Table of Contents
Introduction: Our Fantastic and Catastrophic Relationship with the Planet We Live On 1
1 The History of the World and the Elements in Seven Days 5
Monday: The Birth of the Universe 5
From Tuesday to Thursday: Stars Are Born and Die 9
Friday: Our Solar System Is Formed 9
Saturday: Life Begins 12
Sunday: The Living Earth 16
A Half Second Before Midnight: The Age of Civilization 19
Humans and the Future 22
2 All That Glitters Isn't Gold 25
How Earth's Crust Did Us a Favor 26
The First Gold 27
Gold in the River Gravel 27
The Mines in Rosia Montana 29
Mining on the Surface 32
A Toxic Memory 33
From Stone to Metal 34
Gold Rings from a Ton of Stone 35
The End of Rosia Montana 37
Gold and Civilization 38
The Lost Gold 39
3 The Iron Age Isn't Over 43
There's No Point In Breathing Without Iron 44
Into The Iron Age 45
Swedish Iron 46
From Ore to Metal 49
Covetable Steel 50
The Problem with Rust 52
Can We Run Out of Iron? 54
Out of the Iron Age? 58
4 Copper, Aluminum, and Titanium: From Light Bulbs to Cyborgs 61
Copper in Cars, Bodies, and Water 62
The Copper Mines That Cleared the Forests 64
Aluminum: Red Clouds and White Pines 66
Using What We've Already Used 69
The Titanium in a Mountain 71
The Cyborgs Are Coming! 74
The Future of Machine People 77
5 Calcium and Silicon in Bones and Concrete 81
Hard and Brittle 82
Molding with Clay 83
The Messy Atoms in the Windowpane 84
From Algae to Concrete 87
Volcanic Ash in the Colosseum 89
Concrete That Scrapes the Clouds 91
Is There Enough Sand? 94
Living Ceramics Factories 96
6 Multitalented Carbon: Nails, Rubber, and Plastic 99
Natural Rubber and Venerable Vulcanization 100
From Timber to Textiles 103
Plastics of the Past 105
The Trash Island 107
What Do We Do With All This Plastic? 109
Plastic After Oil 111
7 Potassium, Nitrogen, and Phosphorus: The Elements That Give Us Food 113
The Journey to the Dead Sea 114
Nutrients in Our Nerves 116
Potassium from Water 118
Nitrogen from Air 119
Phosphorus from Rocks 122
Nutrients Gone Astray 127
The Future of the Dead Sea 128
8 Without Energy, Nothing Happens 129
Energy from the Sun 130
Draining Earth's Energy Stores 131
The Society We Want 132
Energy in, Energy Out 133
Out of the Fossil Society 135
Geothermal Heat and Nuclear Power: Energy from Earth's Beginnings 135
Power Straight from the Sun 137
Water That Runs, Wind That Blows 138
The Rare-Earth Elements 140
Power on a Quiet Winter Night 141
Cobalt in the Battery 143
Gasoline from Plants 146
Today We Eat Oil 148
9 Plan B 151
Unlimited Energy: A Sun on Earth 151
Elements in Space 155
Away from Earth? 158
10 Can We Use Up The Earth? 161
Limits for Growth 162
Growth That Is Happening Faster and Faster and Faster 164
The Necessity of Economic Growth 165
Can the Economy Grow without Using More Resources? 168
An Impossible Paradox? 170
The Habitable Zone 170
Acknowledgments 173
References 175
Index 205
About the Author 214
