As automakers gather at
#CES2023
to proudly announce their newest models of EVs, I wonder how much time they will spend discussing that this is the kind of hellscape from which the cobalt in their batteries is mined?
@StMartinsPress
@Freedom_Fund
@CNNFreedom
A still from the video I shared with
@joerogan
…
This is an industrial mine in the DRC …
This is where the cobalt in our gadgets and cars comes from …
According to all their “Audits” and “Impact Reports”, this does not exist.
When
@joerogan
graciously invited me to be on his podcast, I wasn't sure what to expect.
He posted our conversation in episode
#1914
one week ago, and millions of people have since learned about the new horror in the Congo - cobalt mining.
Change is inevitable.
#1914
- Thank you
@joerogan
for providing a global platform for this crucial story about the unconscionable conditions of cobalt mining in the Congo.
@StMartinsPress
Here is one of the thousands of children gathering a sack of THEIR cobalt … and he is on an industrial mining concession.
According to their “Audits” and “Impact Reports” this does not exist.
There are thousands of babies in the DRC strapped to their mother's backs, inhaling toxic cobalt dust all day.
This teenager is putting her infant for a nap in a cardboard box, so she can clamber into a trench to scavenge for the cobalt that powers our lives.
Today I held a copy of “Cobalt Red” in my hand for the first time. The moment summoned a flood of emotions back to my first trip to the Congo in 2018. As the world hears the testimonies of the Congolese people, I pray we will see fit to end to this disgraceful scramble for loot.
When car companies advertise their shiny new EVs during the
#superbowl
today, none of them will mention the destroyed environment and people of the DR Congo at the bottom of their cobalt supply chains.
#cobaltred
Many industrial mines in the DRC have processing plants that use massive amounts of sulphuric acid to leach copper and cobalt from ore, which produces a highly toxic, mustard colored gas cloud that floats over everything: land, rivers, animals, villages...and children like these.
Another day, another sack of cobalt gathered by a child in the Congo in hazardous conditions…earning him about a dollar, which likely means the difference between eating or not.
This the logic of a global economy whose kings of industry sacrifice human dignity for profit.
Trucks in the DRC loaded with cobalt, copper, nickel, lithium, tin, manganese, and other EV battery metals line up for 20 miles to cross the border. They can take a week to cross, running at idle and polluting the environment.
@StMartinsPress
Green for us, not for them.
@kevinbacon
@Hyundai
Hi Kevin, I’ve been a fan since Footloose.
Perhaps you could lend your voice equally to the human rights and environmental catastrophe taking place at the other end of those EV supply chains.
#cobaltred
This is the face of an artisanal miner in the DRC who carries on his shoulders the intolerable weight of 30kg of cobalt, and the world's rechargeable lives.
@StMartinsPress
@TheJRECompanion
@CNNFreedom
@MikeHudema
And here is the line of pollution spewing cargo trucks lined up for a week or more at the border in the Congo bringing California its precious EV battery metals.
Green for CA.
Apocalypse for the Congo.
Immense gratitude to
@joerogan
and
@rustyrockets
for their gracious words about my research into cobalt mining in the Congo.
I have described these horrors a hundred different ways, but you encapsulated it perfectly with a single word - "apocalypse".
#cobaltred
Example of one of the numerous artisanal mining villages I documented for "Cobalt Red."
No electricity, no sanitation, closest school and medical clinic 9km away.
Shouldn't tech and EV companies do more to support the communities in the DRC that supply their cobalt?
About 3000 people, including hundreds of children, scrounge for cobalt in this broad artisanal mining zone just outside an industrial mining concession (in background). All the artisanal cobalt is sold via intermediaries to industrial mines. There is no "clean cobalt" here.
Everyday countless children in the DRC stand in toxic pools of water to sieve dirt and rubble from cobalt pebbles, one sack of which will earn them around a dollar per day from the traders who sell the cobalt to big mining companies.
@StMartinsPress
@TheJRECompanion
@CNNFreedom
I am confident it would require < 0.5% the price of all rechargeable devices and EVs sold annually to eliminate almost all indecent working conditions suffered by artisanal cobalt miners in the DRC.
Tech and EV co's could easily absorb these costs. Why don't they?
I am going to go out on a limb and say there will be at least 6 different EV commercials during the
#SuperBowl
tomorrow, and not one of them will mention the enormous violence committed against the people and environment of the Congo to get cobalt into their batteries.
#cobaltred
I am deeply honored and grateful that "Cobalt Red" is on the
@nytimes
list of 10 Books to Watch for in Jan 2023. The voices of the Congolese people WILL be heard.
