Indispensable, deeply researched, compellingly argued, and beautifully written...pointing the way to what a truly just sustainable global economy could look like.--Greg Grandin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The End of the Myth

Extraction reminds us that the transition to an economy free from fossil fuels still allows for the endurance of extractivism. To disrupt these rapacious continuities, we need Thea Riofrancos's rigorous research, searching interrogation, and honest reflection.--Naomi Klein, New York Times best-selling author of The Shock Doctrine and This Changes Everything

An unflinching journey into the gritty details of the burgeoning green economy--rigorous and fun to read. You'll never look at an electric car the same way.--Malcolm Harris, author of What's Left

With a steadfast commitment to justice in our environmental century, Thea Riofrancos's incisive work delivers a powerful message: Stop whitewashing the green economy.--Jack E. Davis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Gulf

Engagingly written and meticulously researched, its combination of history, politics, and economics promises to challenge easy answers on climate, no matter where on the political spectrum they come from. A must read.--Olúfémi O. Táíwò, author of Reconsidering Reparations

An urgent wake-up call, and a hopeful, beautifully written book that is necessary reading for all in search of paths to a more just and truly sustainable future.--Isabella M. Weber, author of How China Escaped Shock Therapy

Honest, clear-eyed, challenging, this essential book is an antidote to naivety and ignorance but not to hope.--Adam Tooze, author of Crashed

In clear and page-turning prose, Thea Riofrancos brings to life the rush for lithium and what it means for the many lands and peoples caught up in this historic transformation.--J. R. McNeill, author of The Great Acceleration

There are social and ecological downsides to even the most necessary transformations...This is a vivid and bracing tour of the ruptures and conflicts to come.--David Wallace-Wells, author of The Uninhabitable Earth

Lithium and other critical minerals are essential to the green energy transition. But mining them comes at a cost--both to the environment and to the communities that are home to them. Political scientist Thea Riofrancos, who has written on extractive capitalism and mining for FP, argues that despite this, there are ways to transform mining governance and create a truly just economy.-- "Foreign Policy Magazine, "FP's Books of the Summer""

A well-researched look at global needs and wants, in conflict with local rights.-- "Kirkus"

[Riofrancos] situates the energy transition from fossil fuels to electrification in the context of the long history of colonization, decolonization, the 1970s energy crisis, the 2008 financial crisis, and escalating US-China tensions. By visiting these extractive frontiers, she argues quite persuasively that energy production is a portal connecting the past and possible future of global capitalism.--Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins "The Nation"

A thoughtful, engaging, and politically useful exploration of how to imagine and fight for a different green transition... [it] provides a riveting firsthand account of the revival of this resource nationalism in Latin American countries in recent years... offers a fascinating discussion of how corporate promises concerning ethical environmental and social governance can themselves become a strategy of capital accumulation... Riofrancos's book could not be timelier in its depiction of the frontiers of green capitalism.--Ashley Dawson "Los Angeles Review of Books"

By far the most clear-eyed of mining's many recent chronicles. [Riofrancos] takes seriously the costs of the green transition but argues that the paradox is, in fact, the result of false choices and a limited vision... [and] suggests that a different, fairer, and greener world -- one that demands less energy altogether -- is possible.--Scott W. Stern "The Atlantic"

Riofrancos carefully describes the 'geoeconomics' of lithium mining... Ultimately, the extraction dilemma for lithium and other elements as methods for meeting human 'wants' versus 'needs' will likely endure. Books like Extraction help us to remain vigilant about the costs of such choices.--Saleem H. Ali "Science Magazine"

An illuminating examination of the emerging renewable economy.--Sophia Kalantzakos "Nature"

Riofrancos approaches the fraught complexities of our desperately needed energy transition with a piercing clarity and honesty about the human stakes. It's among the best, and most beautifully written, climate-and-energy books I've read not only this year but any year.--Wen Stephenson, climate-justice correspondent, The Nation; author of Learning to Live in the Dark: Essays in a Time of Catastrophe

Thoughtful, rigorous, engaged, and unafraid to look at the international demands made of us here in the US. It's a model of political logic and solidarity.--Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Pub date: 2025-09-23

Length: 288 pages