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: 1) by khallow on Wednesday June 09 2021, @04:24AM
I assure you that a lot of Canada is further away from Williston than the Navaho are, such as most of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut (which contain most of Canada's native American population). Looking at the map, the Four Corners monument, which is in Navaho land is only 1100 miles away from Williston. You barely get to Nunavut with that.
And given that we're talking about issues like sex trafficking and boom towns that are directly influenced by national legal and economic systems, you're just wrong here.
Sorry, I don't judge the truth of something by your ability to say stupid things. One might say that the Moon Nazis mine Moon cheese, but that doesn't make it even slightly true.
Those Congolese aren't native Americans nor am I. So that leaves you. Are you an abused native American? Somehow I doubt it. Sounds like this is indeed a waste of time as a result.
Why ask a question like that? Have I or anyone else claimed that mining towns were a perfect cure for hunger? Given your entire post to this point, you have pulled non sequitur after non sequitur.
Yet another non sequitur comes forth. Sorry, oppressing Hawaii doesn't magically make the US a developed world country.
At some point, you have to accept that we're not going to share in the fruits of everything we help create, especially well after our deaths. It makes no sense as a result to stake a claim to that.
Show us these better paths. And perhaps you can explain why you're waiting on approval from the powers that be, rather than just implementing these plans yourself?