Charged: A History of Batteries and Lessons for a Clean Energy Future (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books)
(By James Morton Turner)
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| Author | James Morton Turner |
In Charged, James Morton Turner explores the environmental history of the three most common battery types to yield insights in into the prospects, challenges, and material consequences of scaling up batteries to support a clean energy future. These types of batteries include: lead-acid batteries, which in part because of the hazards they pose, have become the most recycled product in the world; disposable AA batteries, which although extraordinarily energy intensive to manufacture, became a little-known environmental success story when mercury was eliminated; and lithium-ion batteries, which create unique environmental issues as they require a wider array of highly refined raw materials to manufacture and perform.
Turner also engages three ideas that challenge the usual thinking about the past and future of energy and environmental sustainability: the importance of energy quality, the ways in which batteries make energy visible, and how batteries underpin a broader culture of mobility. Through this, batteries become the vehicle for an illuminating analysis of the social and environmental dimensions of modern systems of production and consumption. Considering batteries as the starting point for an investigation into the paradoxes of modern technology, this book tells a story of environmental degradation and social injustice, but also of technical advances and environmental sustainability toward a resilient future.”
