Power Metal - by Vince Beiser (Hardcover)

About the Book

"How the metals we need to power technology and energy are spawning environmental havoc, political upheaval, and murder-and how we can do better. An Australian multimillionaire's plan to mine the ocean floor. Garbage pickers in Nigeria risking their lives to salvage e-waste amid nightmarish pollution. A Bill Gates-backed entrepreneur harnessing artificial intelligence to find metals in the Arctic. Train-robbing copper thieves in Chile. These are some of the people in the intensifying global competition to locate and extract the minerals essential for two critical technologies that will shape humanity's future: the internet and renewable energy. It's a race that will create new industries, generate enormous wealth, and destabilize the global balance of power. It could propel us to a more sustainable future -or plunge us into an environmental nightmare. In Power Metal, journalist and author Vince Beiser explores the Achilles' heel of green power and digital technology: that the manufacturing of our computers, cell phones, electric cars, solar panels, and wind turbines requires enormous amounts of increasingly rare materials-lithium, cobalt, copper, and others-the demand for which is skyrocketing. 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 witness this race, reporting on the damage it is already inflicting, the ways it could get worse, and the ways in which we can minimize that damage. The result is a book that is both a gripping read and a sobering account of the battle between what civilization demands and what the planet can withstand. Power Metal is a compelling and important glimpse into this new, disturbing, and exciting world"--

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.

Review Quotes

Praise for Power Metal

"Each chapter provides a vivid and often in-person reckoning with one part of the supply chain, taking readers from the crayon-bright lithium pools of Chile's Atacama Desert to a Vancouver dumpster. . .to the California offices of iFixIt, a company that helps people repair devices they might otherwise toss." --Undark

"Unflinching. . .Beiser urges us to rethink our understanding of sustainability." --Scientific American

"Journalist [Vince] Beiser enumerates the precious metals comprising the electronics we consume with near-thoughtless abandon...[but] counters the darkness with bright stories of entrepreneurs salvaging the metals, giving old batteries repurposed afterlives, and repairing electronic devices to extend their lives...[This is] a book that alarms even as it leads us to solutions."--Booklist

"Power Metal is a necessary, illuminating, and often shocking read. Fast-paced, fascinating, and alive with colorful characters, it's a whirlwind tour of the epochal energy transition currently underway as we enter what Vince Beiser so aptly calls the 'electro-digital age.'" --John Vaillant, author of Fire Weather

"In Power Metal, Vince Beiser explores the dirty underside of the clean energy transition. The result is at once fascinating and eye-opening - an essential read for anyone concerned about the future." --Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction

"Vince Beiser's Power Metal should be the next book you read. If we miraculously solve climate change and eliminate fossil fuel, Beiser gives us a whole box (as in pandora) of new troubles we are facing. It is a lot to think about." --Mark Kurlansky, author of Salt and Cod

"Beiser takes readers on a globe-trotting journey to the mines and scrapyards that are the unlikely foundation of the age of smartphones and green energy. This eye-opening book challenges us to reckon with the unintended consequences of our choices as consumers and citizens - making it a must-read for anyone who cares about the future of our planet." --Daniel Pink, author of Drive and The Power of Regret

"Electrifying the world is a noble rallying cry in climate activism, but it is at best a lesser evil, as Vince Beiser convincingly illustrates in this bracing tour of how we are destroying the planet in the name of saving it. Taking us along the toxic supply chains of our clean industries, he brings to life today's tug-of-war over minerals, refineries and market share that constitutes the new geopolitics of energy." --Dr. Parag Khanna, author of Connectography and MOVE

About the Author

Vince Beiser is an award-winning journalist and author. His first book, The World in a Grain, was a finalist for the PEN / E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award and a California Book Award. His work has appeared in Wired, Harper's Magazine, The Atlantic, and The New York Times, among other publications. He lives with his family in Vancouver, British Columbia. Follow his newsletter at powermetal.substack.com.