Power and the Ore Beneath Our Feet

Power and the Ore Beneath Our Feet uncovers the global struggle for control over the minerals that fuel modern life—lithium, cobalt, nickel, and rare earth elements. Beneath the rhetoric of clean energy and technological progress lies a story of extraction, exploitation, and geopolitical rivalry. The piece traces how nations and corporations alike are reshaping foreign policy, labor markets, and even environmental ethics in pursuit of what’s buried underground. From the mines of the Global South to the boardrooms of the Global North, it exposes how the green revolution risks repeating the same colonial patterns it claims to transcend—and asks what true sustainability would look like if justice, not profit, powered the world’s transition.