The Rare Metals War: the dark side of clean energy and digital technologies

About this book

The resources race is on. Powering our digital lives and green technologies are some of the Earths most precious metals but they are running out. And what will happen when they do? The green-tech revolution will reduce our dependency on nuclear power coal and oil heralding a new era free of pollution fossil-fuel shortages and crossborder tensions. But there is a hidden dark side to this seemingly utopian vision. In this international bestseller award-winning journalist and documentary-maker Guillaume Pitron reveals that by breaking free of fossil fuels we are in fact setting ourselves up for a new dependence on rare metals such as cobalt gold and palladium. These are essential to electric vehicles wind turbines and solar panels as well as our smartphones computers tablets and other technologies. But we know very little about how rare metals are mined and traded or their environmental economic and geopolitical costs; meanwhile China has captured the lions share of the market and is using it to consolidate its position as a leading global power. Drawing on six years of research across a dozen countries The Rare Metals War is a vital expos of the ticking time-bomb that lies beneath our new technological order.