num_pages: 320
description: From Michael Klare the renowned expert on natural resource issues an invaluable account of a new and dangerous global competition The world is facing an unprecedented crisis of resource depletiona crisis that goes beyond peak oil to encompass shortages of coal and uranium copper and lithium water and arable land. With all of the planet's easily accessible resource deposits rapidly approaching exhaustion the desperate hunt for supplies has become a frenzy of extreme exploration as governments and corporations rush to stake their claim in areas previously considered too dangerous and remote. The Race for What's Left takes us from the Arctic to war zones to deep ocean floors from a Russian submarine planting the country's flag on the North Pole seabed to the large-scale buying up of African farmland by Saudi Arabia China and other food-importing nations. As Klare explains this invasion of the final frontiers carries grave consequences. With resource extraction growing more complex the environmental risks are becoming increasingly severe; the Deepwater Horizon disaster is only a preview of the dangers to come. At the same time the intense search for dwindling supplies is igniting new border disputes raising the likelihood of military confrontation. Inevitably if the scouring of the globe continues on its present path many key resources that modern industry relies upon will disappear completely. The only way out Klare argues is to alter our consumption patterns altogethera crucial task that will be the greatest challenge of the coming century.
language: English
title: The Race for What's Left: The Global Scramble for the World's Last Resources
publisher: Metropolitan Books