Nature in Crisis: ‘Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism’ by Thea Riofrancos

Close Readings · Oct 21, 2026 · 23m

Lithium-ion batteries are at the heart of the transition away from fossil fuels. But lithium, like the copper, cobalt and rare earths that renewable technologies also require, has to be mined. ‘Everywhere that mines are dug up to provide raw materials for the energy transition,’ Thea Riofrancos writes in Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism, ‘global climate action comes into conflict with local environmental protection.’ Or as Meehan puts it at the start of the episode, there’s a fundamental contradiction between two desirable things.

Meehan and Peter discuss Latin America’s long…