Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives

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I’m struggling with the author’s final thoughts: “Lasting change is best achieved when the voices of those who are exploited are able to speak for themselves and are heard when they do so.” I do agree with his plea for accountability, rather than “zero-tolerance policies and hollow PR” focusing on human rights violations. One of his solutions may seem unattainable - “treat the artisanal miners as equal employees to the people who work at corporate headquarters.” I am writing this review on my laptop with a rechargeable battery, looking at my tablet with a rechargeable battery. I brushed my teeth this morning with an electric toothbrush with, yes, a rechargeable battery. I wear a smart watch, with a rechargeable battery. And when we trade in our leased car, I expect its replacement choices will all be EV cars. Content is profoundly bleak. Siddharth Kara takes us through an industry responsible for horrifying human rights abuses, including severe long-term health repercussions, child labor, and deaths for which no one is held responsible. An unflinching investigation reveals the human rights abuses behind the Congo’s cobalt mining operation—and the moral implications that affect us all.

Cobalt Red, How the Another Dirty Side of ‘Clean’ Energy, “Cobalt Red, How the

I was extremely blessed to get an audiobook ARC for this read and I am so glad I did. The narration for this book was fantastic. I will be adding this narrator to my "must listen" list. He tells the story of Congo and cobalt and all that has happened to the author in a straightforward, easy to listen to way and I am so grateful to have received this audiobook; it made an already very difficult read a teeny bit easier. In the Western world, almost all our technological devices use rechargeable batteries, and with the push to move to more electronic vehicles, there are more and more rechargeables needed. A good amount of cobalt goes into each of those batteries, and the Congo is where you’ll find the majority of cobalt to be mined. Never in human history has there been so much suffering that generated so much profit that directly touched the lives of more people around the world.”

The author travels to mines and through villages in the Congo, talking to the people mining. He tries to talk to some of the companies paying for the cobalt (and some of the middlemen), but there are only a few who will talk to him. Ron Rash is renowned for his writing about Appalachia, but his latest book, The Caretaker, begins ... The harsh realities of cobalt mining in the Congo are an inconvenience to every stakeholder in the chain. No company wants to concede that the rechargeable batteries used to power smartphones, tablets, laptops, and electric vehicles contain cobalt mined by peasants and children in hazardous conditions. In public disclosures and press releases, the corporations perched atop the cobalt chain typically cite their commitments to international human rights norms, zero-tolerance policies on child labor, and adherence to the highest standards of supply chain due diligence. Here are a few examples:1

Cobalt Red, How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives by Cobalt Red, How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives by

Newsweek’s Meredith Wolf Schizer’s interviewed the author in her article, “ Clean Energy’s Dirty Secret—Human Rights Abuses in Cobalt Mining” In this tour-de-force exposé, Kara...uncovers the abuse and suffering powering the digital revolution...Throughout, Kara's empathetic profiles and dogged reporting on the murkiness of the cobalt supply chain are buttressed by incisive history lessons on the 19th-century plunder of the Congo...Readers will be outraged and empowered to call for change." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) The truth, however, is this—but for their demand for cobalt and the immense profits they accrue through the sale of smartphones, tablets, laptops, and electric vehicles, the entire blood-for-cobalt economy would not exist. Furthermore, the inevitable outcome of a lawless scramble for cobalt in an impoverished and war-torn country can only be the complete dehumanization of the people exploited at the bottom of the chain. To understand these realities, we must first lay a bit of groundwork in this chapter on the Congo and the cobalt mining supply chain. Our journey will then begin in an old colonial mining town called Lubumbashi. From there, a single road traverses the mining provinces deeper into the heart of cobalt territory. As we follow this road, the conditions of cobalt mining will be revealed with each passing mile through the firsthand accounts of the children, women, and men who dig for cobalt, as well as my own reporting on the mineral traders, government officials, multinational corporations, and other stakeholders that profit from their work. Nearing the center of cobalt mining in Kolwezi, we will encounter testimonies of a darker truth, one that cannot be fathomed. I saw it for myself on September 21, 2019, at a place called Kamilombe. I will take you there, just as I took the journey, down the only road that leads to the truth. The theme of “utter contempt for their humanity” and “domination” infusing the drive for ‘clean energy’ is not confined only to mining and electric vehicles.With extraordinary tenacity and compassion, Siddharth Kara evokes one of the most dramatic divides between wealth and poverty in the world today. His reporting on how the dangerous, ill-paid labor of Congo children provides a mineral essential to our cellphones will break your heart. I hope policy-makers on every continent will read this book." - Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's Ghost Although the scale of destruction caused by cobalt mining in the name of renewable energy is without contemporary parallel, the contradictory nature of mining is nothing new. Some of the most transformative advancements in human civilization would not have been possible without gouging the earth for minerals and metals. The revolution

Cobalt Red How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives by

At times this book was difficult to read, not just the subject matter but the heavy use of acronyms and the inconsistent feeling to the timeline. Both makes sense as the author goes to great lengths to make sure he protects those that were brave enough to give him interviews. There is a section that outlines the history of the Congo that would have felt better suited at the beginning of the book so it can be referenced again as the author continues but that is just my preference. Although ASM is fraught with hazardous conditions, the sector has been growing rapidly. There are roughly forty-five million people around the world directly involved in ASM, which represents an astonishing 90 percent of the world’s total mining workforce. Despite the many advancements in machinery and techniques, the formal mining industry relies heavily on the hard labor of artisanal miners to boost production at minimal expense. The contributions from ASM are substantial, including 26 percent of the global supply of tantalum, 25 percent of tin and gold, 20 percent of diamonds, 80 percent of sapphires, and up to 30 percent of cobalt.3 I may not have come away with a plan or many thoughts on how to help this crisis, but I was emotionally affected and was educated and this is what will fuel my future actions.Rarely has a book had such a profound effect on my views of the world, but Siddharth Kara’s writing grabbed hold of my heart and twisted it throughout this eye-opening read. At first I was staggered by the heaviness of the data presented, but then I was drawn into the horrors of these artisanal miners lives and my heart broke for them. The idea that my phone has caused the death of a child in Congo is not only abhorrent, but devastating to me. Child labor is abhorrent in general, but the fact that much of the mining for cobalt is done by CHILDREN [as young as SIX YEARS OLD] and the companies that buy said cobalt have it in writing that there are no children at "THEIR" mines [because they clearly have never, ever set foot in Congo and in reality, don't want to know, as long as the money keeps coming in for them. Their lives and minds would change if they actually had to go there and SEE the littles mining this dangerous cobalt], and they don't engage in dangerous practices [again, SO not the truth]. We, as consumers of rechargeables, need to do better and hold these companies to account. What a book. It is very readable for being nonfiction. Sometimes, data and facts can get in the way of the narrative and bog it down, but not in this book. Such a horrible exploitation of the Congolese people! I had no idea (which is likely true of most of us) what other humans are going through so I can have an iPhone or so people can buy Teslas. And all for the almighty dollar, which reigns supreme. Cobalt is an essential component to every lithium-ion rechargeable battery made today, the batteries that power our smartphones, tablets, laptops, and electric vehicles. Roughly 75 percent of the world’s supply of cobalt is mined in the Congo, often by peasants and children in sub-human conditions. Billions of people in the world cannot conduct their daily lives without participating in a human rights and environmental catastrophe in the Congo. In this stark and crucial book, Kara argues that we must all care about what is happening in the Congo—because we are all implicated.” Source