The mounting deficits and current lag in technological leadership have allowed the United States to lag steadily behind China -- a country that holds more than $1 trillion of its IOU's. Nowhere is this shifting balance of global geopolitical power clearer than in the supply chain conflicts over rare earth minerals (REM's), their ownership, their extraction, and the ecological impacts of their exploitation.
China controls roughly 97% of all REM's produced in the world. These minerals are critical because of their use in the manufacture of high-powered magnets and other recent advances. The United States requires them for essential uses in military areas such as missile guidance systems; the latest electronic circuits ; newly developed batteries ; and other innovative technologies !
Rare earth minerals also serve as a key element in an extensive number of civilian applications such as fuel cells; fiber optics; wind turbines; and the most advanced communication systems. This range of critical uses makes it all too easy for shortages --- real or apparent --- to trigger a buying panic .
Rare-earth minerals are doing well as investments because investors are keeping a wary eye on the location and accessibility of REM deposits, and their concern tends to drive up prices in this sensitive market. Location is critical, as up to half of rare earth sales may soon be coming from China. Some forecasts indicate that, within the next three years, China will need for its own use all the rare earth minerals it can produce.
China has, until now, used to good effect its rare-earth oligopoly, that is, control by a few, but capable of expanding to full-blown monopoly. Scarcity and volatility can permit the Chinese government to pressure firms who wish to purchase rare-earth minerals to locate their factories in China, where they would pose a potentially dangerous geopolitical threat.
Ironically, the Arctic regions of both our trading partner, Canada, and of the United States' own state of Alaska hold vast deposits of oil, gas, precious metals and the often overlooked rare earths . Other nations are investing in the Arctic, but indications are that the U.S. is sitting on its hands. -------------------------------------------------------------------------
The previous paragraphs were derived from an abstract of an investors' research service paper authored by a Pulitzer Prize-winning authority. The information was recast and redacted by HybridPelta for your reading consternation.
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Commentary by HybridPelta:
Clearly, to properly exploit the mineral riches of the Arctic for the needs of our new technological world calls for a logistical and transportation system that does not currently exist .
In the vast areas of frozen tundra, trackless plains, and impassable mountain ranges in the Arctic north, there are no developed road systems, no railroad network, and only the make-do efforts of daring bush pilots and ice road truckers.
AIRSHIPS A SENSIBLE, AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE
Airships are a logical extension of current transportation technology, as they can take off without expensive (or even impossible-to-build) runways, then travel safely at low altitudes, and land almost anywhere --- even on tundra or the ice of frozen lakes . As lighter-than-air craft and their cognate, hybrid airships, are a rare combination of technologies both new and old --- but constantly developing and improving --- they can be designed to be safe, low cost, and without the large ground-handling crew requirements of the old Zeppelins. They can fly in most weather conditions in which a large modern airplane can fly safely. They can be designed as unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV's or drones), not even requiring a crew, utilizing new remotely-operated control techniques, and piloted comfortably from a safe, distant control center, using remote sensors and video vision capabilities. If the design included "Green" power, with inexpensive, renewable fuels, it would not offend ecological sensibilities.
HYDROGEN FUEL; AIRCRAFT STABILITY; and INFRASTRUCTURE
With no crew's lives at risk from possible aircraft fire, drones don't even pose a fatal threat if they were to use hydrogen as their lifting fuel (Oh, the humanity !) . As an airship is inherently stable --- that is, just let the controls go and it remains essentially in the same position, attitude, and flight aspect . This is arguably quite unlike the inherently unstable helicopter. That would alleviate other concerns. If you challenge that concept, just consider the number of helicopter accidents and resulting injuries and fatalities. ###
We would like to see us explore innovative transportation methods such as cargo-capable airships, that don't require the costly, difficult-to-build infrastructure of railways and roads .
HINDENBURG ? OH, NO, NOT YOU, TOO
There's a tired old joke whose punch-line is "Does the name 'Quasimodo' ring a bell ?" At this point, we could utter a similar "Does the name 'Hindenburg' ring a bell ?". The subject of the Hindenburg disaster is frequently mentioned whenever the topic of airships comes up. Ah, yes, the Hindenburg ! Somehow, the semi-literates*** who raise the specter of that iconic airship disaster 75 years ago blithely ignore the many technological advances in airship technology and safety that have taken place since 1937. It would appear that the Faster-and-Higher advocates of transportation policy-and-planning have clouded the judgement of government officials ... no surprise, considering the billions of dollars at stake and already expended.
AND THE TITANIC , ALSO ? WILL YOU NEVER STOP ?
Just speculate as to the progress that would have been made if the specter of the Titanic disaster (1912) had been similarly raised at every planning meeting of passenger ship construction .... or, worse, if the formerly-held viewpoint that it's impossible for iron ships to float had been raised in those meetings? Think that the latter belief is obsolete by hundreds of years ?
Yet a similar notion had prevailed when shortages of critical materials --- like iron and steel --- motivated some think tanks in World War II to suggest the concept of aircraft carriers constructed out of concrete or, ready for this one, ice . The implementation of these radical solutions never took place, but preliminary tests were done.
SOLUTION FROM AN UNUSUAL, BUT AUTHORITATIVE, SOURCE
Dr. Barry Prentice, of the Faculty of the University of Manitoba and Founder of ISO Polar, has been trying for a decade and more to educate people, especially -- but never exclusively -- in Canada, about the use of airships in those northern areas, a critical concern of the Canadian government. He must indeed have felt like the "voice crying in the wilderness " of Isaiah and the other biblical prophets . Millions are familiar with the latest escapades of Lindsay Lohan, but the issue of Airships and the Arctic raised in almost any venue usually draws a complete blank. We believe that his research, his insights, and the solutions proposed through his untiring efforts need to be recognised, implemented, and endorsed.
Let's all agree : the issues are imminent; the solutions are evident; the time is now.
HybridPelta
NOTES
*** Semi-literate : someone who reads, believes, and quotes only that half of what they read that comports and agrees with his own beliefs, right or wrong . We use the descriptor "Semi-Literate" to describe people who submit the same tired old fallacious clichés about the failings, drawbacks, and disadvantages of airships to airship forums again and again , as though the really bright aeronautical engineers and designers involved had not heard those same specious arguments a hundred times and more, and had carefully explained those fears and misunderstandings away .
### Helicopter Accidents By Year through 2009
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