Boom, Bust, Boom

This informative and thought-provoking account of civilization’s complete dependence on copper, and what extracting it from the earth really means for people, nature, and the global economy is “the best sort of journalism: beautifully written, rich in detail, and impossible to ignore” (Sebastian Junger).

Copper is a miraculous and contradictory metal, essential to nearly every human enterprise. For most of recorded history, this remarkably pliable and sturdy substance has proven invaluable: not only did the ancient Romans build their empire on mining copper but Christopher Columbus protected his ships from rot by lining their hulls with it. Today, this metal can be found in every house, car, airplane, cell phone, computer, and home appliance around the world, including in all the new, so-called green technologies.

Yet the history of copper extraction and our present relationship with the metal are fraught with profound difficulties. Copper mining