Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: The Elements of Power
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.davidsabraham.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.tremcenter.org/trem/about-us/leadership/ * http://www.cfr.org/staff/b16356
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:Graduate of Boston College and Tufts University.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Natural resource strategist and writer. Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, Potomac, MD, director of Technology, Rare and Electronics Materials Center. Previusly worked as a natural resource strategist analyzing risk on Wall Street and at a commodity-trading firm, both New York, NY; White House Office of Management and Budget, Washington, DC, oversaw natural resources programs; ran water-focused nongovernmental organization (NGO) in Africa. Also served as a research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations; Tokyo University; and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
AWARDS:Recipient of numerous fellowships, including Truman National Security Fellow.
WRITINGS
Contributor to periodicals, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal Asia.
SIDELIGHTS
David S. Abraham is a natural resource strategist who has worked on Wall Street and at a commodity-trading firm. He also worked in the U.S. federal government overseeing programs on natural resources and then became head of the technology materials center for a global security analysis institute. A contributor to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, as well as other periodicals, Abraham also speaks Lithuanian. In his book titled The Elements of Power: Gadgets, Guns, and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age, Abraham examines rare metals, explaining exactly what they are and why they are essential to much more than twenty-first-century electronics. They are also vital go the world’s largest armies and green technologies. Most important of all, according to Abraham, these metals will play a major role in determining the earth’s future.
Rare metals such as indium, neodymium, and dysprosium are the foundation of modern, high-tech society. Although these metals are used sparingly in comparison to other natural resource or metals, their use is adding up, and they are becoming scarce. As a result, writes Abraham, society could have to rely on fossil fuels and other polluting energy sources, thus hindering efforts to address climate change in a meaningful manner. “Abraham should know,” wrote Guardian Online contributor Nicola Davis. She added: “He has trekked around the world, from a vast niobium mine in Brazil to an antiquated processing plant in Estonia, investigating how a bunch of exotic-sounding elements have transformed our lives.”
Abraham investigates not only these metals’ scarcity but also how their growing use has economic, environmental, and geopolitical consequences. He points out that these metals have a long history of being coveted, dating back at least to World War II, when the United States made it treasonous to export tungsten, which could strengthen steel. The advance of technology during the war led policy makers to realize the importance of protecting these natural resources. As a result, Present Harry S. Truman established a Material Policy Commission in 1951 to study the country’s natural resource needs.
Abraham takes a comprehensive look at these metals and their impact. He examines how and where they are mined and the intricate techniques used to refine them. In addressing production difficulties, Abraham notes there is a talent drain in the industry. He also addresses international issues concerning these resources and corporate monopolies. For example, in 2010 China and Japan had a potentially dangerous disagreement. The major cause of the rift were three rare metals used to form magnets that run little motors, such as those in electric toothbrushes. Abraham stresses that unstable regions contain some significant supplies of these metals. For example, approximately 21 percent of the tantalum found in the world comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo and similar regions in conflict. As a result, maintaining essential supply chains becomes a significant issue.
Abraham is especially interested in sustainability issues and the resulting environmental impacts of the metals’ use. Yet another issue, writes Abraham, is the fact that countries such as China, Japan, and South Korea are far ahead of the United States in recognizing the strategic importance of these rare metals. Abraham believes control of these resources gives significant power to the owners. Abraham ends the book with a chapter offering advice on how to prosper in the rare metal age. Noting the risks involved with rare metals, especially in relation to the environment and economies, he nevertheless believes stability and sustainability can be achieved while continuing the world’s technological advance.
“Abraham attempts to peel back the screen on our devices and discover what’s behind,” wrote a Financial Times Online contributor. J.B. Huffman, writing for Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, believed the book’s value rested with “how Abraham describes the growing use of rare metals and how that use can have economic, environmental, and geopolitical ramifications.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, April, 2016, J.B. Huffman, review of The Elements of Power: Gadgets, Guns, and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age, p. 1185.
Natural History, October, 2015, Laurence A. Marschall, review of The Element of Power, p. 46.
ONLINE
David S. Abraham Home Page, http://www.davidsabraham.com (March 27, 2017).
Council on Foreign Relations Web site, http://www.cfr.org/ (Mach 27, 2017), author profile.
Economist, http://www.economist.com/ (January 14, 2016), “Unobtainiums,” review of The Elements of Power.
Financial Times Online, https://www.ft.com/ (December 4, 2015), review of The Elements of Power.
Guardian Online, https://www.theguardian.com/ (January 11, 2016), Nicola Davis, review of The Elements of Power.
TREM Center Web site, http://www.tremcenter.org/ (March 27, 2017), author profile.
