While we all depend on this earth, do we really understand how nature sustains us, and what we are doing to it through mining? What is the real cost of the unending extraction of minerals—for power, for industries, for our food packaging, vehicles, arms and ammunition—and this ‘development’ on local inhabitants and ecosystems? Who benefits from this, and whose lives are destroyed?  

Out of This Earth answers these questions through a detailed account of the aluminium industry. Focusing on the Khondalite mountains in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, capped by some of the world's best bauxite deposits, the authors trace the roots of this industry, which promises prosperity to the most marginalised sections of the world’s poorest countries, yet end up causing untold damage.

Moving beyond Odisha, this book provides a macro-view of the aluminium industry, the complex web of interests it sustains, and its disastrous effects in many nations, including Brazil, Australia, Guyana, Jamaica, Guinea, Ghana and Iceland.

Indigenous communities, however, are confronting the political-industrial complex right now. The book presents a bottom-up view of how affected communities in east India and elsewhere are resisting their displacement. The authors seek recognition for the non-violent tribal movements across the land, which aim to protect sustainable lifestyles from the harmful effects of mining and metal factories.