Throughout the 20th century, access to oil equalled power. This century, argues Financial Times journalist Henry Sanderson, what will matter is access to the finite raw materials that power our devices and, increasingly, our vehicles and homes. 'Volt Rush: The Winners and Losers in the Race to Go Green’ (OneWorld, £20.00, ISBN 9780861543755) examines this new gold rush.
For many, ‘mining’ is evocative of a grimier, poorer, polluting past. However, we are mining more minerals now than at any time in history, and this can only increase as the world phases out fossil fuels and builds new clean energy infrastructure. “Despite talk of artificial intelligence, the internet of things, and an imminent takeover by robots, our societies have in many ways not moved on from the practices of the past, when the need for oil drove Europeans to carve up the Middle East,” Sanderson says.
The world is deep in a scramble for these precious resources: lithium, cobalt...