– 英語/日本語バイリンガル歌詞

歌詞と翻訳

[日本語]

最近、レアアースやレアアース元素について話を聞くことが多いですよね。

でも、自分で考えているかもしれません。いったい何なのか？

どれくらい大事なことなのか？

心配すべきことなのか？

これから数分で、その点を詳しく見ていきましょう。

まず、「何なのか？」という質問から始めます。あなたは実際に遭遇しているんですか？

日常生活で出会うんですか？

短い答えで、スポイラーになりますが、はいです。

これは周期表です。知っている人も多いでしょう。

レアアース元素はどこにあるでしょう？

見てください、このあたりです。

こうやって並んでいるんです。スカンジウム、イットリウム、ネオジムなどが。

数年前まで、あまり話題になっていなかったんです。

でも、これは本当に重要な物質です。

レアアースが重要なのは、単独ではなく、

他の材料と組み合わせるからです。

合金に加えると、強くなったり、耐熱性が上がったり、

マグネットが強力になったりします。

例を挙げましょう。

レアアースがたくさん使われている具体的な場所が3つあります。

1つ目は、戦闘機です。特に防衛側面で。

戦闘機、F-35の場合、418kg。

タイプ51駆逐艦では、2.6トンのレアアース。

バージニア級潜水艦では、4.6トン。

これらは大事ですが、少し抽象的かもしれません。

でも、日常生活で誰もが見ている場所があります。

それはマグネットです。

ネオジムをボロンと鉄に加えると、世界で最高のマグネットになります。

すぐその理由を見せますね。

あなたの生活ではどこにあるでしょう？

例えば、こんなイヤーバッド。

ネオジムが入っています。

小さなスピーカーを作るのに、強力なマグネットが必要なんです。

これを開けると、中の小さなものにもレアアースが必要です。

蓋を閉めると満足感のあるカチッという音も、ネオジム鉄ボロンマグネットです。

レアアースは抽象的に思えるかもしれませんが、実際には私たちの生活にあります。

他にも、ほとんどの電子機器に。

車の中にもです。

例えば、車のシートコントロール。

シートを上げたり動かしたりするのは、電子式なら、レアアースモーターです。

電動ウィンドウも、レアアースマグネット。

エアバッグにもレアアースが入っています。

要するに、レアアースがなければ困ります。

車の中だけでなく、工場も。

ロボットのモーターもレアアースです。強力なマグネットが必要です。

EV内にも。EVモーターを見てください。

銅の巻線がありますが、ほとんどのEVモーターにはマグネットが多くて、

それがレアアースマグネットです。

見えないけど、とても大事です。

このマグネットの重要性の感覚を伝えましょう。

この棒グラフは、マグネトの強さを示しています。

高いほど強力です。

異なるタイプのマグネットを比較。

従来のマグネットと、レアアースマグネット。

どれだけ強力かを見てください。

これは動き、スピーカー、マイクなどに不可欠です。

たくさん必要ですが、スケールは大きくないんです。

少量で十分に機能します。

もう一つの例は、ジェットエンジン。

ブレードは、金属の融点より高い温度で動作します。

それを可能にするのは、ジルコニアの膜で、イットリウム酸化ジルコニアです。

レアアースのイットリウムがないと、現代のジェットエンジンはありません。

これらは文明の基盤です。

レアアースの機能をまとめると。

ジェットエンジン（冶金）、ガラス研磨、陶器、触媒。

触媒コンバーターにも入ります。

でも、最大はマグネット。

生産量で、78%がマグネット。

価値でも、ほとんどの支出がマグネットです。

モーター、スピーカー、AirPodsなどに。

ここで、政治的な面が出てきます。

レアアースの生産地、ほとんどが中国。

69%の鉱石が中国から。

さらに加工すると、91%が中国。

レアアースだけでなく、銅、リチウム、マンガン、グラファイト、コバルトも中国が支配。

中国はこれらのサプライチェーンを支配したいと決めました。

グラファイトはバッテリーのアノードのため。

コバルト、リチウム、マンガン、銅も。

これは中国の優位性の大きな話です。

しかし、幾つかの神話を崩しましょう。

まず、名前にもかかわらず、レアアースはそれほど稀ではない。

地球にはたくさんあります。

岩から出た土に、少し入っています。

良い鉱石では、中国に4400万トン。

ブラジルにも多く、まだあまり採掘していない。

インド、オーストラリア（600万トン）も。

でも、ほとんど中国で採掘。

なぜ？ 中国最大の鉱山を見ましょう。バヤンオボ、内蒙古。

2001年の採掘場。

2006年、西側に拡張。

well. And those magnets are rare earth

現在まで、大きく広がりました。

新しい採掘場。

ここは中国のほとんどのレアアースを出しています。

そして、廃棄物ダムが多いのが目立つ。

レアアース生産は本当に汚いプロセス。

100以上の工程で、鉱石から金属へ。

二酸化炭素排出を比べると。

鉄は二酸化炭素が多いですが、銅、ニッケル、アルミニウムと比べ。

got a range of different kind of

elements and compounds uh and in recipes

ネオジムの二酸化炭素排出は、1kgあたり最も多い。

本当に汚いです。

他の国は炭素目標があるので、中国で生産させています。

スケールが大きく、コストが安い。

例、ジスポジウムとトレビウムの価格。

ヨーロッパの価格と中国を比較。中国の方がずっと安い。

イヤーバッドが安いのは、中国の安いレアアースと二酸化炭素排出のおかげ。

今、人々は少し考え始めています。

中国がレアアース輸出を制限すると言っています。

ライセンスが必要。

トランプ大統領は、不満を言い、再び関税をかける。

これは、米国の関税マップ。

最近、インドのロシア石油精製にも関税。

今、中国に100%関税を。

貿易戦争が再燃するかも。

最後に、質問です。

中国がこの重要な素材を制限。

米国は何ができるでしょう？

地図に戻りましょう。中国はレアアース。

米国にスプルースパイン、北カロライナ。

レアアースではないけど、もっと特別なもの。

超高純度クォーツ、サンド。

シリコンウェーハーに必要。

なければ、シリコンチップや太陽光パネルがない。

米国は、中国と同じように、重要な資源を使うかもしれない。

