Power Metal

Description

Power Metal
by Vince Beiser

ISBN: 9780593541708
Hardcover, new

Brief Description:
The powerful ways the metals we need to fuel technology and energy are
spawning environmental havoc, political upheaval, and rising violence — and
how we can do better. An Australian millionaire’s plan to mine the ocean
floor. Nigerian garbage pickers risking their lives to salvage e-waste. A
Bill Gates-backed entrepreneur harnessing AI to find metals in the Arctic.
These people and millions more are part of the intensifying competition to
find and extract the minerals essential for two crucial technologies: the
internet and renewable energy. In Power Metal, Vince Beiser explores the
Achilles’ heel of “green power” and digital technology – that manufacturing
computers, cell phones, electric cars, and other technologies demand
skyrocketing amounts of lithium, copper, cobalt, and other materials.
Around the world, businesses and governments are scrambling for new places
and new ways to get those metals, at enormous cost to people and the
planet. Beiser crisscrossed the world to talk to the people involved and
report on the damage this race is inflicting, the ways it could get worse,
and how we can minimize the damage. Power Metal is a compelling glimpse
into this disturbing yet potentially promising new world.