The War Below: AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4 ‘TODAY’
20 February 2025Imprint: Ithaka
Synopsis
A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR
AN AMAZON BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR SO FAR FOR 2024
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NONFICTION, AND FT BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD
The trillion-dollar battle for the resources to power our future. Oil and gas defined the twentieth century. Now lithium, copper, cobalt, rare earths and nickel will define the twenty-first.
The world is moving towards replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy. But building electric vehicles, solar panels, and millions of other devices requires digging more mines. Critical minerals are vital to many sustainable technologies, and the competition for them is intensifying.
Nations aspiring to energy independence are ever more intertwined: a hedge fund manager's attempt to revive rare earths mining in California needs Chinese expertise, and global reliance on Africa's mining sector persists despite child labour concerns. Meanwhile, ecological dilemmas abound: a proposed lithium mine in Nevada may help car manufacturers slash their dependence on fossil fuels, but developing the mine may cause the extinction of a flower found nowhere else on the planet.
As investors attempt to predict how resource extraction's geopolitics will unfold, this is a story of industry giants, researchers, and policymakers at the forefront of the new energy wars.
AN AMAZON BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR SO FAR FOR 2024
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NONFICTION, AND FT BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD
The trillion-dollar battle for the resources to power our future. Oil and gas defined the twentieth century. Now lithium, copper, cobalt, rare earths and nickel will define the twenty-first.
The world is moving towards replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy. But building electric vehicles, solar panels, and millions of other devices requires digging more mines. Critical minerals are vital to many sustainable technologies, and the competition for them is intensifying.
Nations aspiring to energy independence are ever more intertwined: a hedge fund manager's attempt to revive rare earths mining in California needs Chinese expertise, and global reliance on Africa's mining sector persists despite child labour concerns. Meanwhile, ecological dilemmas abound: a proposed lithium mine in Nevada may help car manufacturers slash their dependence on fossil fuels, but developing the mine may cause the extinction of a flower found nowhere else on the planet.
As investors attempt to predict how resource extraction's geopolitics will unfold, this is a story of industry giants, researchers, and policymakers at the forefront of the new energy wars.
Details
20 February 2025384 pages
9781804186374Imprint: Ithaka
Reviews
'Essential reading'Chris Miller, author of Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology
'Finally, the real story of the difficulties of mining and processing enough minerals in the US to supply a green, carbon free energy transition. In this telling we confront the reality that there are no easy answers or quick fixes. We are also made uncomfortable with the ethics of wanting to preserve our beautiful places, while we rely on foreign supply chains where minerals are mined and processed with no real attention to environmental, labor, and human rights abuses'Heidi Heitkamp
'The War Below gives the reader a front row seat to one of the critical debates of our time: how to power the clean energy transition without adding to ecological and human harm through irresponsible mining. Scheyder's detailed storytelling and research help convey what's at stake in this new "race to the bottom"'Payal Sampat, Earthworks
'The War Below is an entertaining and insightful look at the enormous complexity-technological, environmental, financial and political-of mining the metals needed to make the green energy revolution possible. It illuminates a dimension of the challenge confronting the energy transition that is little understood and dangerously real-a wakeup call for us all'Michael Kowalski, former CEO and Chairman, Tiffany & Co