誰が知るでしょう？

ローラーコースターに乗っているようです。

今後もっと話が聞こえるでしょう。

days. And if you're looking at just what

the functions of these rare earths are.

So so we talked about jet engines a

moment ago. That would come in the the

metallergy section of things. There's,

you know, glass polishing, ceramics,

catalysts as well. So it goes into

catalytic converters. But magnets is by

far and away. This is just looking at

the volume of rare earths coming out out

of the ground. Magnets is by far in the

way the biggest and actually when you

look at the value so the amount that

people are spending on rare earths

across the uh the planet the majority of

that is magnets. So it's magnets that

are going into motors for the most place

uh as well as things like speakers and

airpods and so on. And here's where the

political side of things comes in.

Because when you're looking at where

these rare earths are coming out of the

ground, the vast majority come out of

the ground in China. 69% of the total uh

of of the volume mined out of the

ground, the oxides uh comes from China.

And actually that's 69%. But then when

you consider the processing, so the

post-processing stuff, because most of

most of the the rare earths are then

turned into products in China, actually

91% of global supplies is Chinese. And

that's not just the case, by the way,

for rare earth. Look at things like

copper. Look at lithium, manganese,

graphite, cobalt. China is really

dominant in all of this. They have

decided years ago that they wanted to be

dominant in these supply chains. and not

just the supply chains but also making

the stuff afterwards. So graphite's

there. They also want to be the dominant

player when it comes to making the

anodess that go into batteries. That's

why they're in graphite, cobalt for

batteries as well. Manganesees too,

lithium, copper as well. So that is, you

know, it's part of this bigger story

about Chinese dominance. But here's

where there are a few kind of myths that

are worth busting. The first of them is

that despite the name, rare earths

aren't actually that rare. So there's

quite a lot of these elements in bits of

the ground. You know, actually if you if

you pull a chunk of rock of earth out of

the ground, you will find some rare

earth elements in there, albeit in small

quantities. But even when you look at

decent ores, well, China, yes, has a

lot, 44 million tons, but there's a lot

of it also in Brazil, and they're not

really mining much of it at the moment

in Brazil. Uh there's a lot in India,

there's a lot in Australia as well, 6

million tons in Australia. Now, most of

those countries aren't doing all that

much in the way of mining. Most of it's

happening in China. Why is that? Well,

let's just kind of zoom in and focus on

the biggest of all the mines in China.