LC control no.: no2015165018
Descriptive conventions:
rda
Personal name heading:
Abraham, David S.
Found in: The elements of power, 2015 title page (David S. Abraham)
jacket (a natural resources strategist who currently
directs the Technology, Rare and Electronics Materials
Center)
Associated language:
eng
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS AUTHORITIES
Library of Congress
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Questions? Contact: ils@loc.gov
David S. Abraham runs the Technology, Rare and Electronics Materials Center and is author of The Elements of Power. His career spans from commodities trading and Wall Street to the White House where he oversaw international and natural resource programs. He is a frequent speaker on rare metals and technology demands.
A recipient of numerous fellowships, David researched the rare metal trade at Tokyo University, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Council on Foreign Relations. He also oversaw operations of a clean water non-profit, starting the organization’s operations in Japan and Uganda.
During his career, he has advised investors on resource opportunities, counseled Congressional staff on resource risks, and received a meritorious service award while in government. He has crossed more borders than he cares to count, interviewed hundreds of people throughout the rare metal supply line and, when younger, monitored elections throughout central Asia and eastern Europe.
David has been selected as a Young Leader by numerous international organizations and is currently a Truman National Security Fellow. He holds degrees from Boston College and Tufts University and speaks Lithuanian.
Leadership
David S. Abraham is Senior Fellow at IAGS and oversees TREM Center.
David is a strategist in the natural resource sector with vast experience in business, non-profit and government. He is a sought-after speaker on rare metals. His book on critical materials entitled, The Elements of Power (Yale University Press) will be published in 2015.
Previously, David provided economic and geopolitical risk analysis at an energy trading and on Wall Street. He also oversaw natural resource programs, including the Office of Surface Mining, and international assistance programs at the White House Office of Management and Budget and worked inside Japan’s Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry in 2010-11. David also led the nonprofit, ClearWater Initiative, establishing permanent offices in the US, Japan and Uganda.
He has held several fellowships including at the Council on Foreign Relations and Tokyo University and received numerous leadership distinctions from the American Council on Germany, the US-Japan Foundation and American Swiss Foundation.
His writing has appeared frequently in publications including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal Asia, and The International Herald Tribune, and he has appeared in numerous media outlets. He holds degrees from Tufts University and Boston College and splits time between Indonesia and New York.
You can reach him at abraham@iags.org.
David S. Abraham
International Affairs Fellow in Japan, Sponsored by Hitachi, Ltd. 2010-2011
Contact Info:
E-mail: davidabrahamst@yahoo.com
David S. Abraham will be a 2010-2011 International Affairs Fellow in Japan, sponsored by Hitachi, Ltd. in residence at Tokyo University studying natural resource security. Mr. Abraham currently oversees operations of ClearWater Initiative, a nonprofit organization focused on developing clean water solutions in post-conflict regions in Africa. He also consults on risk analysis.
Previously, Mr. Abraham worked for RBS Sempra Commodities and Lehman Brothers assessing credit risk and the impact of geopolitical and economic risks in developing countries. From 2003-2007, he oversaw natural resource, economic assistance and trade programs at the White House Office of Management and Budget. Mr. Abraham's experience also includes work with a United Nations program in Indonesia, a German consultancy and the Peace Corps in Lithuania. He has been published in publications including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and International Herald Tribune and he maintained a blog on energy issues at the Foreign Policy Association website.
Mr. Abraham holds a BA from Boston College and an MALD from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and he speaks Lithuanian.
David is a natural resource strategist who analyzed risk on Wall Street and at a commodity-trading firm, oversaw natural-resources programs at the White House Office of Management and Budget, and ran a water-focused NGO in Africa. He was a research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Tokyo University and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Currently, he oversees the technology materials center at the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security and speaks at investor conferences. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal Asia. Widely traveled, David splits his time between New York and Indonesia.
