This book is a good read for people who are concerned about the environment and involved in the purchasing of electronic information resources. The book details how the heavy metals used in the production of IT products impacts the environment.

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An important read, especially if you are someone who immediately has a strong opinion about "clean energy." Political persuasion has unfortunately made so many choose "camps" on these complex topics like technology and clean energy instead of critically examining the pros and cons of the many factors that are tied to these topics. I appreciated the information researched and shared in this book even if I didn't come to the same conclusions with the proposed solutions. We need to start having more patient and honest discussions on objective facts and I hope this book and others like it help us to have these conversations. I haven't personally examined the references to speak to the specifics within this book in more detail here.

The Rare Metals War is an eye-opening — if frightening — read. It illuminates problems with "green" energy that aren't popular to speak about, exposes industry greenwashing, and asks uncomfortable questions about the price we are willing to pay for our ever-expanding energy demands. The conclusion is where I disagreed with the author — Pitron advocates for more rare metals mining in the West, in the proverbial backyards of many of his readers, to open cultures' eyes to the consequences to the environment and to our health and wellbeing. Perhaps this is my cynicism showing, but I do not believe that is an effective or meaningful strategy, particularly on the timeline we're on for ecological crisis. We already do mine here; we already have many communities devastated by environmental destruction, chemical waste, industrial byproducts, etc. And we don't really care, collectively. Here in the United States, we cannot even guarantee clean, safe drinking water for large portions of our population. We certainly do not appear to possess the political will, so far, to protect each other from growing environmental hazards as we careen towards ecosystem collapse. For these reasons, I believe Pitron is thinking too small in terms of systemic solutions: the only thing that will save us — the only thing we have time to implement — is immediate degrowth. We cannot afford to spend more years, decades ramping up energy production in hopes of someday convincing people that we need to learn how to live with less. And realistically, I do not believe that degrowth will happen on either the timeline or the scale needed, making this book a very emotionally painful book to read. I do recommend it to anyone interested in environmental issues, climate change, the clean energy sector, economics, or just the future of humanity.

I found this a very interesting report on what it takes to keep my computer and cell phone going. Perhaps someday the human race will realize what a wonderful planet we have without destroying it in the process! I learned a great deal about how politics weaves it's way into the realm of mining and manufacturing those products that make our lives easier. ( )

Guillaume Pitron's The Rare Metals War (Melbourne ; London : Scribe Publications [c2020]) explores the impact of rare earth elements / metals on the economics of energy production and distribution, digital technology, and the geo-politics of climate change. In Pitron's words, "this book recounts the dark side of the story of the world that awaits us. It is an undercover tale of a technological odyssey that has promised so much, and a look behind the scenes of our lavish and ambitious quest that involves risks as formidable as those it sets out to resolve." (Introduction, p. 11) It was published first in French in 1918 by Les Liens qui Liberent with the title, La Guerre des Metaux Rares. ( )