So, that's Bayan Obo. It's just in kind

of Inner Mongolia uh there in China. And

have a look at this mine. Okay, we're

going to kind of zoom out uh or zoom in

there and have a look at how much this

mine has expanded in recent years. And

you're going to notice other things as

well. So, this is the primary mining

site. This is back in 2001.

And look at what happened in the

intervening years. Okay. So, you can see

2006, you've got these excavations

happening over there to the west. And

now, keep your eye on this area here.

And we'll zoom on. We'll kind of fast

forward to the present day. Look at

that. So, this has been an enormous

expansion. And you have a whole new

mining area over there. This place is

pumping out basically most of the

world's rare earths in China. And the

other thing you'll probably have noticed

looking at it is look at all of these

tailing dams where the waste is being

disposed of. Producing rare earths is a

really dirty process. It is really

dirty. It's really hard to do basically

because you're having to do about 100

different processes to go from the ore

to that final metal that you're turning

into magnets. And to give you a sense of

that, okay, so this is showing you the

amount of carbon emissions from various

different metal processing. And you

you're probably familiar with the fact

that making steel is really carbon

intensive. You know, think of all those

blast furnaces. Well, that's steel

there. It's actually quite small in

comparison with other things like copper

and nickel and aluminium at least per

weight uh per amount of kilogram that

you're producing. But now compare all of

that to neodymium which is that that

kind of key rare earth in all of those

magnets. And look at that. Boy, I mean

there is more carbon emissions that

coming per kilogram of rare earths than

any other metal in the world. It is

really dirty to produce. And one of the

upshots of that is everyone else out

there with the you know all of their

carbon targets has said well we just

don't want to do this in our countries.

So now it is mostly happening in China

and it's happening at scale as you saw a

moment ago and it's happening at such a

scale that China is able to produce

these things at a far lower cost than

almost anyone else in the world. Well

actually clear by far and away anyone

else in the world. This is just showing

you a couple of examples. Dsposium and

turbium two rare earths rare earth

elements. Look at how much Chinese

prices are. And now let's compare that

with European prices because there are

some producers outside uh of China. But

just look at how much more expensive it

is to get European rare earths versus

the Chinese stuff. And that's the issue.

Stuff like those earbuds are cheap right

now because you can get cheap Chinese

rare earths but is produced with all

these carbon emissions at the same time.

But people aren't thinking about all

this. They are thinking about it a bit

more now though because China has

basically said we are going to impose

restrictions on the rare earths coming

out of China. You're going to have to

sign up to get licenses. And as a

result, Donald Trump has said well no

not not happy with that. I'm going to

raise tariffs on you again. And so this

is where the the latest kind of state of

play this ever moving map of tariffs uh

that the US is imposing on other

countries around the world. You'll

recall not re not that long ago uh it

said there were going to be secondary

tariffs on India for all of the the

refining it's doing of Russian gas uh

Russian oil rather. Now Donald Trump has

said there's going to be an extra 100%

tariff on China. We'll have to see

whether that eventually happens. But

this trade war we've been talking about

a lot recently seems like it might be

back on again. But finally, I just want

to kind of raise that question. So,

China is doing that with rare earths.

It's limiting this critical ingredient

that no one else is producing. And that

raises a question. Is there anything

similar that the US could do? And here's

something interesting. Okay, so we'll go

back to that map. Okay, so there's

China. That's where the rare earths are.