Abraham, David S.: The elements of power: gadgets, guns, and the struggle for a sustainable future in the rare metal age
J.B. Huffman
53.8 (Apr. 2016): p1185.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Abraham, David S. The elements of power: gadgets, guns, and the struggle for a sustainable future in the rare metal age. Yale, 2015. 319p index afp ISBN 9780300196795 cloth, $30.00; ISBN 9780300196795 ebook, contact publisher for price
(cc) 53-3483
HD9539
2015-942454 MARC
Abraham (Technology, Rare and Electronics Materials Center), a "natural resource strategist," describes how the use of some materials in many of today's products has caused the world to move into a new age, the "rare metal age." He defines rare metals as those that are hard to come by and are consumed in such small quantities that they are "rare" when compared to more widely used base and precious metals. He indicates that although rare metals are used ubiquitously in high tech, green, and military technologies, they are not the prime materials. However, their presence in products related to these areas is critical, and their use is growing. In an easy-to-read, storytelling fashion, the book describes how rare metals are used; how and where they are mined; the complex techniques for refining them; sustainability issues; supply chains; their tenuous relationships to international trading; and the resulting environmental impacts of their use. Each chapter is very well referenced, but the entire narrative is graphically supported by only three figures. The overall value of the book is in how Abraham describes the growing use of rare metals and how that use can have economic, environmental, and geopolitical ramifications. Summing Up: ** Recommended. All library collections.--J. B. Huffman, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
Huffman, J.B.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Huffman, J.B. "Abraham, David S.: The elements of power: gadgets, guns, and the struggle for a sustainable future in the rare metal age." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, Apr. 2016, p. 1185. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA449661614&it=r&asid=73ea94d7b635edca25245a33e9993a27. Accessed 28 Feb. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A449661614
The Element of Power: Gadgets, Guns, and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age
Laurence A. Marschall
123.8 (Oct. 2015): p46.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 Natural History Magazine, Inc.
http://naturalhistorymag.com/
The Element of Power: Gadgets, Guns, and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age
by David S. Abraham
Yale University Press, 2015; 328 pages, $30.00
David S. Abraham, an environmental analyst who has worked on Wall Street and in Washington, DC, offers a sober perspective in how the rarest mineral resources have become essentials of modern life. Most rare elements are used as only trace additives to otherwise common materials: a "dash" of indium turns inert glass into the touch-sensitive screens that banished buttons and dials and put a smart phone into everyone's pocket. A sprinkling of neodymium or dysprosium can greatly enhance the magnetic strength of iron alloys, making it possible to create devices as diverse as TV loudspeakers and motors for electric vehicles.
Those dashes and sprinkles add up to a lot in aggregate, and, as Abraham sees it, pose serious questions for the future development of high-tech, sustainable economies. Though a single hybrid or electric car uses only about 100 grams of dysprosium, and an industrial wind-turbine about 30 kilograms, the U.S. Department of Energy has projected an annual consumption of 8,000 tons if these technologies become significantly more widespread. That is seven times more than the total amount mined and refined in 2010. Scarcity of rare metals, in effect, may seriously limit our options for managing other, more abundant resources, such as fossil fuels, and may constrain efforts to rein in climate change.
Such scarcity is inescapably political. As early as World War I, the United States declared it treasonous to export tungsten, used to strengthen steel. World War II, where winning strategies relied even more heavily on technologies like radar and air power, made reliance on scarce materials clear to policy makers, prompting President Truman to establish a Material Policy Commission in 1951. But predicting future resource needs is complex, fraught with uncertainties, and, because of the political element, often virtually impossible to control. In 2011, for instance, about twenty-one percent of the world's supply of tantalum came from regions in conflict, like the Democratic Republic of Congo, leading to a sense of insecurity on the part of industries and governments about the continued stability of essential supply chains. And, of course, a major player in the rare earth trade, both as a supplier and, increasingly, a consumer, is China.
Our reliance on scarce and unpredictable resources could augur a dismal future, but in a closing chapter, "How to Prosper in the Rare Metal Age," Abraham sounds an upbeat note. Rare metals present risks, he concedes, but further developments, both scientific and political, can help assure stability and sustainability without jettisoning the technological amenities we've come to take for granted--as long as everyone becomes more aware of the scarce materials that make our "guns and gadgets" so cheap and so powerful.
BY LAURENCE A. MARSCHALL
Marschall, Laurence A.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Marschall, Laurence A. "The Element of Power: Gadgets, Guns, and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age." Natural History, Oct. 2015, p. 46. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA433061401&it=r&asid=e52ec82a08a4eb5337455373d2207f01. Accessed 28 Feb. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A433061401
Unobtainiums
They are obscure, yet essential. Why rare metals make the world go round
From the print edition | Books and arts
Jan 14th 2016
The Elements of Power: Gadgets, Guns and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age. By David Abraham. Yale University Press, 319 pages; $30 and £20.
LIKE this reviewer, many parents will have given their children electric toothbrushes for Christmas, hoping that the sensors that buzz after two minutes will keep them brushing longer than their flimsy elbow grease. Both generations may, however, be ignorant of the fact that in that time the toothbrushes produce more than 62,000 strokes; that the power to generate such motion comes from tiny magnets using three rare metals, neodymium, dysprosium and boron; and that some of these metals are so coveted that in 2010 they were at the centre of a dangerous rift between China and Japan.
