As demands for metals and minerals increase to support low-carbon technologies, Saleem Ali promotes an international strategy to protect future generations
Saleem Ali sees sustainable strategies related to precious minerals as inherently linked to far-sighted collaborations grounded in a respect for the planet. “We need to look beyond traditional ideas of business leaders or political leaders," he says, "and aspire to be systems leaders through ecological literacy.” Illustration: Joel Kimmel
How we extract metals and minerals from the Earth brings destruction to the planet and puts at risk the raw materials we need to make the critical transition to green energy, says Saleem Ali, A94.
But we can improve how we manage the planet’s nonrenewable resources, he says, if we adopt a collaborative global approach that addresses the environmental hazards of extraction and ensures that limited resources are used for the long-term benefit of all humanity.
Ali’s dedication to a systems approach to managing nonrenewable resources informs his research and teaching at the University of Delaware where he is the Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Energy and the Environment and chair of the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences. It has vaulted him into a larger sphere of influence as a member of several global advisory groups, including the United Nations International Resource Panel and the Secretary General's Advisory Board on Zero Waste.
He’s also challenged the public to reckon with the consequences of the mineral industry in a series of books exploring the environmental destruction caused by our pursuit of gold, oil, and other natural resources. His most recent book, Soil to Foil: Aluminum and the Quest for Industrial Sustainability, is a deep dive into the challenges and opportunities of aluminum. He considers this story a “corollary for a broader conversation about how we can more sustainably manage the elemental resources of our planet.”
Aluminum is highly versatile, valued for its malleability, lightness, and resistance to rust. Those same qualities make it central to building the infrastructure for the green energy transition in sectors that include transportation, solar panels, and batteries, Ali says.
As with other natural resources, the challenge is to manage extraction sustainably, including ramping up recycling. “I think we could get close to a circular economy with aluminum,” says Ali. “What I hope people take away from the book is that, in general, across all raw materials, we need to rethink a process with a destructive environmental impact and significant carbon footprint, as well as examine the incremental decisions each of us make daily.”
For Ali, the theme that connects all these ideas is collaboration across sectors, which depends on “systems leaders,” or leaders who think cohesively, across multiple disciplines. “Systems thinking is so essential for contemporary leaders in any field,” he says. “We need to look beyond traditional ideas of business leaders or political leaders and aspire to be systems leaders through ecological literacy.”
Pivot Points
Ali grew up in Pakistan, with parents who prioritized education. He is grateful to them for sparking his imagination and intellect with a subscription to the youth version of National Geographic magazine. When he turned 12, the “grownup” magazine, which covered “everything under the sun,” fueled his growing curiosity about the wider world.
“That magazine is what first inspired me to be a systems scientist,” he says. “It made me see that there are always connections between physical geography and human geography. It’s why I continue to always look for connections.”
At Tufts, Ali double majored in environmental studies and chemistry. He went on to earn a master’s degree from Yale in environmental law and policy and a doctorate in urban studies and planning from MIT.
Chemistry will always speak to his indelible fascination for the periodic table, “the anchor for everything I do,” Ali says. Yet environmental system sciences fed his wide-ranging curiosity “and it fits my temperament,” he says. “I like to travel and meet people. I want to learn as much as I can from them, and to synthesize new ideas.” It’s also an interdisciplinary field that he believes holds the key to solving today’s pressing global challenges.
Future Blueprint, Now
In a recent TED Talk commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation, Ali was asked to contribute a “Big Bet” for improving the condition of humanity. He proposed a mineral trust for the green transition. Such a trust would wisely manage the Earth’s raw materials, which are indispensable to clean energy technologies, as resources that benefit future generations, he says.
The idea of a planetary trust was first proposed by political philosopher Edith Brown Weiss in 1984, says Ali. But in 2024, it gains new urgency: The UN’s climate change panel’s latest report says we must cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2035 to avoid catastrophic consequences.
What is needed is a vast collaborative effort, he says, in which key decisions about mineral processing would be coordinated by the International Renewable Energy Agency, a global intergovernmental organization, rather than by individual businesses or nations. “So you would have [a] mechanism that is much more technocratic and also much more efficient,” Ali argues.
In time, this approach would build a strong, reliable energy infrastructure that is not hindered by geopolitical tensions and that encodes the values of sustainability, he says.
Resources as Endowments
The need for thinking about “resource endowments is particularly compelling and prescient when the resources in question are needed to solve global problems like climate change,” Ali underscores in a recent article in Forbes.
“The minerals specifically needed for this kind of transition should be available through markets without fears of resource nationalism or protectionism,” he writes. “They should be extracted where it is both ecologically and economically efficient to do so and not because of political bravado.”
Achieving a planetary trust, Ali believes, is not without precedent. The 1987 Montreal Protocol is a global agreement to protect life on Earth by shielding it from harmful ultraviolet radiation. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea—an agreement between 150 countries representing all regions of the world—establishes a legal framework for all maritime activities, including deep seabed mining.
“Minerals, especially the ones which we're using for sustainable design of infrastructure, which we need to prevent climate change, should be considered in that same light,” Ali says. “In my mind, this is nothing less than mission critical if we are to successfully progress toward a renewable, sustainable energy future.”
Editor's Note: Saleem Ali will expand on his career and systems thinking on September 5 when he gives the keynote address for the Hoch Cunningham Environmental Lectures Series. He is one of many alumni returning to campus to mark the 40th anniversary celebration of the Tufts Environmental Studies Program. Learn more here, including how to register to hear his lecture, Systems Leaders in the 21st Century: Why Environmental Literacy Matters, via livestream Zoom.
