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Action, and further reading on critical minerals.

Ramped-up demand for critical raw materials will cost the earth rather than save the world, concludes Vanessa Baird. And how much do we really need?

There are better ways than digging ourselves deeper into a mining hole.

Corruption, pollution and child labour have long blighted the DRC’s cobalt industry. But is there any way of turning the country’s critical mineral wealth into a blessing rather than a burden? Cat Rainsford investigates.

Oasis of life – or zone of sacrifice? The fate of Chile’s culturally and environmentally rich salt flats may be decided by a lithium rush to double output. Vanessa Baird reports from the Salar de Atacama.

The government of Dina Boluarte is determined to inflict a hated copper mining project on the people of the Peru’s Tambo Valley. Why, asks Vanessa Baird?

Rising demand; Where from?; Big dirty business; Real needs?

What does the term ‘critical’ mean, and where will we find these minerals?

They are touted as our way out of climate chaos and essential for making the things we use, from mobile phones to electric vehicles. Vanessa Baird sets out to investigate critical minerals – and the rush to get them.

Sculptor, textile and installation artist.

Could the iron road lead the way to climate justice? By Monisha Rajesh.

Inner Spaces; Entre Tus Flores.

To a Land Unknown; The Fire Inside.

In Defence of Barbarism; Disaster Nationalism; The Parlour Wife; Pink Witch.

Struggling with an ethical dilemma? New Internationalist’s Agony Uncle can help you find answers in our troubled political times.