In all, an electric toothbrush is made of 35 metals. The journey they take to children’s gums may involve China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chile, Russia, South Korea, Indonesia, Turkey and other countries too. They are rare, says David Abraham in “The Elements of Power”, a thought-provoking book that follows the trail of these elements, not because they are necessarily scarce or hard to extract. It is because they are used in tiny yet essential quantities—like yeast in a pizza.
In terms of amounts consumed, these metals pale compared with base metals such as aluminium and copper. But, as the book argues, they are no less transformative—and possibly just as valuable—as oil and coal. That is a bold claim, but the author backs it up convincingly. Using vivid detail, he injects life and purpose into the story of elements that are so light, strong, heat-resistant and elusive that an American general in the 1950s quipped that they should be called “unobtainium”.
Indium, part of an iPhone’s screen, is an “invisible link…between the phone and your finger”. Just a pinch of niobium, a soft, granite-grey metal mined mostly in Brazil, greatly strengthens a tonne of steel used in bridges and pipelines. Lithium is so light that it has become essential for rechargeable car-batteries. Dysprosium, as well as making an electric toothbrush whirr, helps power wind turbines. Military technology depends on numerous rare metals. Tungsten, for instance, is crucial for armour-piercing bullets. America’s forthcoming F-35 fighter planes are “flying periodic tables”, Mr Abraham writes.
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As with oil, those who can secure the resources have access to immense power. The problem, the book laments, is that China, Japan and South Korea are more keenly aware of the strategic importance of rare metals than Western countries, including the United States.
Yet it is not just the rare metals that the book explores. As Mr Abraham follows their extraction, he finds geologists, refiners, traders, smugglers and boffins whose stories add to the intrigue of this shadowy trade. Deals are done in backrooms by likeable mavericks. One, a New Yorker called Noah Lehrman, is described as “likely the only person in history to perform at the Jewish Grateful DeadFest and advise the US Congress on resource security”.
“The Elements of Power” turns out to be a critic as well as an advocate of the rare-metals trade. One concern is what the author calls the “long tailpipe” of pollution left in the wake of mining and refining, notwithstanding the role of minor metals in creating greener products.
Supplies are also a worry. In 2010 a Chinese trawler rammed Japanese coastguard vessels in waters near islands called the Senkakus in Japanese and the Diaoyu in Chinese (their ownership is disputed by both countries). After the Chinese captain was detained, supplies of rare metals from the mainland to Japan suspiciously dried up. Though China never acknowledged an export ban, the incident caused rare-metal prices to spike, and unsettled manufacturers around the world. Though Japan quickly released the captain, repercussions of the affair pop up through the book.
Mr Abraham would have done well to use more such central narratives—the story, perhaps, of dysprosium, which has one of the most fascinating and fragile supply chains. Yet he persuasively explains the danger of underestimating a business that, by one estimate, generates $4 billion of revenues a year and also plays a critical role in systems worth about $4 trillion. China, which develops more rare metals than any other country, understands the calculus. The West, his book suggests, does not.
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The Elements of Power by David S Abraham: the rare metal age
Rare earths are ubiquitous in our gadgets and have transformed our lives, but sourcing them is costing the environment
Smartphones, tablets, desktop computers – ubiquitous gadgets for the digital age, they astonish us with their near omniscience and delight us with their myriad apps. But, according to David S Abraham, there’s another reason we should be impressed with our devices – they are a veritable compendium of chemicals. “The iPhone itself has half the elements known to man in it,” he explains down the line. “They each have the little functions that they do and without one of them the product won’t work in the way that we expect it to.”
Abraham should know. A natural resource strategist, he has trekked around the world, from a vast niobium mine in Brazil to an antiquated processing plant in Estonia, investigating how a bunch of exotic-sounding elements have transformed our lives. The upshot is The Elements of Power, a book that explores an epoch Abraham believes to be as profound as those born of stone, iron and bronze: the “rare metal age”.
The name is somewhat misleading. For these elements – a mob that includes indium, lithium and “rare earths” like dysprosium – are not necessarily thin on the ground, although some, such as tellurium, are. “Rare”, Abraham says, comes from the quantities in which they are used: just a dash can transform a material. “Terbium produces more vibrant light in television; dysprosium and neodymium make incredibly strong magnets possible; antinomy helps resists fire,” he writes.
Yet, as The Elements of Power reveals, it is a combination of shaky supply chains and shady practices that fuels our hi-tech world. Diplomacy and deals are paramount as deposits and production capabilities vary from country to country – around 85% of the world’s supply of rare earths is provided by China.
