Scan barcode
A review by mmrohbock
Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization by Ed Conway
informative
medium-paced
4.5
4.5⭐ on 🎧
This is probably one of my favorite nonfiction books I've read in the past few years that truly made me smarter. NPR's Planet Money podcast recommended this book and they did not miss!!
Ed explores six key materials to our society today to breakdown how they have changed our lives and keep the world functioning today--the key materials behind our phone and computers, our cars and home electricity, our batteries and our food. He observes that in a majority knowledge based economy like that of the US and Europe, most people are disconnected from HOW these materials are produced and keep our lives going so he sets out to learn about them. And I am biased after spending years working in manufacturing, but I do tend to agree.
This book is an excellent exploration in the nuances of what it takes to make the material, including the exploitation of workers and environmental impacts but also including the value derived from society to easily have these materials available in abundance. It is easy to complain about the consumption of natural gas and oil products, but that judgement is not as black and white when you factor in the additional crop yield the world has due to natural gas-derived fertilizers.
I will say this book is very long and detailed which is a bit daunting, but the information in it is truly important for understanding our world. I highly recommend this book to pretty much anyone, just know that it will likely be one that you will take a bit of time to fully read.
And as someone who has a decent level of expertise in Material #5, I can wholeheartedly recommend this book because he describes this material and the nuances around production and dependencies extremely well which made me more confident in the other materials.
This is probably one of my favorite nonfiction books I've read in the past few years that truly made me smarter. NPR's Planet Money podcast recommended this book and they did not miss!!
Ed explores six key materials to our society today to breakdown how they have changed our lives and keep the world functioning today--the key materials behind our phone and computers, our cars and home electricity, our batteries and our food. He observes that in a majority knowledge based economy like that of the US and Europe, most people are disconnected from HOW these materials are produced and keep our lives going so he sets out to learn about them. And I am biased after spending years working in manufacturing, but I do tend to agree.
This book is an excellent exploration in the nuances of what it takes to make the material, including the exploitation of workers and environmental impacts but also including the value derived from society to easily have these materials available in abundance. It is easy to complain about the consumption of natural gas and oil products, but that judgement is not as black and white when you factor in the additional crop yield the world has due to natural gas-derived fertilizers.
I will say this book is very long and detailed which is a bit daunting, but the information in it is truly important for understanding our world. I highly recommend this book to pretty much anyone, just know that it will likely be one that you will take a bit of time to fully read.
And as someone who has a decent level of expertise in Material #5, I can wholeheartedly recommend this book because he describes this material and the nuances around production and dependencies extremely well which made me more confident in the other materials.