Every Thursday, a new episode of Living Planet brings you environment stories from around the world, digging deeper into topics that touch our lives every day. The prize-winning, weekly half-hour radio magazine and podcast is produced by Deutsche Welle, Germany's international broadcaster - visit dw.com/environment for more.
We live on a planet of finite resources but our demand for new consumer products and technologies keeps growing. That's driving a race to extract materials from ever-more remote corners of the Earth – and beyond.