The Guardian’s science weekly podcast discusses rare earth metals.
It’s a situation that makes Abraham uneasy. After all, to be in the vanguard of technological development, countries need access to rare metals. “ “I’m worried about countries and companies using near monopolistic control to keep prices high or restrict supply of these resources. They already have: China cutting exports is a greater example, but more importantly it showed the supply for rare earths, in this case, is unstable,” he says. Indeed, as the book reveals, such geopolitics are real: China has encouraged foreign companies to set up manufacturing bases there, while in 2010 it halted rare earth exports to Japan in response to a territory dispute.
Rare earth metals: tech manufacturers must think again, and so must users
Read more
Increasing supply isn’t easy: mines are troublesome, expensive and time-consuming to develop, while a paucity of metallurgists in the west, Abraham says, is cause for concern. Meanwhile our consumption of rare metals is increasing, featuring in everything from bridges to weapons, electric cars to wind turbines. But while their mining, production and even recycling can take a heavy toll, particularly in China. “When we import Kindles, we export pollution, including waste water, carbon dioxide emissions and acid mine drainage,” Abraham writes.
Ultimately, The Elements of Power invites readers to reflect on the ramifications of our gadget-filled lives. “Our collective decisions have an impact on places that we haven’t really even thought about. But more importantly, it takes a lot of resources to make the lives we choose,” says Abraham.
The Elements of Power: Gadgets, Guns, and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age by David S Abraham is published by Yale University Press, £20
‘The Elements of Power: Gadgets, Guns, and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age’, by David Abraham
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December 4, 2015
by: Review by Henry Sanderson
In 2011, when the market capitalisation of Apple overtook that of oil giant ExxonMobil, no one thought much about the implications for the world’s resources. Instead, the milestone seemed to symbolise the end of the Big Oil era and the start of a high-tech future.
But as more and more of the world buys iPhones and other mobile devices, we are actually devouring ever greater quantities of a group of metals and so-called rare earth elements that are ingeniously packaged into magnets and batteries to allow us to swipe our screens and power them.
Most of us are not aware of the materials that lie in the palm of our hand. Nevertheless, our future now looks increasingly resource-heavy: smartphones contain more metals than ever before, as do the solar panels and wind turbines that will supply a growing portion of our energy.
In The Elements of Power, David Abraham attempts to peel back the screen on our devices and discover what’s behind. He believes we have entered a new era, the “rare metal age”. Unfamiliar elements such as indium are set to be no less transformative to the 21st century than coal or oil was to the 20th.
They could also lead to the same conflicts and struggles for resource security that characterised our Age of Oil. Abraham saw for himself what this could look like: he worked at Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in 2010 when China cut off its supply of rare earths to the country following a territorial skirmish in the East China Sea. That experience helped shape his view that supply lines for these materials are precarious. “Our high-tech, green society is built on a wobbly foundation,” he writes.
Like the oil world with its networks of middlemen operating from corrupt countries with broken legal systems, the world of rare metals has its own shady, obscure networks. Abraham sets out determined to track down who the main players are and how they operate, from Japanese salarymen in back-alley restaurants in Tokyo to wading in the muck with miners off the coast of Sumatra.
It is in China, which dominates the production of rare metals and rare earths, that some of the book’s most vivid scenes take place. He visits a concrete hut on a hillside in Jiangxi province that is processing rare metals in the humid summer heat using acids and 10 small bubbling furnaces. The workers wear thin facemasks or have cigarettes hanging from their mouths.
Abraham believes the speed of technological change will soon outpace the ability of supply lines to produce rare metals at the prices demanded. We are tailoring new materials at rates never seen before in human history.
The author doesn’t fully expand on the implications of our reliance on China for rare metals. I would have liked more on the Japan-China spat in 2010. The aftermath also showed how markets adapt, as high prices led to a search for substitute materials. Prices for most rare metals have since slumped, leading US producer Molycorp to file for bankruptcy this year.
But he is surely right when he calls for a global forum to address supply concerns, similar to the International Energy Agency. Abraham suggests an International Materials Agency.
Before that happens, though, traders from Indonesia to China are likely to continue to thrive in obscurity. As every trader knows: information is money. What will be interesting to see is whether, as in an earlier era of oil, when legendary trader Marc Rich helped make it an openly traded commodity, someone similar will bring indium, niobium or tungsten out into the mainstream as demand takes off.
The Elements of Power: Gadgets, Guns, and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age, by David Abraham, Yale University Press, RRP$30, 336 pages
Henry Sanderson is the FT’s commodities correspondent