@StMartinsPress
Artisanal miners dig for cobalt inside most industrial mines in the DRC, such as this one. It's plain as day for anyone to see.
As I describe in "Cobalt Red," most of this cobalt is sold via intermediaries back to the industrial mine, and from there into our gadgets and EVs.
Herein the truth of our rechargeable lives.
Children degraded.
Earth destroyed.
All for cobalt.
We have been made unwitting participants in this injustice by a global economic order that did not deem the people of the Congo worthy of basic dignity.
It is time for change.
Even if all cobalt usage in gadgets and cars stopped tomorrow, this does NOT repair the last 12 yrs of misery suffered by the Congolese people.
Also, tech and EV co’s would still buy the copper and nickel contained in the same ore body as the cobalt. Problem NOT solved.
Every day, tens of thousands of Congolese men and teenage boys scrounge for cobalt deep inside hazardous tunnels.
They spend up to 18 hours crouched in narrow shafts without room to sit upright, inhaling toxic particulates, and filled with dread that at any moment, the tunnel
Let’s be clear - just because LFP batteries do not contain cobalt, that does not mean the abuses disappear. Numerous lithium mines are being gouged into Africa as we speak, including in the DRC. Conditions are likely to be just as horrible as cobalt mining.
“Cobalt Red” hasn’t even been released yet, and cobalt stakeholders are already prepping their counter-narratives intended to mislead consumers that conditions in the DRC aren’t so bad. Don’t be fooled. Hear the testimonies of the Congolese people, then decide for yourselves.
A lot of misinformation about cobalt, so let's get one thing straight:
Cobalt use for oil and gas refining = 4% of cobalt consumption, declining share, can be recycled.
Cobalt use for rechargeable batteries = 66% of cobalt consumption + growing share. This is the problem.
Another shot of the grim wasteland at the other end of our rechargeable lives.
You will see no dignity or sustainability here...only a poverty-driven scramble for cobalt, leaving behind the utter ruin of people and earth.
@StMartinsPress
@CNNFreedom
@Freedom_Fund
@rightsbeacon
For those in doubt, I am not criticizing EVs. On the contrary, EVs are critical for the achievement of climate sustainability goals. I am, however, criticizing all EV and consumer-facing tech companies that claim on paper that their cobalt supply chains are clean... (1/2)
Happy New Year.
I wish you all the very best for 2023.
May our many differences - be it class, caste, gender, ideology, religion, or race - fade in significance as compared to the great primacy of our shared humanity.
@LegionHoops
Thank you,
@KyrieIrving
, for lending your voice to this appalling invasion of the human rights of the children of the Congo who scrounge for the cobalt that powers our lives.
The companies making fortunes from this violence must be accountable.
#cobaltred
Children. Congo. Cobalt.
Uniformed employee of major cobalt mining company in DRC arranging to purchase their production.
Said cobalt feeds into batteries of major tech and EV companies.
This is so-called audited and untainted supply.
Truth is on the ground.
#cobaltred
To all who are asking what individuals can do - keep spreading awareness of the plight of the Congolese people who scrounge for our cobalt. Only then will there be sufficient outcry for companies to take responsibility for conditions at the bottom of their cobalt supply chains.
@MatthewDR
@elonmusk
Permit me a moment to point out how cynical and nonsensical today’s “web cam” solution is.
It’s pure PR. Mining concessions can be as big as small towns. Are we talking 10,000 web cams to cover each mine?
Do web cams replant the millions of trees destroyed by cobalt mines?
Still waiting for a single consumer-facing tech or EV company to reach out and express a desire to genuinely work on solutions.
Aren’t the people digging their cobalt in the Congo worth it?
#cobaltred
A reader of “Cobalt Red” shared with me this powerful image he created.
It echoes the schematic of the Brookes Slave Ship uncovered by the great abolitionist Thomas Clarkson.
Clarkson turned the image into a poster and distributed it across England. The brutal geometry of the
Here’s a look at my broader plan to address the immense violence and injustice against the people and environment of the DR Congo caused by cobalt mining: (1/6)
One month from today, "Cobalt Red" will be released, and the world will finally learn the deepest and most disturbing truths about cobalt mining in the DR Congo, as revealed through the voices of the Congolese people themselves.
@StMartinsPress
Please see here some of my photos from the field during research on cobalt mining in the DRC:
"Harrowing images of cobalt mines in Congo where kids dig for $2-a-day"
@MailOnline
@StMartinsPress
#cobaltred
This is not too far from the point at which Henry Morton Stanley began his epic journey to trace the Congo River, a journey that would unleash incalculable torment upon the people of the Congo for generations, up to and including today’s ignoble scramble for cobalt.
