Power metal is coming to the Bowen Island Library, but not the kind that gets you shredding air guitar and head banging. It will, however, get your head thinking about the technologies we use and their impact on the planet.
Award-winning journalist, Bowen Island local, and recent Daily Show guest Vince Beiser will be doing an Author Talk at the Bowen Island Library at 1 pm on Saturday, February 22, on his latest book, Power Metal: The Race for the Resources That Will Shape the Future.
In his book, Beiser chronicles the destructive side effects that the global hunt for critical metals has on our so-called clean energy transition, from environmental damage to political upheaval to murder. He exposes how rivers are being poisoned and rainforests bulldozed to acquire the resources needed to power our wind turbines and build our smart phones. As Beiser writes: “Our future depends, in a literal sense, on metal. We need a lot of it to stave off climate change, the most dangerous threat of all.”
Vince Beiser has reported from over 100 countries, states, provinces, kingdoms, occupied territories, no man’s lands and disaster zones. Vince’s first book, The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization about the deadly and destructive impacts of humanity’s use of this little-considered yet crucially important natural resource, was a finalist for a PEN America award and a California Book Award, and spawned a TEDx talk.
With great urgency and insight, Beiser illuminates in Power Metal how this competition is creating new industries, generating enormous wealth, and destabilizing the global balance of power. He takes readers on a compelling and deeply human journey across the globe to tell the stories of the people at the center of this race: an Australian multimillionaire who plans to mine the ocean floor; garbage pickers in Nigeria who risk their lives to salvage e-waste; a Bill Gates-backed entrepreneur harnessing AI to find metals in the Arctic.
John Vaillant, author of Fire Weather, notes that “Power Metal is a necessary, illuminating, and often shocking read. Fast-paced, fascinating, and alive with colorful characters, it’s a whirlwind tour of the epochal energy transition currently underway as we enter what Vince Beiser so aptly calls the ‘electro-digital age’.”
Beiser reflects that hope is part of this story; “I also learned there are lots of ways we can do things better, and in some places already are. There will always be some downsides, some costs caused by our shift into what I call the Electro-Digital Age. But there’s a lot we can do to minimize those costs, and to spread them around more fairly.”
You can find out more about this author talk and also watch the video clip of Beiser being interviewed on the Daily Show at bipl.ca/author. Drop in to this free and informative talk at the Bowen Library, and bring your questions for the author. Copies of the book will be available to purchase from the author.
Power Metal was written with support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Awards, and the Access Copyright Foundation.
