In the past couple of years, there’s been a greater push for electric vehicles. the impetus of this drive has been that electric vehicles will save the environment, it’ll keep the Earth alive longer, and keep humans alive longer. in some ways that is proving to be a very large lie.
Research being done has shown that the push for mining the lithium and Cobalt needed for large-scale Batteries used by electric vehicles has increased the demand for human trafficking. latest reports show that children in the Congo Are being forced to participate in the strip mining of these Metals needed for batteries. China one of the biggest polluters, and one of the primary manufacturers of batteries for electric vehicles is becoming one of the worst even traffickers on the planet. With the number of victims being taken to manufacture the precious batteries for electrical vehicles, they have added a cost that cannot be repaid.
All cobalt sourced from the Congo is tainted by various degrees of abuse, including slavery, child labor, forced labor, debt bondage, human trafficking and incalculable environmental harm
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/01/1152893248/red-cobalt-congo-drc-mining-siddharth-kara
As demand increases for Cobalt things look as if they will continue to get worse. Although it appears to be on the up and up through monitored mining practices, what has been looked at is that the artisanal miners who only are supposed to produce a small amount of cobalt with small minds and facts have been found to have very large operations going on and that they’re actually producing more that they can use as believed that the corporations that reminding this Cobalt for use in rechargeable batteries are in fact using artisanal miners as proxies for their demands. and here is whether used to circumvent inspections, child welfare, and filter through the influx of products produced by human traffickers.
Last year, many took to social media using the hashtag #NoCongoNoPhone to fight against the cobalt supply chain that fosters child labor and the exploitation of small-scale artisanal miners. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has some of the world’s most valuable minerals, such as copper, gold, coltan, cobalt, and diamonds, and has the earth’s second-largest forest after the Amazon. Yet, the DRC is one of the world’s poorest countries as poverty and humanitarian crises plague its citizens.
More than half of the world’s cobalt resources are located in the DRC, and over 70% of the world’s cobalt mining occurs there. Artisanal miners produce 20% of the country’s cobalt output. The remainder comes from foreign-owned firms, primarily Chinese, whose rechargeable battery industry accounts for around 60% of global cobalt demand.
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/drc-mining-industry-child-labor-and-formalization-small-scale-mining
The demand for these minerals to create batteries not for just phones, but for electric vehicles has become a twisted quest to somehow preserve the planet by destroying human lives. even our own Department of Labor here in the United States has realized that this is becoming a crisis.
Videos produced by different global news agencies show us the cost of our Gaia-preservation-fueled ecstasy.
However, there are things we can do as average citizens to help curtail the need for such high-volume cobalt mining, by making choices to change the demands, we can make a difference in how we are supplied.
For example, we all know that the auto-industry works on the premise of changing your vehicle for something newer and shinier and just a couple of years. when you decide to purchase an electric vehicle check and see what its long-term viability is, how long you keep on the road, and will the company force you to have constant firmware and software upgrades just to keep your vehicle, ( kind of like to do with your cell phones ), and ensure that your city is properly equipped to handle your electric vehicle on its grid. Ensuring you have proper power flow is a good way to maintain the life of your battery for your vehicle.
Also, look at companies that are moving away from conflict materials and are using recycled or specially mined minerals for their cell phone lines. Currently, the two largest cell phone manufacturers working to move away from conflict materials and continue manufacturing smartphones are Nokia and Samsung. There are a few companies in Europe that are looking into this as well and they’re indeed looking at expanding to the United States when possible. also small steps such as purchasing a device that might be a year older than your current advice when you choose to change phones or if you have a damaged phone it needs to be replaced means one less battery being used in a brand new phone.
also, perhaps instead of latching on to the shiniest newest device out there using your own device for as long as possible and keep it properly maintained and upgraded well also help with the reduction of the need for new rechargeable batteries. if you wish to take more direct action contact your cellular provider see what manufactures they are working with and what they’re doing to help reduce phones produce with conflict minerals, also, contract your representatives and let them know you want to preserve the environment but not the cost of human lives.