked-groups/

I’m not accusing Transition Security of writing a report to order for China. From what I saw when living in Britain, most UK academics live and breath hatred and contempt for the USA, and admiration for China. Such sentiments are very much a mainstream view in UK academia, just as they are in some sectors of US academia. There are plenty of Western academics who would willingly express such views as honestly held opinions.

It does however seem interesting that money from an organisation with apparent strong links to China, along with money from a green energy linked organisation, may be filtering through into the hands of Western academics who express support for globalist policies which would hurt the USA and benefit China.

But I’m sure it is just one of those coincidences, right?