Description

Book Synopsis
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.

Power Metal

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    A Hardback by Vince Beiser

    £22.05

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    Order before 4pm tomorrow for delivery by Tue 15 Sep 2026.

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      Book details

      Publisher Penguin Random House Group
      Imprint Penguin Publishing Group
      Published 11/19/2024 12:00:00 AM
      ISBN-13 9780593541708
      978-0593541708
      ISBN-10 0593541707
      Also in:
      Environmental economics

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      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.

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