The Moral Economy of Resource Extraction and the Future of Industrialization

The "energy transition" is actually a shift from relying on fossil fuels (like coal, oil, and gas) to using metals to generate energy. However, extracting metals has always been a significant environmental and political issue, especially for cities. This problem has been around for centuries, even ancient Roman writers wrote about it. In this program, Helen Thompson, Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge University, talks about the historic use of fossil fuels and its economic, social and environmental impacts to the transition today to extracting metals for energy, dominated by China. Thompson points out that extracting resources will always have environmental and social costs. To mitigate these risks, she says we need to find ways to reduce international competition and ecological damage. This requires acknowledging that the idea of endless progress, which was fueled by fossil fuels, has its limits. And she says we must prioritize sustainability and responsible resource management to create a better future. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Business] [Show ID: 40428]

You can listen to The Moral Economy of Resource Extraction and the Future of Industrialization online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The Moral Economy of Resource Extraction and the Future of Industrialization is an episode from Economy/Labor Issues (Video) by UCTV.

This episode is 01:20:24 long.

This episode was published on Jun 10, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Economy/Labor Issues (Video) when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.