Category: Featured Article English

A rare earths processing plant run by Mitsubishi Chemicals in Bukit Merah, Malaysia was blamed for birth defects and leukaemia cases in the local community. The plant, which was shut down in 1994, had no long-term waste facility which resulted in radioactive waste leakage. Mitsubishi Chemicals spent US$100 million on the clean-up and donated to the local community in an out-of-court settlement....

There is a race in the West to secure their supply for a list of critical metals, such as rare earths. These are resources that are essential for high tech applications, including in defence, as well as a carbon-free future. Yet China dominates the market for quite a few of these resources. How did China come to dominate, and just why is the fight heating up? Kartik Kuna explores every step of...

Backyards today are being lost to higher-density housing. Backyards are the most local of green spaces – an environment where city dwellers can retreat from the pressures of daily life. But in modern city planning focussed on making cities more compact, a large backyard is often seen as undesirable because of the space it consumes. “Such beautiful sources of shade in the backyards of cities...