That’s the subtitle of the book Material World by Ed Conway (Knopf, 2023). According to Mr. Conway, the six are lithium, which is essential for the batteries for electric vehicles. If you have followed any discussions of batteries, you probably would have guessed that one. You might also know that the supply is rather limited. The other five aren’t as evident, at least to me. They are sand, salt, iron, copper and oil.
I might have guessed copper, iron, and oil. Without coppers no electric generators. Without iron, no steel. Without oil–well, you know what would happen. Salt I didn’t know about. It is used in many chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Sand is used for glass and even concrete, and evidently there is a world-wide shortage of sand. Who knew?
No comments:
Post a Comment