TORONTO — Vince Beiser’s book on critical minerals has won the $70,000 Balsillie Prize for Public Policy.

Writers’ Trust of Canada announced “Power Metal: The Race for the Resources That Will Shape the Future” as the winner at a private dinner in Toronto on Tuesday evening.

Beiser’s book explores what jurors call an “inescapable paradox” on the way to net-zero: that to transition to a green future, we must extract critical minerals from the planet, a process that has a significant environmental footprint.

Jurors praise the book for raising “essential considerations and uncomfortable questions for policy-makers and citizens alike.”

The annual award, which upped its purse by $10,000 for its fifth year, recognizes non-fiction books that advance policy discussions on social, political, eco

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