| Description |
1 online resource |
| Contents |
Intro -- Author Biography -- Title Page -- Epigraph -- Contents -- Map: Key Locations -- Introduction: The City With a Heart of Gold -- Part I. Founding Sacrifice Zones -- Chapter 1. The Richest Island on Earth: An American Foray Into New Guinea -- Chapter 2. Nice People Behaving Badly: Guatemala and the Canadian Mining Juggernaut -- Chapter 3. The Plunder of Inner Mongolia: What It Takes to Be a Rare Earth Superpower -- Part II. Business As Usual -- Chapter 4. Chasing White Gold: How Bolivia Tried (and Failed) to Mine on Its Own Terms |
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Chapter 5. High and Dry in the Andes: Mining in a Water-Scarce World -- Chapter 6. A New Scramble for Africa: Adventures in Last-Frontier Cowboy Capitalism -- Part III. Where Do We Go From Here? -- Chapter 7. Tailings and Trade-Offs: What "Resource Independence" Really Looks Like -- Chapter 8. Ever Deeper, Ever Darker: The New Frontiers of Conflict -- Chapter 9. Feeding the Monster: Consumption and the Bumpy Road to Accountability -- Afterword: "That's Batshit Crazy"-a Case for Leaving Gold in the Ground -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index -- Imprint Page |
| Summary |
A compelling investigation into the global race to exploit our world' s dwindling natural resources. In order to transition to clean energy in the coming decades, billions of tons of copper, nickel, silver, and other metals will be required to build electric vehicles and green infrastructure, and power smart technology. We need more metals than ever before, yet the qualities and quantities are diminishing, making the extraction process more polluting to land, air, and water. And most of these metals will be mined from the global south, where social conflict will only grow, led by Indigenous peoples demanding a greater say in how their wealth is used. In Pitfall, investigative journalist Christopher Pollon charts how transnational companies have controlled copper, precious metals, and lithium mining in Latin America, made inroads into war-torn countries in Africa, and extracted nickel, industrial and rare earth metals across Australia, Asia and the Pacific. Industry attention is now moving to deeper and darker places, including the depths of the ocean, sacrifice zones, and near-Earth asteroids. The stakes couldn' t be higher: How can we mine the metals we need without replicating the environmental and human rights abuses of the past? (Review from Amazon.com site, viewed on 25/1/2024) |
| Bibliography |
Includes index and bibliographic references |
| Subject |
Mines and mineral resources -- Environmental aspects
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Conservation of natural resources -- International cooperation
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Natural resources -- Management
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| Genre/Form |
Electronic books
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
9780702269660 |
|
0702269662 |
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