Pitfall The Race To Mine The Worlds Most Vulnerable Places 1st Edition Christopher Pollon by Christopher Pollon 9781771649124, 1771649127 instant download after payment.

A race is on to exploit the last bonanzas of gold, silver, & industrial metals left on Earth. These metals are not only essential for all material comfort & need, but for the transition to clean energy: in the coming decades, billions of tons of copper, nickel, silver, & other metals will be required to build electric vehicles, solar & wind installations, and green infrastructure. We need more metals than ever before, yet the qualities & quantities are diminishing, making the extraction process more polluting to land, air & 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. The stakes couldn't be higher: How can we mine the metals we need without replicating the environmental & human rights abuses of the past? 

Pitfall is the compelling story of the quest to exploit the metals our civilization needs--& at what cost to local people & their environments. Beginning with the first waves of big, foreign-owned mines in the 1960s, investigative journalist Christopher Pollon shows how transnational companies rose to dominate copper, precious metals, & lithium in Latin America, made inroads into war-torn countries in Africa, & exploited nickel, industrial metals, & rare earth metals across Asia & Oceania.

If we cannot change our course, Pollon argues, we are condemned to mine deeper & darker places, including the depths of the ocean, sacrifice zones, & near-earth asteroids. This disturbing vision of the future also includes robotic mines without workers & social license--unless we act now. 

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Earth minerals are abundant but what makes them rare is the effort needed to get them out in large qu