This is a book about the race to mine the world's most vulnerable places. It is an important account, something that the world needs to replace fossil fuel mining with the production of minerals necessary for energy that won't destroy the climate.
This book exploits the last rich deposits of metals left on earth. These are essential not only for modern comforts but for the clean energy transition: billions of tons of copper, nickel, and other metals will be required for electric vehicles and green infrastructure.
Much of this metal will come from the global south, where local people are demanding greater control over their wealth and land. The stakes couldn't be higher. How do we get the metals our civilization needs without replicating the environmental and human rights abuses of the past?
This book is the compelling story of the quest to exploit metals, and at what cost it comes. Beginning in the 1960's, Christopher Pollon reveals how transactional companies rose to dominate mining in Latin America, Africa, and Oceania, often with dire consequences for those living closest to the resources, and why business-as-usual mining continues to inflict harms as demand ramps up.
If we cannot change course, Pollon argues, we are condemned to mine riskier places at unknown costs – gong deeper underground, into conflict zones, to the ocean floor, and even into space. Instead, we need to radically shift our perspective following the lead of Indigenous Peoples and Mining iconoclasts in rethinking how we understand resources and consumption.
This is a very important book for our times. Canadians must read the book and become informed of what's at stake to carry on as we have been for the past five or six decades.
Time is of the essence. This book may just save us from utter destruction.
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