Extraction

Reviews / Votes

Dazzling in the bold questions it asks and its beautifully, compellingly written answers, Extraction reminds us that the transition to an economy free from fossil fuels still allows for the endurance of extractivism. To disrupt these rapacious continuities, we need Riofrancos's rigorous research, searching interrogation, and honest reflection. An immense contribution. * Naomi Klein, author of Doppelganger and The Shock Doctrine * Honest, clear-eyed, challenging, this essential book is an antidote to naivety and ignorance but not to hope. * Adam Tooze, author of Crashed * An unflinching journey into the gritty details of the burgeoning green economy - rigorous and fun to read. You'll never look at an electric car the same way. * Malcolm Harris, author of Palo Alto: a History of California, Capitalism, and the World * In clear and page-turning prose, Riofrancos brings to life the rush for lithium and other minerals crucial to batteries, windmills, and solar panels and what it means for the many lands and peoples caught up in this historic transformation. * J. R. McNeill, author of The Human Web * An urgent wakeup call, and a hopeful, beautifully written book that is necessary reading for all in search of paths to a more just and truly sustainable future. * Isabella M. Weber, author of How China Escaped Shock Therapy * Indispensable, deeply researched, compellingly argued, and beautifully written. Not just an expose of exploitation but an inspiration, pointing the way to what a truly just sustainable global economy could look like. * Greg Grandin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The End of the Myth * With a steadfast commitment to justice in our environmental century, Riofrancos's incisive work seeks answers in commandeered mountains and salt flats, the closed-door labs and boardrooms where truth is buried and profits are mined, and the distant homes of those who endure the consequences - and rise in resistance. At its core, this book delivers a powerful message: stop whitewashing the green economy. * Jack Davis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Gulf * It's often tempting for climate advocates to describe the green transition as a win-win. But as Thea Riofrancos shows in her dizzyingly rich Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism, there are social and ecological downsides to even the most necessary transformations - which means they have also always posed enormous challenges to the global political economy. As we can already see, decarbonization is no different. This is a vivid and bracing tour of the ruptures and conflicts to come. * David Wallace-Wells, author of The Inhabitable Earth * Riofrancos has written a deeply necessary book about the travesty of green extractivism and the flow of lithium into the ravening maw of global capital. The book's attentiveness not only to extractivism in the global South but also to the politics of lithium mining in the heart of the US, offers a lucid and coruscating view into the world that is, and the world to come. * Laleh Khalili, author of Extractive Capitalism: How Commodities and Cronyism Drive the Global Economy * Engagingly written and meticulously researched, its combination of history, politics, and economics promises to challenge easy answers on climate, no matter where on the political spectrum they come from. A must read. * Olufemi O. Taiwo, author of Reconsidering Reparations * This is a remarkable book that never misses the global story in the local, or the local in the global. While she is clear-eyed about the many problems of extraction, Riofrancos also offers thoughtful steps toward a more humane and decarbonized world. Deeply researched, beautifully written, the book provides an accessible road map through difficult concepts and phenomena. * Kathryn Hochstetler, author of Political Economies of Energy Transition * Riofrancos exposes the brutal realities behind the green transition: a new phase of extractive capitalism dressed up as sustainability. Based on fascinating and detailed research, she shows how the demand for clean energy is entrenching imperial domination, displacing communities, and deepening ecological destruction. But Riofrancos shows there is another way, charting a path\ toward a democratic and sustainable future. A powerful call to arms for anyone serious about climate justice. * Grace Blakeley, author of Vulture Capitalism * Deeply researched and incisively argued, the book challenges the myth of a seamless energy transition, yet it does not succumb to fatalism. Rather than settling for grim trade-offs, Riofrancos pushes beyond passive critique, exploring alternative pathways with lower trade-offs, better policy choices and investment decisions, and their political economy underpinnings. A vital read. * Amir Lebdioui, Director of TIDE, University of Oxford and author of Survival of the Greenest * Impressively conversant with the economics of resource extraction, [Riofrancos] endeavours to think about what an environmentally tolerable future for the mining sector ... She also manages to steer a navigable path between the Scylla of head-in- the-sand positivity and the Charybdis of blanket negativity -- Brett Christophers * Times Literary Supplement *