Swing across to the US and there's

somewhere called Spruce Pine. It's

another mining site. It's in North

Carolina. They don't produce rare earths

here, but they produce something perhaps

even more special in there. They are

mining what's known as ultra high purity

quartz. And this is a type of basically

sand, really pure sand that you need to

make the wafers that go into silicon

chips. If you don't have this place, you

don't have silicon chips or solar

panels. So perhaps one thing, who knows

that the US may end up thinking about is

whether it can do the same thing that

China is doing with its mine on the

other side of the world with this

critical ingredient. But who knows? What

we do know is that we're on a roller

coaster and there's going to be more of

this stuff in the coming months.

[英語]

Now, you've probably heard people

talking recently about rare earths, rare

earth elements. But you might be

wondering to yourself, well, what are

they? How much of a big deal are they?

And should we be worried about them?

Well, over the course of the next few

minutes, we're going to go through that.

We'll start with that question of what

are they? And, you know, do we actually

kind of encounter them? Do you encounter

them in your everyday life? The short

answer, spoiler, yes. This is the

periodic table. You might well recognize

it. Where are the rare earth elements?

Well, look, it's this kind of area here.

So, look at that. There there they all

are all lined up kind of obscure. You

know, no one's talking all that much

about scandium or itrium or neodymium or

at least until they were they were not

talking about it much until a few years

ago. But this is all really important

stuff. And the reason that rare earths

matter, it's not so much because of what

they do on their own. It's because of

what they do when combined with other

materials. So you add them to an alloy

and it makes things stronger. It makes

it more heat resistant. It makes magnets

more powerful. Let me just kind of give

you an example of that. I mean, so, so

three tangible places where you're going

to see quite a lot of rare earths. Um,

fighter jets, this is particularly the

kind of defense side of it. Fighter

jets, you're talking about kind of 418

kg in an F-35 fighter jet. Type 51

destroyer, 2.6 tons of rare earths uh in

them. Something like a Virginia class

submarine, 4.6 tons of rare earths in

there. Now, all of that seems kind of,

you know, obviously important but quite

abstract. But there's another place

where we all see it in our everyday

lives and that is magnets. So neodymium

when it's added to boron and iron is

basically the best magnet in the world.

I'll show you a kind of reason for that

in a moment. But um you might be

wondering so where is it in your life?

Well if you have something like this so

some earbuds you've got neodymium.

You're dependent on neodymium because

you need really powerful magnets to

create speakers that are so tiny tiny as

the ones in here. And also by the way

when I take this here are the little

things that wouldn't you wouldn't have

that without rare earth. When you close

that you get that satisfying snap that

is also neodymium iron boron magnets. So

rare earth may may seem abstract but

actually it's in all of our lives. Uh

and it's elsewhere as well basically

pretty much any electronic device uh

these days and you know in your car. So

in your car for instance think about

sitting in your car the seat controls.

So being able to lift that seat to move

that seat forward and backwards if it's

electronic. Well, that is a it's it's a

motor. It's a little rare earth motor

being able to raise electric windows and

close them. Again, that's rare earth

magnets going in there, making that

function. And airbags, there are even

rare earths in airbags as well. In other

words, if you can't get rare earths,

then you're in trouble. And it's not

just inside cars as well. I mean, think

about like a car factory. The motors

that go into robots, that's rare earths

as well. You need those really powerful

magnets to make them work. And it's not

just that as well as within EVs. Okay,

so this is an EV motor. You can see the

copper there. Those are the kind of

copper uh windings. But inside most EV

motors, you have a lot of magnets as

well. And those magnets are rare earth

magnets. So it's all invisible, but it's

really important. And when I talk about

those magnets, just give you a sense of

why this is kind of important. What this

is showing you. So, the higher these

bars are, the more powerful, the more

magnetic power you're getting from

different types of magnets. And you've

got a range of different kind of

elements and compounds uh and in recipes

for magnets there. These are

conventional magnets. Now, look at rare

earth magnets. Just look at how much

more powerful they are than the other

type. And that's the point. Magnets are

incredibly important for any kind of

motion, for any speakers, for

microphones, for anything else. Uh and

we need quite a lot of them. But

actually the scale of what we're talking

about is not enormous. You only need

quite a small amount of rare earths to

make something function really well. And

another good example of that is consider

a jet engine. So the blades in a jet

engine, they need to function at a

temperature that is higher than the

metal's melting point. If you can get

that into your head. Um, and in order to

do that, they need what's known as anria

stabilized zuconia uh film on the

outside. And that enables them not to

melt. So no rare earths and itrium is a

rare earth. No rare earths and you just

don't have jet engines, at least modern

jet engines. So this is incredibly

essential. It's it's part of the bedrock

of how we make civilization work these

days. And if you're looking at just what

the functions of these rare earths are.

