Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives

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Cobalt Red is the searing, first-ever expose of the immense toll taken on the people and environment of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by cobalt mining, as told through the testimonies of the Congolese people themselves. Cobalt is a key component of every lithium-ion rechargeable battery, and many Congolese people are suffering and dying everyday to procure cobalt that will be used by the rest of the world.

D. Morel, wrote that the Congo Free State was “a perfected system of oppression, accompanied by unimaginable barbarities and responsible for the vast destruction of human life. I’m struggling with the author’s final thoughts: “Lasting change is best achieved when the voices of those who are exploited are able to speak for themselves and are heard when they do so. This is storytelling at its most dangerous and yet, the author never falters [ even after witnessing a mine collapse in person <--I would have not dealt with that well at all, but for him, it just reinforced the need for this book to come out and for the truth about all that is going on in Congo to be published].When those arguments failed, the slavers claimed they made changes that remedied the offenses taking place on the plantations. The RMI promotes the responsible sourcing of minerals in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights. He was one of only 10 academics globally to receive the prestigious BA Global Professorship in 2020. We use Google Analytics to see what pages are most visited, and where in the world visitors are visiting from. Mining technology leaped forward during the late Middle Ages when miners started using black powder from China to blow up large rocks.

Although most people have never heard of Kolwezi, billions of people could not conduct their daily lives without this city.For all Apple, Tesla and other companies supply chain vows of not having child labor and caring about human rights, there products still contain cobalt mined in the Congo. By the time the river reaches the Atlantic, it empties with so much force that it clouds the ocean with sediment for a hundred kilometers offshore.

In The Casement Report (1904), Roger Casement, British consul to the Congo Free State, described the colony as a “veritable hell on earth. It's made me strongly consider making real changes in my life to help offset the need for more and more cobalt to be mined.In the studies we conducted, the artisanal miners have more than forty times the amount of cobalt in their urine as the control groups. It is unavoidable, these devices are essential to our lives and are woven into the fabric of society. Automakers are rapidly increasing production of electric vehicles in tandem with governmental efforts to reduce carbon emissions emerging from the Paris Agreement on climate change in 2015.

The book clearly shows what business like Apple, Google, Samsung, Dell, and GM (just to name a few) do to cover up their involvement to child labor and preparatory business practices. It is a vast, intricate and willfully ignorant system to perpetuate the continued exploitation of the people of Congo. If you are listening to it on audio Peter Ganim reads Siddharth's words in a measured and immensely listenable tone. For more details, please consult the latest information provided by Royal Mail's International Incident Bulletin. Occupying the entire heart of the African continent, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is an extraordinary land teeming with nature.Such then was the main task: to convince the world that thgis Congo horror was not only and unquestionably a fact; but that it was not accidental or temporary, or capable of internal cure … To demonstrate that it was at once a survival and a revival of the slave-mind at work, of the slave-trade in being. The cobalt found in the dirt here provides maximum stability and energy density to rechargeable batteries, allowing them to hold more charge and operate safely for longer periods. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. One must acknowledge, however, the following crucial fact—for centuries, enslaving Africans was the nature of colonialism. An unflinching investigation reveals the human rights abuses behind the Congo’s cobalt mining operation—and the moral implications that affect us all.