Lear's Daughters

The year is 2073. Earth's climate is faltering and her ecosystems are breaking down. Her burgeoning populations now rely on food and energy supplies imported from colony worlds.
A routine exploratory mission to the planet Fiix linds conditions radically different from the initial probe data: a world seemingly at war with itself. Instead of a sunny desert climate, the planet is deep in an arctic freeze. A precipitous thaw soon follows, then a sequence of murderously unpredictable weather events. When storms and flooding devastate the Terran base camp and destroy their power and communications links, the pressure is on to figure out what's going on, not just for the sake of science but to ensure the expedition's success and survival.
One explanation comes from the local inhabitants: the Sawls' seemingly primitive society is shaped entirely by the needs of survival under the planet's harsh conditions. The Sawls claim that twin Sister-Goddesses wield the natural elements as weapons of war, taking the entire planet as their battleground. Sorting out the local langauge and myth, the expedition's young linguist, Stavres Ibia, finds himself drawn into Sawl culture, and increasingly convinced that these bizarre beliefs are true.
But local culture is of no interest to the expedition's prospector, Emil Clause, whose mining-giant employer has funded the survey in the first place. He is in search of new sources of lithium, which has become a crucial component of energy production back home. If he makes a big strike on Fiix, the Sawls will only be in his way. So sides are drawn within the expedition in the fight to save the Sawls and their planet from exploitation and development.
But growing evidence suggests that the Sawls are not such simple primitives after all, and that their history is far deeper and more sophisticated than was first assumed.
Then, Clausen finds his lithium, and the battle begins in earnest...