โ Scribed by Saleem Ali
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Aluminum is the most abundant metal in the earthโs crust. It is also ubiquitous in the modern world, from aircraft to soda cans. A dizzying number of consumer and industrial products employ aluminum, typically alloyed, because of its availability, versatility, and malleability. Today, how efficiently we useโand reuseโaluminum is vital to addressing key environmental challenges and understanding humanityโs fraught relationship with the earth.
Soil to Foil tells the extraordinary story of aluminum. Saleem H. Ali reveals its pivotal role in the histories of scientific inquiry and technological innovation as well as its importance to sustainability. He offers compelling portraits of the scientists and innovators who discovered new uses for this remarkable element, ranging from chemistry and geoscience to engineering and industrial design. Ali argues that aluminum exemplifies broader lessons about stewardship of nonrenewable resources: its seeming abundance has given rise to wasteful and destructive practices. Soil to Foil follows aluminumโs path along the supply chain, from extraction to production, consumption to recycling. Ali explores the ecological damage at mine sites and visits affected communities seeking to restore the land. He foregrounds the possibilities for more sustainable industrial practices, emphasizing how product design can incorporate eventual reuse and recycling. Ultimately, Soil to Foil shows that the story of aluminumโs use and misuse helps us rethink how to sustainably manage the resources of our planet.
Table of Contents
Preface
Part I. Salt and Sod
1. Elemental Origins and the Invention of Need
2. Soil Without Soul: Why Aluminum Was Rejected by Life
Part II. Precious Forces
3. Unbreakable Bonds: The Challenge of Extraction
4. The Bond Breakers and Their Bounty
Part III. Flight and Foil
5. Mobile Metal: How Aluminum Facilitated War and Peace
6. Aluminum for All: The Invention of a Household Metal
Part IV. Elemental Flows
7. Recycling and Realism: The Industrial Ecology Paradigm
8. Restoration and Renewal of Mineral Frontiers
Epilogue: Governing Our Planetโs Elemental Resources
Notes
Index
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