Saleem H. Ali is Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Energy and the Environment at the University of Delaware and a senior fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Sustainable Investment. He is a member of the United Nations International Resource Panel and the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel of the Global Environment Facility. Ali’s books include Earthly Order: How Natural Laws Define Human Life (2022).

Aluminum—who knew? In Saleem H. Ali’s capable hands, the metal becomes the vehicle for an engrossing and enlightening explanation of how our world works—and how it might work much better.

• PrefacePart I. Salt and Sod1. Elemental Origins and the Invention of Need2. Soil Without Soul: Why Aluminum Was Rejected by LifePart II. Precious Forces3. Unbreakable Bonds: The Challenge of Extraction4. The Bond Breakers and Their BountyPart III. Flight and Foil5. Mobile Metal: How Aluminum Facilitated War and Peace6. Aluminum for All: The Invention of a Household MetalPart IV. Elemental Flows7. Recycling and Realism: The Industrial Ecology Paradigm8. Restoration and Renewal of Mineral FrontiersEpilogue: Governing Our Planet’s Elemental ResourcesNotesIndex

Saleem H. Ali is Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Energy and the Environment at the University of Delaware and a senior fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Sustainable Investment. He is a member of the United Nations International Resource Panel and the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel of the Global Environment Facility. Ali’s books include Earthly Order: How Natural Laws Define Human Life (2022).

Aluminum—who knew? In Saleem H. Ali’s capable hands, the metal becomes the vehicle for an engrossing and enlightening explanation of how our world works—and how it might work much better.

• PrefacePart I. Salt and Sod1. Elemental Origins and the Invention of Need2. Soil Without Soul: Why Aluminum Was Rejected by LifePart II. Precious Forces3. Unbreakable Bonds: The Challenge of Extraction4. The Bond Breakers and Their BountyPart III. Flight and Foil5. Mobile Metal: How Aluminum Facilitated War and Peace6. Aluminum for All: The Invention of a Household MetalPart IV. Elemental Flows7. Recycling and Realism: The Industrial Ecology Paradigm8. Restoration and Renewal of Mineral FrontiersEpilogue: Governing Our Planet’s Elemental ResourcesNotesIndex

Saleem H. Ali is Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Energy and the Environment at the University of Delaware and a senior fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Sustainable Investment. He is a member of the United Nations International Resource Panel and the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel of the Global Environment Facility. Ali’s books include Earthly Order: How Natural Laws Define Human Life (2022).

Aluminum—who knew? In Saleem H. Ali’s capable hands, the metal becomes the vehicle for an engrossing and enlightening explanation of how our world works—and how it might work much better.

• PrefacePart I. Salt and Sod1. Elemental Origins and the Invention of Need2. Soil Without Soul: Why Aluminum Was Rejected by LifePart II. Precious Forces3. Unbreakable Bonds: The Challenge of Extraction4. The Bond Breakers and Their BountyPart III. Flight and Foil5. Mobile Metal: How Aluminum Facilitated War and Peace6. Aluminum for All: The Invention of a Household MetalPart IV. Elemental Flows7. Recycling and Realism: The Industrial Ecology Paradigm8. Restoration and Renewal of Mineral FrontiersEpilogue: Governing Our Planet’s Elemental ResourcesNotesIndex