Power Metal Author Vince Beiser Live at the Berkeley Ecology Center Store

Join author Vince Beiser at the Berkeley Ecology Center for a discussion on his new book, Power Metal: The Race for the Resources That Will Shape the Future.

Sponsored by The Lead The Charge campaign.

Hosted by The Worker Agency.

Tuesday, December 10, 2024 @ 6 p.m.
Berkeley Ecology Center Store
2530 San Pablo Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94702



About the Author
Vince Beiser is an award-winning journalist and author. His first book, The World in a Grain, was a finalist for the PEN / E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award and a California Book Award. His work has appeared in Wired, Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, and The New York Times, among other publications. He lives with his family in Vancouver, British Columbia. Follow his newsletter at powermetal.substack.com.

About Power Metal
The powerful ways the metals we need to fuel technology and energy are spawning environmental havoc, political upheaval, and rising violence — and how we can do better.

An Australian millionaire’s plan to mine the ocean floor. Nigerian garbage pickers risking their lives to salvage e-waste. A Bill Gates-backed entrepreneur harnessing AI to find metals in the Arctic.

These people and millions more are part of the intensifying competition to find and extract the minerals essential for two crucial technologies: the internet and renewable energy. In Power Metal, Vince Beiser explores the Achilles’ heel of “green power” and digital technology – that manufacturing computers, cell phones, electric cars, and other technologies demand skyrocketing amounts of lithium, copper, cobalt, and other materials. Around the world, businesses and governments are scrambling for new places and new ways to get those metals, at enormous cost to people and the planet.

Beiser crisscrossed the world to talk to the people involved and report on the damage this race is inflicting, the ways it could get worse, and how we can minimize the damage. Power Metal is a compelling glimpse into this disturbing yet potentially promising new world.

About The Worker Agency: The Worker Agency is a strategic advocacy firm based in the Bay Area seeking to become the most impacftul advocacy agency in the United States. Established in 2018, the firm has supported a myriad of important wins across economic, climate, and racial justice campaigns, especially those focused on the excesses of corporate power.