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In the Tegenlicht special 'The Rare Metals War', Guillaume Pitron warns about the dark side of the energy transition and digitalization. Pitron is a French journalist and author of the book The Rare Metals War: the dark side of clean energy and digital technologies. Rare metals are essential for the production of electric vehicles, fighter jets, wind turbines and solar panels, but also for our smartphones, computers, tablets and other everyday devices. But most people actually know very little about how they are extracted, or about the ecological and geopolitical costs of this. By disconnecting ourselves from fossil fuels, a new dependency threatens to arise. China is currently by far the largest player in the battle for the raw materials of the future. Europe and the United States are largely dependent on the supply and processing of these raw materials from China. And that is dangerous, because just like oil and gas, raw materials can be used as a political weapon. The first signs of this are already visible, with a leading role for the Brabant company ASML. To gain this geopolitical advantage, China has had to sacrifice a large part of its environment, because mining and refining these raw materials is anything but clean. Can Europe do it differently and can this dependency be reduced? Guillaume Pitron presents several solutions in this Tegenlicht. Direction & research: Ilija Božović Camera: Roel van 't Hoff Sound: Lucas van Eck Editing: Frithjof Kalf Production: Britt Bennink Image research: Paula Witkamp Design: Fien Leeflang Final editing: Julia Veldman Archive: European Commission Toby Smith Belgian Offshore Platform Ronald Reagan Library NOS/NTR The White House AFP Tesla Tomihahndorf Wilco Oelen Jonathan Zander More future stories? Follow us here: Website: https://tegenlicht.vpro.nl/ Instagram: / vpro_tegenlicht Facebook: / vprotegenlicht Twitter: / vprotegenlicht Meet-ups: https://www.vpro.nl/programmas/tegenl... Viewing guide: All ages