The Elements of Power: Gadgets, Guns, and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age, by David S. Abraham
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The Elements of Power: Gadgets, Guns, and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age, by David S. Abraham
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Our future hinges on a set of elements that few of us have even heard of. In this surprising and revealing book, David S. Abraham unveils what rare metals are and why our electronic gadgets, the most powerful armies and indeed the fate of our planet depend on them. These metals have become the building blocks of modern society; their properties are now essential for nearly all our electronic, military, and "green" technologies. But their growing use is not without environmental, economic, and geopolitical consequences. Abraham traces these elements' secreted paths from mines to our living rooms, from the remote hills of China to the frozen Gulf of Finland, providing vivid accounts of those who produce, trade, and rely on rare metals. He argues that these materials are increasingly playing a significant role in global affairs, conferring strength to countries and companies that can ensure sustainable supplies. Just as oil, iron, and bronze revolutionized previous eras, so too will these metals. The challenges this book reveals, and the plans it proposes, make it essential reading for our rare metal age.
The Elements of Power: Gadgets, Guns, and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age, by David S. Abraham - Amazon Sales Rank: #155279 in Books
- Published on: 2015-10-27
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.25" h x 1.13" w x 5.50" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 336 pages
The Elements of Power: Gadgets, Guns, and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age, by David S. Abraham Review "A thought-provoking book. Using vivid detail, he injects life and purpose into the story of elements. He persuasively explains the danger of underestimating a business that...plays a critical role in systems worth about $4 trillion." --The Economist"A remarkable book that genuinely changes how one views such objects as the iMac I am typing this review on...extremely engaging." --Literary Review (UK) Michael Burleigh“In The Elements of Power, David Abraham explores a phenomena essential to our everyday lives and our future, but rarely studied or understood in the context of global policy or daily life. This is a book not just for specialists but also for those who are trying to chart a sustainable future for the world.”--Christie Todd Whitman, 50th governor of New Jersey, former Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency “Abraham deftly explains why the age of technology is also the age of rare metals--and what that could mean for the world. This book lays the groundwork for an important discussion we need to have.”--Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group, and author of Every Nation for Itself “For those of us who marvel at hybrid cars, smartphones, and wind turbines, but don't really know where indium, europium, and tantalum come from, an uneasy feeling is beginning to gnaw. In this extraordinary book, Abraham shows that the countries that control rare metals will control the future. His exhaustive research and vivid explanations are alarming and compelling.”--Robert C. (Bud) McFarlane, former National Security Advisor and cofounder of the United States Energy Security Council “With intelligence and nuance, Abraham sounds the alarm and brings attention to a coming resource conundrum. We are entering an age when the need for mere grams of obscure-sounding metals will have vast geopolitical consequences.”—James Stavridis, Dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and Supreme Allied Commander, NATO (2009 to 2013) "Extraordinary...Although I've written extensively about modern mining and its consequences, I've never read anything that approaches the comprehensive expertise of The Elements of Power...Abraham's reporting deserves special praise." - Pacific Standard (Tim Heffernan) “David Abraham makes a complex, hidden but important subject both accessible and fascinating. Combining first-hand accounts with global statistics, he portrays the full picture of rare metals. His warnings and recommendations deserve our attention.”—Dennis Blair, Former Director of National Intelligence “A compelling, illuminating, and hugely important analysis...a brilliant discussion of what we need to do in the coming ‘Rare Metal Age’.” --General David H. Petraeus, U.S. Army (Ret.), Chairman, KKR Global Institute"Compelling...The Elements of Power makes a green case for rare metals... His passion for rare metals is genuine, and can be inspiring." -- The New Scientist "[A] Fascinating and important book" -- The Times (UK)“Fast-paced…It succeeds in welcoming readers of any background to the otherwise impenetrable conversations about rare metal politics...[which] could scarcely be relayed more engagingly” -- Royal Society of Chemistry, Chemistry World
