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Power metal : the race for the resources that will shape the future / by Beiser, Vince,1965-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."How the metals we need to power technology and energy are spawning environmental havoc, political upheaval, and murder -- and how we can do better. An Australian multimillionaire's plan to mine the ocean floor. Garbage pickers in Nigeria risking their lives to salvage e-waste amid nightmarish pollution. A Bill Gates-backed entrepreneur harnessing artificial intelligence to find metals in the Arctic. Train-robbing copper thieves in Chile. These are some of the people in the intensifying global competition to locate and extract the minerals essential for two critical technologies that will shape humanity's future: the internet and renewable energy. It's a race that will create new industries, generate enormous wealth, and destabilize the global balance of power. It could propel us to a more sustainable future -- or plunge us into an environmental nightmare. In Power Metal, journalist and author Vince Beiser explores the Achilles' heel of green power and digital technology: that the manufacturing of our computers, cell phones, electric cars, solar panels, and wind turbines requires enormous amounts of increasingly rare materials -- lithium, cobalt, copper, and others -- the demand for which is skyrocketing. Around the world, businesses and governments are scrambling for new places and new ways to get those metals, at enormous cost to people and the planet. Beiser crisscrossed the world to witness this race, reporting on the damage it is already inflicting, the ways it could get worse, and the ways in which we can minimize that damage. The result is a book that is both a gripping read and a sobering account of the battle between what civilization demands and what the planet can withstand. Power Metal is a compelling and important glimpse into this new, disturbing, and exciting world"--
Subjects: Mineral industries; Mines and mineral resources; Rare earth metals; Strategic materials; Sustainable development;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Superman's not coming : our national water crisis and what we the people can do about it / by Brockovich, Erin,author.; Boothby, Suzanne,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Water. The single most necessary element to sustain life. Brockovich warns that America's water crisis isn't looming on the horizon--it's already here. Superman Isn't Coming makes clear that the most precious resource on planet Earth is alarmingly polluted by toxins, hazardous waste, lead, fracking chemicals, and more. In the 20 years since her eponymous film, Brockovich has kept up the fight for clean water one town at a time. She receives thousands of letters each month from people across the country writing to her with water concerns regarding chemicals,who don't know who else to turn to. Brockovich has become a modern-day superhero responding to pleas for help throughout our country, from citizens whose letters and pleas have been ignored by their local representatives, the EPA, the Department of Natural Resources, the CDC, their local water authority with troubling situations that go unheeded and conditions not magically righting themselves. Brockovich can't fight all the fights and save our water on her own. The simple truth is that Superman isn't coming to save us. Her book is an urgent call for all of us. And in it, Brockovich makes clear why we are in the trouble we're in, and how we each can take small and large actions and change troubling conditions. She writes about the effects of climate change that have caused droughts in some areas and flooding in others, and shows how this is affecting us economically as well as destroying lives and property. She lays out the facts, and gives us the tools to take steps--large and small--to make changes in our own counties, cities and towns, and help to preserve our selves, our water, our planet"--
Subjects: Water; Water-supply;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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