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Southern Winds

Every place, no matter where, has its own southern narrative: the unheard voices of the world’s overlooked regions.

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Trump’s Mineral Paradox: A Snake Eating Its Own Tail

Martina H
7 min readMay 4, 2025

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Trump’s Mineral Paradox: A Snake Eating Its Own Tail (created by author)

I grew up near the Arctic Circle, where the ground shifts and swells with every season — permafrost cracking underfoot, the northern lights slicing through stillness. In places like this, you learn early that what lies beneath us has always shaped who holds power above us.

Because resources have always drawn the battle lines.

Britain carved an empire out of . The U.S. rode an into World War II and has for decades. Today, the resources for an empire have changed — but the ambition hasn’t. Today, the world’s great powers are no longer fighting over fossil fuels. They’re scrapping over the minerals that make up the new motherboard of control: lithium, graphite, gallium, rare earths. And China has the .

From cobalt fields in Congo to nickel in Indonesia, the minerals that power Western technologies are now .

Global Rare Earth Metals Production (1995–2023) (Source: )

To Donald Trump, this isn’t an environmental crisis. It’s a battlefield. And so, in March, he signed an to…

Southern Winds
Southern Winds

Published in Southern Winds

Every place, no matter where, has its own southern narrative: the unheard voices of the world’s overlooked regions.

Martina H
Martina H

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