Can we mine our way out of climate change?
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate climate change is perhaps the most urgent environmental and social challenge of our time. But a transition from fossil fuels to clean energy will require more solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles—increasing demand for metals like copper, lithium, cobalt, and nickel. Mining these materials brings its own social and environmental impacts. In this fireside chat, MIT social scientist Scott Odell will join MIT Horizon executive editor Benjamin Rachlin to discuss the challenges at the intersection of critical mineral mining and the clean energy transition and what industry, government, and individual consumers can do to combat climate change and conserve natural resources.