Ernest Scheyder on lithium, mining, and the politics behind going green.

Material Matters with Grant Gibson

Ernest Scheyder is an author and senior correspondent for Reuters. His new book, The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives, looks at the impact of the green transition in the US – and, more particularly, the tensions over the increasing need to mine for metals to decarbonise the grid (and power a plethora of devices) against the nation’s desire to conserve the environment.

The book illustrates how materials effect geo-politics and the urge for energy security, inform the national debate, and impact at a very local level. It also suggests that becoming more sustainable is anything but straightforward.

In this episode we talk about: why lithium and copper are vital to our futures; where the materials are mined and processed; 'material colonialism'; how the pandemic changed perceptions of our supply chains; why some mineral-rich nations are excluding the US; the role of China in the 21st century global economy and the withering of US hegemony; the new ‘green arms race’; why mining is in a ‘perpetual state of decline’; the tension between local desires and global needs; the role of religion and conservation; child labour in the Democratic Republic of Congo; the ‘dualistic’ policies of President Biden; and Scheyder’s issue with leaf blowers…

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