A Harvard visiting professor and modern slavery activist exposed Congo’s “appalling” cobalt mining industry in a recent episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” that went viral. The video has already racked up over a million views and counting.
Siddharth Kara, author of “Cobalt Red: How The Blood of The Congo Powers Our Lives,” told podcast host Joe Rogan that there is no such thing as “clean cobalt.”
“It’s marketing,” Kara said.
Kara told Rogan the level of “suffering” of Congolese working in the cobalt mines was staggering.
When Rogan asked him if there was a cobalt mine in the Congo that didn’t rely on ‘child labor’ or ‘slavery’, the Harvard visiting professor replied that there was. not.
“I have never seen any and have visited almost every major industrial cobalt mine” in the country, Kara said.
One of the reasons for this is that the cobalt demand is exceptionally high: “Cobalt is present in every rechargeable lithium battery manufactured in the world today,” he explained.
As a result, it’s hard to think of any technology that doesn’t rely on cobalt to work, Kara said. “Every smartphone, every tablet, every laptop and, above all, every electric vehicle” needs the mineral.
“We cannot operate on a daily basis without cobalt, and three-quarters of the supply comes from Congo,” he added. “And it is operated in appalling, harrowing and dangerous conditions.”
But “on the whole, the world doesn’t know what’s going on” in Congo, Kara said.
“I don’t think people realize how awful it is,” Rogan agreed.
The Biden administration recently reached an agreement with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia to strengthen green energy supply chain, despite documented child labor issues in the DRC.
Cobalt initially “took off because it was used in lithium-ion batteries to maximize their charge and stability,” Kara explained. “And the Congo happens to be sitting on more cobalt than the rest of the planet combined,” he added.
As a result, Congo, a country of around 90 million people, has become the center of a geopolitical conflict over precious minerals. “Before anyone knew what was going on, [the] Chinese government [and] Chinese mining companies have taken over almost all major mines and local people have been displaced,” Kara said. Subsequently, the Congolese are “under duress”.
He continued, “They’re digging in absolutely inhumane and heartbreaking conditions for a dollar a day, feeding cobalt into the supply chain in every phone, every tablet, and especially electric cars.”
British rapper Zuby recommended that his almost onemillionsubscribers watch the interview.
“This latest Joe Rogan Experience podcast is heavy,” he wrote. “If you have a smartphone or an electric vehicle (that’s 100% of you), I highly recommend you listen to it.”
Some, if not all, of the world’s most famous technology and energy companies are involved in the humanitarian crisis, Kara said.
“It’s the bottom of the supply chain for your iPhone, your Tesla, your Samsung,” he said.
Fox News’ Thomas Catenacci contributed to this report.
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