On a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience, the host spoke with author Siddhartha Kara, a specialist in modern-day slavery, child labor, and human trafficking.
According to Kara, the bondage in the Congo for mining precious metals is unprecedented in human history. Kara explained that there has never been more suffering that has produced more wealth in the lives of the people of the Congo. Every lithium-ion rechargeable battery, smartphone, tablet, laptop, and electric vehicle contains cobalt mined in the Congo.
We could not go about our daily lives without cobalt. Three-fourths of the world’s supply comes from the Congo. According to Kara, the conditions in which the metal is being mined are appalling and dangerous. The world doesn’t know what’s happening in the Congo or about the use of slave labor.
Fifteen thousand workers can be crammed into a mining pit and make the equivalent of $1 per day during their excessive working hours. Kara insisted there was no clean cobalt. The tech companies’ concept of “clean cobalt” is fiction and marketing. Reports show the Biden administration called for America to switch to so-called renewable energy sources because reliance on fossil fuels is bad for the environment.
Despite lacking the technology or infrastructure necessary to meet energy demands, states like California have answered the call. Critical metals like lithium, nickel, and cobalt, among others, are needed in large quantities to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. Kara remarked that after the genocide in Rwanda, precious materials were heavily mined.
Militias and warlords used guns and machetes to compel the locals to work the mines. Kara revealed that the Chinese mining companies now control most of the large mines. The locals have been displaced and are under duress. They work in degrading, subhuman conditions. Cobalt became highly valuable because it is used in lithium-ion batteries to maximize their charge and stability.
Some pay top dollar for technology, but others pay with their lives.
