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The climate crisis is here. Time is slipping away to stop the worst effects of global warming, and the world is looking for solutions.
On ?How We Survive,? Molly Wood explores the technology that could provide some of those solutions, the business of acclimatizing to an increasingly inhospitable planet, and the way people have to change if we?re going to make it in an altered world.
Our first season season dives deep into the economics, the tech and the human stories behind the race for lithium. It?s the ?white gold? that will help electrify our cars, homes and power grids, and unlike the gold rush of the 1800s, this time, our survival might depend on it.
Technology will help us avoid the worst outcomes of the climate crisis, and it?ll help us adapt to a warming planet. But technology alone can?t save us. Humans need to make profound changes. We need to change our behavior, our consumption, our policies and our mindsets.
In the final episode of the season, we talk to a climate psychologist about how our minds react to change and hear from a politician relying on Fergie and Megan Thee Stallion to get Americans excited about energy policy. We also visit an encampment in the desert where people are already adapting to a changing climate, living off-grid and generating their own renewable energy.
Our journey through the California desert continues. We visit the quiet front-runner in the race to extract lithium from the superhot, corrosive brine bubbling underground. And we dive into the past to look at an earlier attempt to harvest lithium from the Salton Sea. That project ended in failure, but its patents live on. And those patents could be a roadblock for the companies racing to extract the ?white gold? today. With millions of dollars invested and a global supply of lithium waiting below the Salton Sea, there is a lot on the line.
Mining is a complicated business. It?s destructive, it?s dangerous. But in order to get the lithium we need to power the energy transition, mining could be a necessary evil.
In this episode, we go from protests in South America to a gold mine in Nevada, where we take a ride on what looks like a massive Tonka truck, all in the hopes of finding out if there?s a better way to do things while getting the metal we need to survive.
After talking to mining experts, environmental justice advocates and a very vocal CEO, we get some answers.
On ?How We Survive,? Molly Wood explores the technology that could provide some of those solutions, the business of acclimatizing to an increasingly inhospitable planet, and the way people have to change if we?re going to make it in an altered world.
Decarbonization requires a lot of batteries, and many batteries require lithium. The need for lithium is driving a modern gold rush for the metal that could save the world, but relies on an old, dirty technology: mining. This season, we?ll dive deep into the economics, the tech and the human stories behind the rush for ?white gold.? And unlike the gold rush of the 1800s, this time, our survival might depend on it.
It all starts Oct. 6. Listen to the trailer now and be sure to follow the show so you don?t miss an episode.