Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization

The global scramble for lithium, an essential input in the manufacture of rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles, is a measure of how raw materials power today’s high-tech world. Conway reminds readers that other, more commonplace commodities, such as sand, salt, iron, copper, and oil, are no less essential. Without sand, there would be no silicon or glass; without iron, no steel; without copper, no modern electricity generation and distribution networks. Without salt, many chemicals and pharmaceuticals and even clean drinking water would not exist. Oil’s importance in powering the modern industrial economy is self-evident. Lithium rounds out Conway’s list of six essential materials. These commodities are obtained through the operation of extraordinarily complex technological, economic, and political systems, often at considerable cost to the physical environment. Government efforts to deal with these environmental consequences are full of paradoxes. For instance, the side effects of manufacturing solar panels, wind turbines, and electric cars include carbon emissions and toxic runoff from lithium and cobalt mines. Conway imagines a world in which humankind succeeds in replacing most of its fossil fuels with renewable alternatives and in which energy is clean and abundant. He warns, however, that getting there will require considerable technological and geopolitical ingenuity.