EP 732 There’s a War Below to Power Our Electric Future

 

 

 

There is a war raging below the surface, literally, for the critical minerals–lithium, copper, cobalt and that packet called ‘rare earth’–needed to power the conversion from fossil fuels to electrification of our lives.  To build electric cars, solar panels, cell phones and millions of other devices will require the world to dig more mines to extract these vital building blocks for lithium-ion batteries which power so much of our technological needs now.  That need will grow exponentially in the years ahead. Paradoxically, that which is designed to create a cleaner, greener world can start with the messy and dirty extraction process of these vital minerals.  China is well ahead in this competition to fight climate change and power crucial technologies.  America has some difficult choices to make, lest it become reliant on wobbly supply chains to provide these essentials.  Will this become a national security issue in the not too distant future?  We discuss all of the implications on this podcast with Ernest Scheyder, the author of “The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives.”

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