Mining technology & engineering – The Bell Bookshop

The High Seas

Emma — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

THE IRISH TIMES BESTSELLER’A comprehensive investigation of the staggering damage we have done to the world’s oceans and its life forms’ Observer’A vital, fascinating, deeply researched exploration of Earth’s last wilderness… Shocking and starkly ‘illuminating – a must-read’ Gaia VinceThe ocean covers seventy per cent of the surface of our planet, and two thirds of this lie beyond national borders. Owned by all nations and no nation simultaneously, these waters are home to some of the richest and most biodiverse environments on the planet. But they are also home to exploitation on a scale that few of us can imagine. Here, industry and economic progress rule and lax enforcement and apathy are the status quo. Out of sight and often out of mind, a battle rages to control, profit from, protect, or obliterate the world’s largest, wildest commons. Heffernan sets sail on a journey to uncover the truth behind deeply exploitative fishing practices, investigate the potentially devastating impact of deep-sea mining, and hold to task the Silicon-valley interventionists whose solutions to climate change are often wildly optimistic, radically irresponsible or both. The result is a forceful and deeply researched manifesto calling for the protection and preservation of this final frontier – the last vestiges of wilderness on Earth.

Material world

Emma — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

THE TIMES SCIENCE BOOK OF THE YEAR
**Shortlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award**
Picked as a Book of the Year by FINANCIAL TIMES, ECONOMIST and NEW STATESMAN
A BBC RADIO 4 Book of the Week

‘A compelling narrative of the human story’ TIM MARSHALL, author of Prisoners of Geography

‘Lively, rich and exciting… full of surprises’ PETER FRANKOPAN, author of The Silk Roads
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Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil and lithium. They built our world, and they will transform our future.

These are the six most crucial substances in human history. They took us from the Dark Ages to the present day. They power our computers and phones, build our homes and offices, and create life-saving medicines. But most of us take them completely for granted.

In Material World, Ed Conway travels the globe – from the sweltering depths of the deepest mine in Europe, to spotless silicon chip factories in Taiwan, to the eerie green pools where lithium originates – to uncover a secret world we rarely see. Revealing the true marvel of these substances, he follows the mind-boggling journeys, miraculous processes and little-known companies that turn the raw materials we all need into products of astonishing complexity.

As we wrestle with climate change, energy crises and the threat of new global conflict, Conway shows why these substances matter more than ever before, and how the hidden battle to control them will shape our geopolitical future. This is the story of civilisation – our ambitions and glory, innovations and appetites – from a new perspective: literally from the ground up.

The high seas

Emma — Thu, 04 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

THE IRISH TIMES BESTSELLER’Powerful reportage…awash with wonderful obscurities’ The Sunday Times’A comprehensive investigation of the staggering damage we have done to the world’s oceans and its life forms’ Observer’A vital, fascinating, deeply researched exploration of Earth’s last wilderness… Shocking and starkly ‘illuminating – a must-read’ Gaia VinceThe ocean covers seventy per cent of the surface of our planet, and two thirds of this lie beyond national borders. Owned by all nations and no nation simultaneously, these waters are home to some of the richest and most biodiverse environments on the planet. But they are also home to exploitation on a scale that few of us can imagine. Here, industry and economic progress rule and lax enforcement and apathy are the status quo. Out of sight and often out of mind, a battle rages to control, profit from, protect, or obliterate the world’s largest, wildest commons. Heffernan sets sail on a journey to uncover the truth behind deeply exploitative fishing practices, investigate the potentially devastating impact of deep-sea mining, and hold to task the Silicon-valley interventionists whose solutions to climate change are often wildly optimistic, radically irresponsible or both. The result is a forceful and deeply researched manifesto calling for the protection and preservation of this final frontier – the last vestiges of wilderness on Earth.