Publication Day - EXTRACTION: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism

[Thea Riofrancos]

Hi All,

I am pleased to announce that my book Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism is being published today! Description below :-) 

See here for more info + US/ Canada orders https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324036760/overview 

And here for the UK edition https://www.iconbooks.com/ib-title/extraction/

Warmly,

Thea

Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism

An in-depth investigation into the growing industry of green technologies and the environmental, social, and political consequences of the mining it requires.

Lithium, a crucial input in the batteries powering electric vehicles, has the potential to save the world from climate change. But even green solutions come at a cost. Mining lithium is environmentally destructive. We therefore confront a dilemma: Is it possible to save the world by harming it in the process?

Having spent over a decade researching mining and oil sectors in Latin America, Thea Riofrancos is a leading voice on resource extraction. In Extraction, she draws on groundbreaking fieldwork on the global race for lithium. Taking readers from the breathtaking salt flats of Chile’s Atacama Desert, to Nevada’s glorious Silver Peak Range, to the rolling hills of the Barroso Region of Portugal, she reveals the social and environmental costs of “critical minerals.” In Washington, DC, and Brussels, she tracks the escalating geopolitics of green technology supply chains. And she takes stock of new policy paradigms in the Global South, where governments seek to leverage mineral assets to jumpstart green development. In the process, Riofrancos uncovers surprising links across history, from colonial conquest to the 1970s energy crisis, to our still uncertain green future.

While unregulated mining could inflict irreversible harm, Riofrancos offers optimistic proposals to transform the governance of mining while also reducing the sheer volume of global extraction. A rigorous and hopeful call to action, Extraction shares how we can harmonize climate goals with social justice—and set the planet on a course to ecological flourishing.

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Thea Riofrancos (she/her)

http://www.theariofrancos.com/

Associate Professor of Political Science, Providence College

Strategic Co-Director, Climate and Community Institute