Electric Car Batteries Are Turning This Country Into an Actual Hellscape:
As the demand for gadgets and electric cars grows, so too are the mining operations that dig up cobalt to use in lithium-ion batteries.
And that's become a serious problem for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, The New Yorker reports, which sits atop about 3.4 million metric tons of the stuff — half of the entire planet's supply. A massive, gold rush-like mining industry was born after residents in poverty-stricken areas discovered ore deposits under their homes. But now, many are finding that digging up the valuable mineral has failed to lift them out of poverty. And meanwhile, dangerous conditions are killing miners as exposure to the metal is poisoning both people and the environment.
A lack of regulations and enforcement over the mines has resulted in the miners, who risk their health and safety for financial security, being exploited by officials and traders who are unscrupulously lining their own pockets, according to The New Yorker. One miner told the publication that he now struggles to pay his $25 monthly rent even as the value of cobalt continues to soar — and the only alternative was to work at a major corporation's mine for considerably less money.
Meanwhile, thousands of children have been put to work as well, according to The New Yorker, some of whom say they can't remember the last time they could afford a meal. In order to keep them working, the kids are often even drugged with appetite suppressors.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07 2021, @10:28PM (2 children)
Hey, I wonder what China was like in 1960?
Oh right, that was just the start of the cultural revolution, and they got to screw themselves with a heavy-duty piledriver. And yet China managed to dig itself out despite less abundant natural resources, and a positive wreck of what few institutions they had left.
At some point the "colonialist history" story has an expiry date, and Congo is past that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @04:52AM (1 child)
Ditto the middle east. What? What? We cut their 1000 year tribal boundaries into nice straight lines directly through the middle and they can't resolve it?! Fucking primitives. Look at civilized places like Europe - no wars AT ALL.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday June 08 2021, @01:40PM
Pick up a history book. Europe's history is endless warfare. No major wars in the last 75 years? Hitler kicked them all in the balls, and they haven't recovered enough to start another war. Not to mention a helluva lot of energy was expended in the Cold War. Then there is Ukraine, Kosovo, and Georgia.
So, your idyllic Europe is only 3 generations removed from it's own endless tribal warfare, but you claim some sort of superiority over African tribals? We probably should send some nukes to Africa, pass them out based on population.