About the Author David S. Abraham is a natural resource strategist who previously analyzed risk on Wall Street and at an energy-trading firm, oversaw natural resource programs at the White House Office of Management and Budget, and ran a water-focused NGO in Africa. Previously, he was a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Tokyo University and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. He currently directs the Technology, Rare and Electronics Materials Center. He speaks widely and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Invaluable introduction to the 'critical metals' issue By J. P. Sykes Amongst the flurry of books over the last few years focusing on the geopolitics of metals and mining, and in particular the so-called ‘critical metals’ David Abraham’s effort “The Elements of Power” promises a less-hyperbolic and more pragmatic approach to the subject, even offering some useful advice to policy-makers responsible for regulating this sector. In his own words: “My fear is that a lack of attention to and understanding… of the Rare Metal Age…, will limit our prosperity and undermine our environment. My hope is that this book… will serve as a rallying call to inspire a new generation to learn more about the ingredients of our gadgets, guns and sustainable future.”As a not-entirely uneducated reader on this subject, I can say that Mr. Abraham, a natural resource strategist, who has worked on Wall Street, for an African-NGO, the White House and the Japanese government, delivers on this promise. The book should be added to the shelf of anyone who wants to understand the future of mining, metals and raw materials supply to industry, or anyone who is involved with policy-making in these areas.Having met Mr. Abraham myself a few times at various obscure minor metals conferences in China, I can testify that the book has been extremely well-researched, undertaken over a period of several years. By way of disclosure, Mr. Abraham has been kind enough to include a few of my comments and observations on the industry in the book, so you will find me in the references and acknowledgements.I have noted that Mr. Abraham has often disappeared, from the conferences we were attending, for a day-or-two to track down an obscure metals plant or mercurial industry-insider. The critical metals issue is often presented as a grand geopolitical battle involving federal governments in China, the United States, Europe and Japan, with the WTO playing a brokering role. The minor metals industry, as the name suggests, however, is played out by small-scale business and industry, local government officials, family-run metals traders and one-man band analysts and advisors. As such, Mr. Abraham’s book undoubtedly benefits from his efforts to locate and introduce us to some of the interesting characters within the minor metals industry.The book starts with an introductory chapter on role of minor metals in the modern economy – a situation still not well-understood by much of the populace. Whilst not necessarily providing the backbone of the industrial economy they make the products we use that bit smaller, faster, cheaper and more powerful. This will probably be the first time many readers will have read about esoteric metals such as beryllium, bismuth, cadmium, cobalt, gallium, hafnium, indium, lithium, niobium, scandium, selenium, tantalum, tellurium, tungsten, vanadium, zirconium, and the ‘rare earths’.Following the introductory chapter Mr. Abraham takes us on a journey through the minor metals supply chain, with each chapter focusing on a key part of the supply chain, or a critical issue affecting the industry. Each chapter is enlivened by Mr. Abraham’s field visits and ‘local contacts’.The second chapter looks at the geological distribution of minor metals, and the inevitable geopolitical consequences of some being found in one place, but not the other – conflict of one form or another. The next chapter looks at the business of mining and its slightly grubby nature, dramatized by a field visit to the giant Araxa niobium mine in Brazil which dominates/controls global niobium supply – a metal which improves the performance of steel. Next he looks at the technical challenges of processing rare metals such as the rare earths, tantalum and niobium, and more importantly the lack of engineering talent in the West to do this. Almost inevitably Mr. Abraham finds himself in a former ‘not-on-the-map’ Soviet industrial city, now in Estonia, to find out about the lost art of rare metals processing, and suffering minor fluorine gas poisoning for his travails. Mr. Abraham then looks at how the metals find their way to the market, via network of small traders, including ‘Super Mario’ and a ‘Grateful Dead’ fan and small exchanges, including the Fanya exchange, one of a long line of failed Chinese financial exchanges.Having reached the market, Mr. Abraham then looks at the parts of the economy most reliant on the rare metals – starting with the tech sector, noting that a mobile phone now contains barium, beryllium, boron, cobalt, gallium, strontium, tantalum, titanium, and numerous rare earth metals. Of course, every other industrial sector is now reliant on the tech sector, only multiplying the problem – for example, Mr. Abraham tells us that a Boeing 747 requires six million components sourced from thirty countries. The next industrial sector covered is the nascent green economy, and the use of rare metals in critical new technologies such as wind turbines and hybrid cars. This presents a challenging paradox for environmentalists in that green energy requires more mining for these metals, which are often in the unregulated, disreputable fringes of the mining industry. The final industrial sector reviewed is the military-industrial complex, with rare metals inevitable in use in high-tech missiles and planes. The new F-35 is described as a flying periodic table. Much of the hyperbole about ‘critical metals’ arises from their use by the US military.Having looked at the supply chain, Mr. Abraham then looks to the future, trying to work out how we can balance our industrial growth and economic development without irreconcilably damaging our planet. The point is brought home with a visit to rural Jiangxi, China to see the environmental damage and exploitative working