The point is - all mineral supply chains linked to rechargeable batteries must be cleansed of labor abuses and environmental destruction.
Cobalt is the most extreme case because almost 75% of global supply comes from a small patch of utterly ruined earth in the DRC.
When in fact nothing could be further from the truth. Is it too much to ask that these companies send teams to the Congo to do the actual work of treating their cobalt miners with dignity, and to ensure the environment of the Congo is not treated like a toxic dumping ground?(2/2)
Please keep an eye out for my new book, "Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives," to be published by St Martin's Press in Jan, 2023: .
It is by far the most important book I have yet written.
@StMartinsPress
@MacmillanUSA
IMPORTANT:
I am not on any other social media sites other than Twitter.
I understand people are impersonating me on Instagram and other sites soliciting donations.
This is not me. I will never ask anyone for a penny.
Please don’t send anyone any of your hard earned money!
More misinformation about cobalt to clarify:
More than 80% of EVs on road today have batteries with cobalt.
Transition in SOME models to LFP batteries does NOT remedy past 12+ years of harms of cobalt mining!
Most EVs will still use cobalt for many years to come.
@StephenKing
No doubt it is a fine car, but can we please also talk about the horrific human rights and environmental violence associated with EV batteries?
As automakers gather at
#CES2023
to proudly announce their newest models of EVs, I wonder how much time they will spend discussing that this is the kind of hellscape from which the cobalt in their batteries is mined?
@StMartinsPress
@Freedom_Fund
@CNNFreedom
@Skaffen00
You don’t and shouldn’t have to pay more for your phone, or any other gadget or EV. The companies should be the ones investing in the bottom of their supply chains, and accepting the microscopically reduced profit for doing so.
Thank you
@nytimes
for once again shining a light on this pressing human rights and environmental tragedy.
#cobaltred
"He Needed a Big Megaphone, So He Wrote a Best Seller"
@tim_cook
Even if this is achieved (consider me skeptical), it does NOTHING to repair 15 years of destruction of the people and environment of the DR Congo for cobalt.
This is the colonial mentality - pillage the people and resources of the global south, and leave behind an apocalypse
After receiving numerous emails of spoof accounts of me on Instagram, I have set up an account under the username: siddharth.kara.
I have posted one of the videos I posted on Twitter so that you know it is me.
See you over at IG as well!
We mustn't let this issue fade from mainstream attention. That's what they are counting on. Keep the pressure growing, and we can achieve lasting change for the people in the DR Congo.
#cobaltred
@JamesMelville
Thank you for amplifying this urgent catastrophe!
I encourage anyone interested to read "Cobalt Red" to learn the full horror of cobalt mining in the DRC.
The more people who know the truth, the more effective our future efforts to address these injustices will be.
#cobaltred
I applaud Rep Chris Smith (R-NJ) for his courage and moral leadership in introducing HR 4443 to ban the import of goods made with cobalt or lithium mined in the DR Congo.
If passed, this law could help pressure tech and EV companies to take responsibility
Thank you
@nytimes
for including “Cobalt Red” on this list.
The voices of the Congolese people continue to be heard.
#cobaltred
“9 New Books We Recommend This Week” - The New York Times
@TheEconomist
This article is wrong in so many ways, I can only assume it was written by a bot…or someone with an agenda to diffuse attention from the rapine of the people and environment of the Congo for Cobalt.
#cobaltred
@SharaVirlan
Keep spreading awareness, until the companies that sell us our rechargeable devices and cars are compelled to turn their eyes away from their quarterly profit statements, and look directly into the suffering taking place at the bottom of their cobalt supply chains.
I am proud to announce that “Cobalt Red” is now available for sale in India.
Interested readers can pick up a copy at these bookstores:
Mumbai
1. Kitab Khana
2. Granth Bookstores
3. Title Waves
4. Crossword Kemps Corner and Inorbit store
New Delhi
1. Bahri sons
2. Om
With these projects, there will be no room left for denial or avoidance of the truth: tech and EV companies reap immense profits by selling products that largely rely on cobalt mined in horrific conditions in the DRC, and they are not doing enough to address that injustice. (5/6)
It is a triumph for the people of the DR Congo and those who toil at the bottom of global cobalt supply chains for “Cobalt Red” to be included on the Long List for the
@ftlive
Business Book of the Year 2023
@StMartinsPress
#bbya23
It is an enormous triumph for the people of the DR Congo that "Cobalt Red" has been named a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in non-fiction. As their voices are heard around the world, justice becomes inevitable.
@StMartinsPress
@pulitzercenter
1. My book, “Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives” will be the first book to bring the voices of the Congolese people to a world that cannot function without their suffering (Jan 31). (2/6)