The Race for What’s Left: The Global Scramble for the World’s Last Resources (2013)

Renowned energy expert Michael T. Klare provides an invaluable account of the new and increasingly dangerous competition for the world's dwindling natural resources. Arguing that the world is facing an unprecedented crisis of resource depletion -- one that goes beyond "peak oil" to encompass shortages of coal and uranium, copper and lithium, water, and arable land -- Klare shows how the desperate hunt for raw materials is forcing governments and corporations to stake their claim in ever more dangerous and remote areas that present grave political and environmental risks.

Citing mounting tensions between the U.S. and China over control of resources in the Asia-Pacific region, volatile local border disputes that raise the likelihood of military confrontation, and the destructive environmental consequences of tar sands oil extraction and fracking, Klare argues that we need to radically alter our consumption patterns and build alternative energy systems before it's too late.