Reversing Climate Change 374: Mining with Microbes: Biomimicry in Copper Extraction—w/ Liz Dennett, PhD, CEO & Founder of Endolith
What if microbes could help us mine responsibly? What if astrobiology—the study of life beyond Earth—held clues for how to fix the way we extract resources on Earth?
Today’s guest is Liz Dennett, CEO and founder of Endolith, a biotech startup using microbes to boost copper recovery from mining waste. With a PhD in astrobiology, experience at NASA, and a career spanning oil, gas, and data science, Dennett is one of the most fascinating polymaths in climate tech.
This episode dives into how microbes mine metals, why copper is civilization’s next constraint, and what it means to clean up an industry everyone loves to hate. Ross and Liz also explore the moral contradictions of “ethical extraction,” the realities of startup life, and how humor—and humility—might be the best renewable resources of all.
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Resources
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Earth in Human Hands: Shaping Our Planet's Future by Dr. David Grinspoon
47: David Grinspoon, Astrobiologist
Geology Cage Match: The Sapiezoic vs. the Anthropocene
Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives by Siddharth Kara
The War BelowLithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives by Ernest Scheyder
Deus ex machina
“If it falls to your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music ... Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.