Remember when the US annexed a huge amount of the ocean recently? US officials were not just going to let that sit there and not be utilized, they had big plans for the million square miles they acquired. Just last week the US military announced a new AI program that would analyze the costs of minerals and resource extraction. The US military is getting into the resource extraction game and the continental shelf and areas of the Pacific Ocean that were mapped for resources in the name of science will be used for just that purpose. Claiming a huge swath of the Pacific was never about protection, but what the US government could get out of the land.
The US military is planning on using the AI program to analyze the price of resources and the mining process for these resources. Why? They claim it is for transparency in the metals and resource market, but it is really so that the US military can make a profit from the resources. DARPA states that the current status of market analysis is flawed so they came up with a program to address the flaws, or more correctly, so they can get a jump on the market and sell the minerals at a profit and set the price for the minerals.
How is this not a major conflict of interest on all grounds to have the US military analyzing the market and setting prices for minerals and resources? How is it not a major conflict of interest for the US military to be in the mining business? Does the public have the ability to analyze and oppose the purchases of the minerals and the opening or use of mines to extract the minerals? No, we don’t. This is just a way for the government to state that they are helping when their only goal is to profit from the resources and stockpile the resources for their own use.
What this boil downs to is that the US military is trying to push their way into setting global prices for minerals. They should not have this level of power to affect the global economy and also the destruction of lands used to extract these minerals. As it stands currently, there is a long-standing process through the London Metal Exchange that negotiates prices on the precious resources. Obviously the US government wants the power to be able to change who sets the prices and they are doing just that under the umbrella of the US military.
While even the US military is attempting to profit from resources, the UN has just released a report stating that material extraction will rise to over 60% by 2060. With the US military entering the extraction field, their impact will greatly accelerate the loss of these minerals and the depletion of the ecosystem in which the resources are extracted from.
Many in the finance industry are debating this competitive system that the US military wants to enforce because there already is a system in place created by the futures market. Having a competing system will confuse the industry. Which system will buyers utilize then? It is already set on supply and demand, and this new model might have a large impact on the world economy. This is just what the US military wants, but how the US military complex has the power to affect the economy this way and the use of land is an extremely large breach of their power.
DARPA argues that the new Open Price Exploration for National Security program will allow for the market to be transparent. While they say that the OPEN program won’t be setting prices, it is obvious that the goal of OPEN is to affect prices of minerals on the market. The actual goal of OPEN is so that the US military can anticipate values for minerals so they can stockpile these minerals for themselves and the US military manufacturing complex. Lockheed Martin is already in talks to assist the entire OPEN program since they are one of the largest manufacturers for the US military already, they stand to gain the most from this program.
There are no discussions on how to minimize mining and focusing on protection for fragile ecosystems. The US government only views land as a means for profit, and this will have a horrible affect on the world and the health of the global environment. They are setting the tone for other governments, which will see these actions as a means for their own complete depletion of the environment.
Our resources are finite. The health of the environment is fragile and while we can take steps to protect our planet for future generations, the US government is doing everything in its power to refuse these protections and not focus on sustainability and protecting nature. Nothing is important over profit to the US government.
Articles for reference:
Reuters: Pentagon plans AI-based program to estimate prices of critical minerals
The Guardian: Extraction of raw materials to rise by 60% by 2060, says UN report