Most everyone has seen or read the Lorax at this point. If you haven’t, than fifty year old spoilers! In the Lorax, Dr. Seuss tells the story of the destruction of the truffula tree by unscrupulous industrialists. The industrialization of the forest leads to climate change and demographic change with the local wildlife. A classic tell of the tragedy of the commons.
So what would happen if someone discovered the truffula tree today? Harvesters would have to deal with work stoppages for OSHA safety inspections. The EPA could put controls on emissions and limit water usage. The FTC could force earnings disclosers about truffula tree reserves. If the truffula tree became endangered, NGO’s would have standing to sue to stop additional harvesting. The natural result of these inspections would force truffula tree harvesters into parts of the world that don’t have worker safety or environmental laws.
What are the truffula trees of today? One contender is rare earth metals/elements (REEs). According to Apple, the company has sold over one billion iPhones in the past decade. The phones wouldn’t be possible without rare earths. They fuel the modern economy from batteries, to computers. REEs are mined in countries that don’t have strong environmental and safety regulations. Those mines undercut the viability of mines in countries that do have, or follow, regulations.
The US used to be one of the largest suppliers of REEs. Now, the US imports 70% of its rare earths from China even though the US has one of the largest rare earth mines in the world. The US mine went bankrupt due to environmental cleanup costs and “dumping” of cheap REEs by China. The mine recently reopened but it ships its ore to China for processing. In order for US REE mines to be truly viable, consumers would need to choose to pay more for better, and more expensive, mining practices.
Moving society to better mining practices is complicated. Part of the answer is to increase product lifespans by replacing the function REEs are serving in our economy with other materials that don’t require mining or toxic processing. For those functions that can’t be replaced, governments and individuals need to disincentivize imports of cheap REEs mined without regard to social or environmental costs. One possible way this could be achieved would be to raise the price of cheap minerals with environmental import taxes or a value added tax. These taxes could be invested to extended product lifespans or to develop greener product replacements.
Another option would be voluntary. Behavioral economics could be used to incentivize consumers to purchase REE products at higher prices. Pushing the public to want to pay for more expensive metal could come in the form of explaining the damage current rare earth mining practices cause; a branding and marketing label centered around “green metal,” or “organic metal.” Consumers already pay more for “organic” food and might welcome a way to pay for greener electronics.