What’s the real cost of the metals that power our phones, cars, and clean energy technologies? Moderator Ian Hannington speaks with Christopher Pollen and Vince Beiser about the global race to extract Earth’s most valuable resources. From high-stakes politics to human stories on the front lines, this timely conversation uncovers the hidden world behind the materials shaping our future — and the consequences we all share
Location: Room C420, UBC Robson Square
Moderator: Ian Hannington
Authors: Christopher Pollon, Pitfall: The Race to Mine the World’s Most Vulnerable Places (Greystone Books) | Vince Beiser, Power Metal: The Race for the Resources That Will Shape the Future (Penguin Random House Canada)
About The Moderator
Ian Hanington
Ian Hanington is senior editor and writer at the David Suzuki Foundation, where he co-writes the weekly syndicated Science Matters column with David Suzuki. He is also co-author with David Suzuki of Just Cool It!: The Climate Crisis and What We Can Do and Everything Under the Sun: Toward a Brighter Future on a Small Blue Planet. He is a former editor of Vancouver’s Georgia Straight newsweekly and has worked as a journalist at a number of publications.
About The Authors
Christopher Pollon
Christopher Pollon is an award-winning Canadian freelance journalist and author focused on environment, business and the politics of natural resources. He is the author of two books, including “PITFALL: THE RACE TO MINE THE WORLD’S MOST VULNERABLE PLACES” (2023) – and “THE PEACE IN PERIL: THE REAL COST OF THE SITE C DAM” (2017). Christopher has appeared regularly as a natural resources expert on North American, British and Australian TV, radio and podcasts, as well as doing keynote talks for public, industry and university audiences. Covering a global beat of oceans, energy and mining, his writing has been published by National Geographic, The Guardian, The Walrus, Mother Jones, The Globe and Mail, and many more. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, with his wife and daughter. Pitfall was short-listed for the Writers Trust Basillie prize for Public Policy and Banff Mountain Award for Environmental Books, and won the US National Association of Science Writers annual award for best book of 2024.
Vince Beiser
Vince Beiser is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author. He has reported from over 100 countries, states, provinces, kingdoms, occupied territories, no man’s lands and disaster zones. His latest book, “Power Metal: The Race for the Resources That Will Shape the Future” is a globe-trotting investigation into how the materials we need for dig-ital technology and renewable energy are causing environmental havoc, political upheaval, mayhem and murder—and how we can do better. Vince has also exposed conditions in California’s harshest prisons, trained with US Army soldiers, ridden with the first responders to natural disasters, and hunted down other stories from around the world for publications including Wired, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone, The Economist, The Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. Keep up with Vince’s work via his newsletter, Power Metal, at https://powermetal.substack.com/.
