In a new opinion essay in The New York Times, Julie Klinger (PhD '15) takes on one of today’s most urgent geopolitical questions: Who really controls the world’s rare earth elements?
In this timely piece, Klinger challenges the dominant narrative that the United States is helplessly dependent on China for the critical minerals that power everything from electric vehicles to defense technologies. She argues that China’s dominance is not inevitable — nor purely geological — but the result of decades of policy, industrial strategy, and global supply chain decisions.
Rather than calling simply for new mining projects, Klinger points to solutions “hiding in plain sight,” including the recovery of rare earth elements from mine waste, industrial byproducts, and discarded electronics. She reframes the debate from scarcity and fear to strategy and opportunity, highlighting how the U.S. can rethink resource security through investment in recycling, processing infrastructure, and smarter supply chain planning.
Read the entire article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/opinion/china-us-rare-earths.html.
Julie Michelle Klinger is a geographer, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the author of Rare Earth Frontiers: From Terrestrial Subsoils to Lunar Landscapes.