This book is for the naturalist and realists that are concerned about the environment. It goes through the most critical things that drive our modern society, cement, steel, ammonia and plastic, and goes through what it takes to produce said elements. You don't get that enthusiastic about a zero-oil society by reading it.
This book covers some of the most important materials in today's world. It covers the extraction, refinement, and use and explains why the material is important and its challenges. It is also, by extension, a book about the modern world.
Sometimes a book makes you physically ill just by reading it. This is the case of the Holomodor, where the genocide of the Ukranian people and its perpetrates are described in Red Famine. The worst parts were the denials and the justifications.