‘Power Metal’ Examines the Cost of Our Battery-Powered Lives

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Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 18 November 2024

⏱️ 57 minutes

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Summary

The push to harness renewable energy sources like wind and solar has sparked a massive demand for critical metals such as cobalt, nickel, and lithium, according to journalist Vince Beiser. To meet this demand, intensive mining operations are underway in regions like China, Chile, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), extracting rare metals needed for solar panels, electric vehicles, smartphones, and the infrastructure that supports them. In his new book, “Power Metal: The Race for Resources That Will Shape the Future,” Beiser explores the “terrifying” scale of metal extraction our electro-digital age requires and the global environmental and public health crises it may trigger. Beiser joins us. Guests: Vince Beiser, journalist; author of “Power Metal: The Race for Resources That Will Shape the Future” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:34.7	It takes 75 pounds of ore to build a single iPhone, and we'll need about 700 million tons of copper to meet our energy demands in the next 20 years.
1:44.0	The same amount mined
1:45.1	in all of human history. The skyrocketing demand for copper and other metals like cobalt,
1:50.2	nickel, lithium, is creating a global environmental crisis, according to journalist Vince
1:55.3	Beiser. He joins us to talk about his new book, Power Metal, The Race for Resources that
2:00.6	will shape the Future.
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2:16.1	Welcome to Forum. I'm Grace Swan, in fromina Kim. Mobile phones and electric cars offer dazzling technology.
2:23.5	They're sleek, modern, futuristic, and now necessary. But every phone and car and a whole host of other modern conveniences require raw materials, lithium, cobalt, nickel, to name a few.
2:36.5	And the race to mine these metals and to control that market is as damaging to our environment
2:41.8	as mining for fossil fuels. According to journalist Vince Beiser, reinforce are being cut to the
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