So so we talked about jet engines a

moment ago. That would come in the the

metallergy section of things. There's,

you know, glass polishing, ceramics,

catalysts as well. So it goes into

catalytic converters. But magnets is by

far and away. This is just looking at

the volume of rare earths coming out out

of the ground. Magnets is by far in the

way the biggest and actually when you

look at the value so the amount that

people are spending on rare earths

across the uh the planet the majority of

that is magnets. So it's magnets that

are going into motors for the most place

uh as well as things like speakers and

airpods and so on. And here's where the

political side of things comes in.

Because when you're looking at where

these rare earths are coming out of the

ground, the vast majority come out of

the ground in China. 69% of the total uh

of of the volume mined out of the

ground, the oxides uh comes from China.

And actually that's 69%. But then when

you consider the processing, so the

post-processing stuff, because most of

most of the the rare earths are then

turned into products in China, actually

91% of global supplies is Chinese. And

that's not just the case, by the way,

for rare earth. Look at things like

copper. Look at lithium, manganese,

graphite, cobalt. China is really

dominant in all of this. They have

decided years ago that they wanted to be

dominant in these supply chains. and not

just the supply chains but also making

the stuff afterwards. So graphite's

there. They also want to be the dominant

player when it comes to making the

anodess that go into batteries. That's

why they're in graphite, cobalt for

batteries as well. Manganesees too,

lithium, copper as well. So that is, you

know, it's part of this bigger story

about Chinese dominance. But here's

where there are a few kind of myths that

are worth busting. The first of them is

that despite the name, rare earths

aren't actually that rare. So there's

quite a lot of these elements in bits of

the ground. You know, actually if you if

you pull a chunk of rock of earth out of

the ground, you will find some rare

earth elements in there, albeit in small

quantities. But even when you look at

decent ores, well, China, yes, has a

lot, 44 million tons, but there's a lot

of it also in Brazil, and they're not

really mining much of it at the moment

in Brazil. Uh there's a lot in India,

there's a lot in Australia as well, 6

million tons in Australia. Now, most of

those countries aren't doing all that

much in the way of mining. Most of it's

happening in China. Why is that? Well,

let's just kind of zoom in and focus on

the biggest of all the mines in China.

So, that's Bayan Obo. It's just in kind

of Inner Mongolia uh there in China. And

have a look at this mine. Okay, we're

going to kind of zoom out uh or zoom in

there and have a look at how much this

mine has expanded in recent years. And

you're going to notice other things as

well. So, this is the primary mining

site. This is back in 2001.

And look at what happened in the

intervening years. Okay. So, you can see

2006, you've got these excavations

happening over there to the west. And

now, keep your eye on this area here.

And we'll zoom on. We'll kind of fast

forward to the present day. Look at

that. So, this has been an enormous

expansion. And you have a whole new

mining area over there. This place is

pumping out basically most of the

world's rare earths in China. And the

other thing you'll probably have noticed

looking at it is look at all of these

tailing dams where the waste is being

disposed of. Producing rare earths is a

really dirty process. It is really

dirty. It's really hard to do basically

because you're having to do about 100

different processes to go from the ore

to that final metal that you're turning

into magnets. And to give you a sense of

that, okay, so this is showing you the

amount of carbon emissions from various

different metal processing. And you

you're probably familiar with the fact

that making steel is really carbon

intensive. You know, think of all those

blast furnaces. Well, that's steel

there. It's actually quite small in

comparison with other things like copper

and nickel and aluminium at least per

weight uh per amount of kilogram that

you're producing. But now compare all of

that to neodymium which is that that

kind of key rare earth in all of those

magnets. And look at that. Boy, I mean

there is more carbon emissions that

coming per kilogram of rare earths than

any other metal in the world. It is

really dirty to produce. And one of the

upshots of that is everyone else out

there with the you know all of their

carbon targets has said well we just

don't want to do this in our countries.

