Stolen from another forum, not my info.
The Congolese mines where kids are paid $2-a-day to dig for cobalt.
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Cobalt mining in the Congo
Video
Barefoot children covered in chemicals, endlessly smashing open rocks for $2-a-day; exhausted new mothers with their babies strapped to them, sifting through nets of rocks in the hopes of finding the precious cobalt.
Those are among the powerful images obtained by Siddharth Kara over the last several years in the Katanga region, that can be shared now ahead of the publication of his new book - Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives.
The book paints a damning picture of the desperate demand for cobalt in the West, and the deadly effects of it among African families.
Speaking to
DailyMail.com ahead of its release, Kara, an adjunct lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, said his research proves that the confident assurances of big tech can't be trusted.
'There are hundreds of thousands of the poorest people on the planet [mining for cobalt].
'The moral clock has been dialed back to colonial times.
'They’re doing it for $2-a-day and for them, it’s the difference between whether or not they eat that day so they don’t have the option of saying no.'
The sudden demand for the eco-friendly vehicles, ironically driven by environmentally-conscious, is having a catastrophic effect in Congo, according to Kara.
'It’s supposed to be a green choice, getting an EV. Well it’s not green for everybody.'
Coupled with the immediate problems of overpopulated, underregulated mines is the added danger of cobalt's toxicity.
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Prolonged exposure to cobalt can lead to lung disease, deafness and, according to Kara who has spent years in the Congo researching the subject, birth defects and various forms of cancer.
'This is blood diamonds multiplied by a thousand – diamonds aren’t toxic.
'And you buy a diamond once, maybe twice, in your life, whereas western society can’t function for more than 24 hours without devices that rely on cobalt,' he said.
Among his videos is one of two children, covered in toxic chemicals from the mine, smashing their rocks open.
They cannot be older than seven or eight.
Big tech companies like Microsoft, Tesla, Apple and Samsung have made various promises and commitments to move away from using cobalt in products.
They have also leaned on the fact that many of the mines are Chinese owned and operated, claiming it's out of their control what goes on those operations.
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From the earth, to our handheld devices: Cobalt, found in rocks, is the key mineral that prevents batteries from overheating and extends their lifespan
Continued