Comments on: Book review – The Elements of Power: Gadgets, Guns, and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age/2021/04/29/book-review-the-elements-of-power-gadgets-guns-and-the-struggle-for-a-sustainable-future-in-the-rare-metal-age/Reviewing fascinating science books since 2017Sat, 08 Feb 2025 20:15:51 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.com/By: Book review – Volt Rush: The Winners and Losers in the Race to Go Green | The Inquisitive Biologist/2021/04/29/book-review-the-elements-of-power-gadgets-guns-and-the-struggle-for-a-sustainable-future-in-the-rare-metal-age/comment-page-1/#comment-71830Sat, 31 Dec 2022 12:05:34 +0000/?p=13307#comment-71830[…] the very greenwashing he calls out in his introduction. My reviews of both Abraham’s The Elements of Power and Pitron’s The Rare Metals War made it clear that, to quote the latter, “clean energy […]

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]]>By: Book review – The World for Sale: Money, Power and the Traders Who Barter the Earth’s Resources | The Inquisitive Biologist/2021/04/29/book-review-the-elements-of-power-gadgets-guns-and-the-struggle-for-a-sustainable-future-in-the-rare-metal-age/comment-page-1/#comment-31300Wed, 20 Oct 2021 07:14:02 +0000/?p=13307#comment-31300[…] of transitioning away from fossil fuels to renewable energy, the authors correctly mention that a brave new frontier awaits: the trade in rare metals. My other concern, that of extraction and ultimately depletion of […]

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]]>By: Book review – Techno-Fix: Why Technology Won’t Save Us or the Environment | The Inquisitive Biologist/2021/04/29/book-review-the-elements-of-power-gadgets-guns-and-the-struggle-for-a-sustainable-future-in-the-rare-metal-age/comment-page-1/#comment-23464Sun, 01 Aug 2021 10:50:23 +0000/?p=13307#comment-23464[…] of problems, one of which they remarkably do not even mention: the need for a vast infrastructure constructed from non-renewable materials. Speaking of which, second, we need to use renewable resources […]

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]]>By: Book review – Earth Wars: The Battle for Global Resources | The Inquisitive Biologist/2021/04/29/book-review-the-elements-of-power-gadgets-guns-and-the-struggle-for-a-sustainable-future-in-the-rare-metal-age/comment-page-1/#comment-19157Thu, 29 Apr 2021 17:40:49 +0000/?p=13307#comment-19157[…] the biggest mining bonanza of them all” (p. 2). I discuss these more in-depth in reviews of The Elements of Power and The Rare Metals […]

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]]>By: Book review – Planetary Accounting: Quantifying How to Live Within Planetary Limits at Different Scales of Human Activity | The Inquisitive Biologist/2021/04/29/book-review-the-elements-of-power-gadgets-guns-and-the-struggle-for-a-sustainable-future-in-the-rare-metal-age/comment-page-1/#comment-19156Thu, 29 Apr 2021 17:36:49 +0000/?p=13307#comment-19156[…] resources: all the ores and other minerals we extract from the planet’s crust, many of which, such as rare metals, are vital to the technological solutions we envision will help us address environmental problems. […]

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]]>By: Book review – The Deep: The Hidden Wonders of Our Oceans and How We Can Protect Them | The Inquisitive Biologist/2021/04/29/book-review-the-elements-of-power-gadgets-guns-and-the-struggle-for-a-sustainable-future-in-the-rare-metal-age/comment-page-1/#comment-19155Thu, 29 Apr 2021 17:34:49 +0000/?p=13307#comment-19155[…] threat of deep-sea mining, as the world continues to hunger for rare earth elements (see also The Elements of Power, and the double-act Deep-Sea Mining: Resource Potential, Technical and Environmental […]

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]]>By: Book review – Cold Rush: The Astonishing True Story of the New Quest for the Polar North | The Inquisitive Biologist/2021/04/29/book-review-the-elements-of-power-gadgets-guns-and-the-struggle-for-a-sustainable-future-in-the-rare-metal-age/comment-page-1/#comment-19154Thu, 29 Apr 2021 17:32:11 +0000/?p=13307#comment-19154[…] Greenland glaciers are expected to expose new mineral beds and China is particularly interested in rare earth elements, so vital in modern electronics that they produce and export in abundance. Countries are lining up […]

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]]>By: Book review – Origins: How the Earth Made Us | The Inquisitive Biologist/2021/04/29/book-review-the-elements-of-power-gadgets-guns-and-the-struggle-for-a-sustainable-future-in-the-rare-metal-age/comment-page-1/#comment-19153Thu, 29 Apr 2021 17:30:19 +0000/?p=13307#comment-19153[…] In the same vein, he spends two chapters exploring the deep origin of the materials we use to build and construct with (whether architecture or objects and tools), how they are formed, how they have ended up distributed over the world the way they have, and how that has played into the fortunes of civilizations and nations. He talks of rocks and metals and does an excellent job explaining our current dependence on rare earth elements and platinum group metals. […]

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]]>By: Book review – Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline | The Inquisitive Biologist/2021/04/29/book-review-the-elements-of-power-gadgets-guns-and-the-struggle-for-a-sustainable-future-in-the-rare-metal-age/comment-page-1/#comment-19151Thu, 29 Apr 2021 17:28:36 +0000/?p=13307#comment-19151[…] mineral resources (see Extracted: How the Quest for Mineral Wealth is Plundering the Planet) to rare earths to flippin’ sand (see my review of The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It […]

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]]>By: Book review – Catching Stardust: Comets, Asteroids and the Birth of the Solar System | The Inquisitive Biologist/2021/04/29/book-review-the-elements-of-power-gadgets-guns-and-the-struggle-for-a-sustainable-future-in-the-rare-metal-age/comment-page-1/#comment-19150Thu, 29 Apr 2021 17:25:01 +0000/?p=13307#comment-19150[…] very seriously, giving a clear overview of how it could be done and what the hurdles are. With rare earth elements being uneconomical to extract and humanity’s high-tech society being very dependent on them, […]

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