So now it is mostly happening in China

and it's happening at scale as you saw a

moment ago and it's happening at such a

scale that China is able to produce

these things at a far lower cost than

almost anyone else in the world. Well

actually clear by far and away anyone

else in the world. This is just showing

you a couple of examples. Dsposium and

turbium two rare earths rare earth

elements. Look at how much Chinese

prices are. And now let's compare that

with European prices because there are

some producers outside uh of China. But

just look at how much more expensive it

is to get European rare earths versus

the Chinese stuff. And that's the issue.

Stuff like those earbuds are cheap right

now because you can get cheap Chinese

rare earths but is produced with all

these carbon emissions at the same time.

But people aren't thinking about all

this. They are thinking about it a bit

more now though because China has

basically said we are going to impose

restrictions on the rare earths coming

out of China. You're going to have to

sign up to get licenses. And as a

result, Donald Trump has said well no

not not happy with that. I'm going to

raise tariffs on you again. And so this

is where the the latest kind of state of

play this ever moving map of tariffs uh

that the US is imposing on other

countries around the world. You'll

recall not re not that long ago uh it

said there were going to be secondary

tariffs on India for all of the the

refining it's doing of Russian gas uh

Russian oil rather. Now Donald Trump has

said there's going to be an extra 100%

tariff on China. We'll have to see

whether that eventually happens. But

this trade war we've been talking about

a lot recently seems like it might be

back on again. But finally, I just want

to kind of raise that question. So,

China is doing that with rare earths.

It's limiting this critical ingredient

that no one else is producing. And that

raises a question. Is there anything

similar that the US could do? And here's

something interesting. Okay, so we'll go

back to that map. Okay, so there's

China. That's where the rare earths are.

Swing across to the US and there's

somewhere called Spruce Pine. It's

another mining site. It's in North

Carolina. They don't produce rare earths

here, but they produce something perhaps

even more special in there. They are

mining what's known as ultra high purity

quartz. And this is a type of basically

sand, really pure sand that you need to

make the wafers that go into silicon

chips. If you don't have this place, you

don't have silicon chips or solar

panels. So perhaps one thing, who knows

that the US may end up thinking about is

whether it can do the same thing that

China is doing with its mine on the

other side of the world with this

critical ingredient. But who knows? What

we do know is that we're on a roller

coaster and there's going to be more of

this stuff in the coming months.

主要な語彙

語彙	意味
earths /ɜːrθs/ A2	noun - 惑星や土壌を指すearthの複数形
elements /ˈelɪmənts/ B1	noun - より単純な物質に分解できない物質
magnets /ˈmæɡnɪts/ B1	noun - 鉄や磁性素材を吸引する物体
rare /reər/ A2	adjective - 一般的または頻繁でない
powerful /ˈpaʊərfəl/ B1	adjective - 大きな力やエネルギーを持つ
jets /dʒets/ B1	noun - ジェットエンジンで駆動される航空機
speakers /ˈspiːkərz/ B1	noun - 音を発生させる装置
motors /ˈmoʊtərz/ B1	noun - エネルギーを機械運動に変換する機械
engines /ˈɛndʒɪnz/ B1	noun - 動力を生成する機械
china /ˈtʃaɪnə/ A2	noun - 東アジアの国
mining /ˈmaɪnɪŋ/ B1	noun - 地球から鉱物を抽出するプロセス verb - 地球から鉱物を抽出する
carbon /ˈkɑːrbən/ B2	noun - 化学元素 (C) または関連する排出物
emissions /ɪˈmɪʃənz/ B2	noun - 大気中に放出される物質
scale /skeɪl/ B1	noun - 何かのものでのサイズまたは範囲
quartz /kwɔːrts/ C1	noun - 硬い鉱物の結晶
silicon /ˈsɪlɪkən/ C1	noun - 電子機器に使用される化学元素