Material World

[Potemkin Villager]

I am usually very wary indeed of books by television journalists but I make an exception for
“Material World” by Ed Conway. He presents an impressively heavy page turner tour de force on the
geopolitics, extraction and uses of Sand. Salt, Iron, Copper, Oil and Lithium and positions this
within the context of the attempts to transition to zero carbon. He does err on the side of
ecomodernism and is optimistic about the future EROI of oil extraction and the efficacy of fracking as a long term strategy.
However he still manages to maintain some semblance of a balanced critical approach. I certainly learnt a lot about subjects I had convinced myself I was very well informed about and reccomend it to others who may feel the same.

[clv101]

Yeah, I read this when it first came out. I wasn't very impressed by it, mini review here: https://x.com/clv101/status/16809272603 ... C1RkQ&s=19

However, his thinking has moved on a bit in the year or so since publication. He did a great interview with Nate recently:
https://youtu.be/4C2-tWcFKfQ?si=9Eun3XjqRgWLrBeS

[Potemkin Villager]

Wow he's pretty intense and encyclopedic just like I imagined from reading his book!