conditions of an artisanal rare earths mining facility – making the point that we in the West in many cases have simply outsourced pollution, rather than reduced it. The challenges of recycling minor metals that are found in just a few percent in most industrial products, highlights why we are still reliant on such mines in China to supply these metals. Mr. Abraham then reviews policy-making around the world in relation to the critical metals issue, finding the US and Europe somewhat behind China, Japan and South Korea in their thinking, despite calls for help from the WTO.In a magnificent final chapter, Mr. Abraham offers some pragmatic advice for policy-makers in the West, free from the usual self-interest that usually accompanies such advocacy (subsidies, patronage, etc.). The answer to securing stable supplies of these metals does not reside with the WTO, but in Western efforts to find and build more rare metal mines, advance our technical know-how of mining and processing them, establish robust and sustainable supply-chains, train more geologists and engineers, improve mining and industrial permitting procedures, and encourage transparency in metals’ markets, whilst avoiding wasteful subsidies, quotas and stockpiles. Simple, practical advice that surely is not too hard to deliver?Mr. Abraham’s new book, “The Elements of Power”, enters an area of non-fiction that, to date has been poorly-served by the book-writing community. Mr. Abraham has provided an invaluable popular non-fiction text which looks at a quite staggering range of issues in just 288 pages. It is accessible, concise and nuanced, even daring enough to offer some pragmatic advice on how governments and industry can better prepare for a future in which minor metals are bound to play a more significant role in the global economy.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. The elements of power By Clare O'Beara The rare earth elements and rare metals derived from them are increasingly in all our gadgetry, our jet engines, turbine blades and replacement joints, just as much as in our weaponry and our MRI scanners. Mining, refining, separating, producing, selling, trading, using, recycling and inventing are all covered in this great look at REEs, along with the author's experiences.Having witnessed first-hand how Japan backed down to China over sea territory, when Chinese merchants stopped trading REEs to Japan, the author is convinced that metals can replace guns in diplomacy. After war in Africa thirty years ago stopped supply of one metal, firms went looking for others, and the generations of work by metallurgists and chemists was put to use. The author also went behind the scenes to a mine in Brazil, which is a long-established big employer, noting that it is very hard to get permits to open a new REE mine. These elements are foul in their mining, production and use. Acids, bases and fouled water add to slag heaps and leachates to cause environmental and worker health hazards.The uses are manyfold of course; Steve Jobs is praised for his visionary application of REEs to touchscreens and smartphones, which may contain thirty different metals with names like caesium, lithium, terbium, praseodymium, yttrium etc. The more of these REEs we use, the lighter and smarter our gadgets can be. But they are very hard to recycle in such minute quantities. They are also limited in supply (being rare) and limited in the supply chain by mainly being produced in polluting China. The rest of us could produce them but don't want to so we externalise the cost. There's also a thriving black market.Now, I'll declare my interest in downloading this ARC from Net Galley; I write science fiction in which we are mining the asteroids, driven there by our endless need for REEs in the main. Other metals found there are also mined but on a nice to have basis, not need to have. Iridium, for instance, came to Earth with the meteor which killed off the dinosaurs. That being the case, I was astounded that this author confines his comments entirely to our own planet and its known resources.For anyone who wants to know about this topic, which has shaped our tech and will continue to shape our future, THE ELEMENTS OF POWER is a detailed, human and highly readable book. Well done to David S. Abraham for producing such a comprehensive, well-rounded and easy to follow account. I strongly recommend it to everyone using a computer or smartphone.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Fascinating look at the elements that power our high-tech world By bruce bunch A well-researched and alarming look at the increasingly vital role obscure rare metals play in our everyday life. Abraham's first person account of the remote outposts where these elements are mined is fascinating. His description of the lack of control over pricing and supplies is alarming. While the U.S. has understandably ceded many other markets to other nations, it's clear from Abraham's research that we need both reliable sources and national policy regarding these minerals that many may never have heard of. This book deserves to be on the desks of decision makers in Washington and in the suites of CEOs of high tech companies. Well, make that on the ping pong tables of high tech CEOs...
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The Elements of Power: Gadgets, Guns, and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age, by David S. Abraham
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The Elements of Power: Gadgets, Guns, and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age, by David S. Abraham
The Elements of Power: Gadgets, Guns, and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age, by David S. Abraham
