Catherine Raynes: The War Below and Home Truths

The War Below by Ernest Scheyder 

Tough choices loom if the world wants to go green. The United States and other countries must decide where and how to procure the materials that make our renewable energy economy possible. To build electric vehicles, solar panels, cell phones, and millions of other devices means the world must dig more mines to extract lithium, copper, cobalt, rare earths, and nickel. But mines are deeply unpopular, even as they have a role to play in fighting climate change. These tensions have sparked a worldwide reckoning over the sourcing of these critical minerals, and no one understands the complexities of these issues better than Ernest Scheyder, whose exclusive access has allowed him to report from the front lines on the key players in this global battle to power our future. 

This is not a story of tree-hugging activists, but rather of industry titans, scientists, and policymakers jostling over how best to save the planet. Scheyder explores how a proposed lithium mine in Nevada would help global automakers slash their dependance on fossil fuels, but developing that mine could cause the extinction of a flower found nowhere else on the planet. A hedge fund manager’s attempt to resuscitate rare earths mining in California relies on Chinese expertise, exposing the paradox in Washington’s quest for minerals independence. The fight to end child labor in Africa’s mining sector is a key reason, supporters contend, to dig out a vast reserve of cobalt and nickel under Minnesota’s vulnerable wetlands. An international mining conglomerate’s plan to extract copper for electric vehicles deep beneath Arizona’s desert would destroy a Native American holy site, fueling tough questions about what matters more. 

In The War Below, Scheyder crafts a business story that matters to everyone. If China continues to dominate production of these critical minerals, it will have a profound impact on the geopolitical order. Beyond China, countries such as Bolivia, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo aim to wield their vast reserves of key minerals. There are no easy answers when it comes to energy. Scheyder paints a powerfully honest and nuanced picture of what is needed to fight climate change and secure energy independence, revealing how America and the rest of the world’s hunt for the “new oil” directly affects us all. 

 

Home Truths by Charity Norman 

Livia Denby is on trial for attempted murder. The jury has reached a verdict. 

Two years earlier, Livia was a probation officer in Yorkshire, her husband Scott a teacher. Their children, Heidi and Noah, rounded out a happy family - until the day Scott's brother died. 
 
Grief and guilt leave Scott searching for answers, a search that takes him into the world of conspiracy theories. As his grip on reality slides, he makes a decision that will put the family on a collision course with tragedy. 
 
Livia's family has been torn apart, and now her son's life is hanging in the balance. Just how far will she go to save the ones she loves? 

 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from Newstalks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Twenty one to twelve on News Talk said B. Katherine
Rains is our book reviewer. She's chosen two books to
recommend to us this weekend. More than a Catherine, Good
Morning Jack. Okay, let's begin with The War Below by
Ernest Scheider.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
So this poe the question that if we want to
build electric vehicles and solar panels and cell phones, that
we need to dig more minds to extract the minerals
such as lithium and rare earths. And the focus on
the book is that we've reached a very time of
a very difficult choice. In particular, book focuses on the USA,
but relevant to other countries, and that the US wants

(00:46):
to reduce green vehicles and infrastructures, and it needs to
be able to access the metals and minerals to make
those possible. And the places where they're available in the
US are places known for natural beauty and endangered species.
And so you see the examples of conflicts between the
companies that want to mine for certain metals that residents
who oppose the constructions of those minds. The environmentalists that

(01:08):
recognize that mining various metals is essential to the green revolution,
but don't want to disturb the native plants and the process.
The miners who want jobs, and the politicians who just
tell everybody what they want to hear because they need
both the votes of the miners and the environmentalists. And
so he takes it, and he looks at a specific
places in the US, such as Nevada and North Carolina,
and there's a focus on this Thames but and it's

(01:28):
the only plant that's known to grow in the lithium
rich soil of Nevada, and he uses that discovery and
protection of this plant is the story that highlights those
tensions and compromises and motivations behind all of the different
people involved. And you know, like, if you don't mine
the metals that we need for the electric vehicles, and
you become dependent on other countries and primarily China. And

(01:50):
his argument here to supply with the materials. But if
you do mine in the US, then you've got the
communities and the ecosystems and all of the indigenous sites
that could be destroyed forever. So he crafts this business
story that talks about all of those factors and the
changes to the geopolitical boundaries, and you know, what is
it that we value and what's the cost of the technology.

(02:12):
And yeah, it's fascinating because you know we're right at
the sort of the beginning of this argument almost about
and those tensions that exist in every way that we
use energy. But how we solve those issues?

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Right? That sounds intriguing. I think I'll be into this.
That sounds like a bit of meat. That's The War
Below by Ernest Scheider. You've also read Home Truths by
Charity Norman.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
So this is a set in Yorkshire and it's told
by LIVERTMB. He's a probation officer and her husband, Scott,
who's a secondary school teacher, in particular their teenage daughter Heidi,
and they have a son, Noah, and they look back
from twenty nineteen in August, where the whole story begins
on Heidi's thirteenth birthday, which led to Liver being on
trial for attempted murder and at the party, Scott's brother

(02:53):
dies unexpectedly and everybody has their feelings of guilt which
lead to this family unraveling, and Livy's used to dealing
with criminals in her role as a probation officer, but
now that she's at risk of this prison term and
a jury's deliberating that she's guilty or not. But her husband, Scott,
after losing his brother, stumbles into this world of online

(03:14):
conspiracy theories and he's seeking answers or perhaps comfort in
those those theories, and it really turns the lives of
Vera and Heidi and Noah upside down, and you know,
the tension kind of keeps going as he steps further
into this world of conspiracy theories and leavers trying to
hold her family together in this constant anxiety about her children,
in particular Noah, who suffers from asthma. And there's just

(03:36):
this a real suspense thriller, you know, finally dynamics and
the impact of these theories on personal relationships in this
courtroom drama where you know she's on trial for attempted
murder and hit that tension and lots of themes in
grief and guilt and family and you know she's guilty
or not guilty, but lots of twists and turns, and
Charity Norman's particularly good at telling the storyline.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, very good, Okay, That's Home, Truths by Charity Norman
Catherine's first book, The War Below by Ernest Scheider. Both
of those, of course, will be up on our website
eighteen to twelve New music from Australian musician Tones and
I Nicks.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, Listen live
to News Talks ed B from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio