cover image The Race for What’s Left: 
The Global Scramble for the World’s Last Resources

The Race for What’s Left: The Global Scramble for the World’s Last Resources

Michael T. Klare. Metropolitan, $27 (320p) ISBN 978-0-8050-9126-7

In this meticulously researched account of the coming shortage of natural resources, journalist Klare (Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet) describes the impact this scarcity will have on the future of the human race. In levelheaded prose, he tells how a rising need for fuel, industrial metals, minerals, and farmland will create a dearth with global environmental, political, and financial implications. Even now, tensions are simmering, with governments skirmishing and large corporations ruthlessly competing for control over dwindling reserves. Moving through the catalogue of precious materials, Klare summarizes the extreme explorations that have already begun, from the Arctic to the Sahara and the dark canyons at the bottom of the ocean. As accessible sources are depleted and more risky endeavors become the only way satisfy demand, devastating catastrophes like the explosion at BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig will only multiply. But an aggressive race for what’s left isn’t a long-term strategy, Klare reminds us. What’s needed is a “race to adapt”—an attempt to find a sustainable approach to extraction and consumption that will benefit us all. (Mar.)