The Daily Mail reports on the hypocrisy of EV makers and those that drive them.
For years, big tech companies like Apple and Tesla have assured the customers of their glossy stores and showrooms that all their goods are ethically sourced and sold.
But a new series of images taken from inside mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 90 per cent of the world’s cobalt is mined and used to make the batteries that power our tech-led lives, raise uncomfortable questions.
[…] Apple, Microsoft, Google, Tesla and others all insist that they hold cobalt suppliers to the highest of standards, and that they only trade with smelters and refiners who adhere to their codes of conduct.
But the photos and videos that DailyMail.com can share today from some of the largest mines in Africa – where many of these suppliers get their cobalt – tell a different story.
Barefoot children covered in chemicals, endlessly smashing open rocks for $2 a day; exhausted new mothers with their babies strapped to them, sifting through nets of rocks in the hopes of finding the precious cobalt.
Those are among the powerful images obtained by Siddharth Kara over the last several years in the Katanga region, that can be shared now ahead of the publication of his new book – Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives.
The book paints a damning picture of the desperate demand for cobalt in the West, and the deadly effects of it among African families.
Speaking to DailyMail.com ahead of its release, Kara, an adjunct lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, said his research proves that the confident assurances of big tech can’t be trusted.
[…] The sudden demand for the eco-friendly vehicles, ironically driven by environmentally conscious, is having a catastrophic effect in Congo, according to Kara.
“It’s supposed to be a green choice, getting an EV. Well it’s not green for everybody.”
Those that drive EVs do so to virtual signal. They, and only they, really care about the environment. They, and only they, care about climate change. They, and only they, choose to drive a car that doesn’t soil the planet.
Except EVs do pollute. That pollution is done at the manufacturing stage including manufacturing the battery.
Prolonged exposure to cobalt can lead to lung disease, deafness and, according to Kara who has spent years in the Congo researching the subject, birth defects and various forms of cancer.
“This is blood diamonds multiplied by a thousand – diamonds aren’t toxic.”
But hey, what’s some dead African kids when you can show the whole world you’re better than everybody else because you drive an EV?