Net zero’s dirty little secret is the African child labor and China’s forced labor for mining cobalt. But what that also means is that the United States is heavily dependent on our existential enemy and child labor for one of the most important minerals in modern society.
Even NPR recognizes the problem. “Right now, most of the cobalt the US and its allies use comes from mines that are owned or controlled by China or the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” the outlet reported. Of course, NPR did not explain that those supposedly wonderfully eco-friendly electric cars, besides being unreliable, are a lot dirtier than environmentalists admit, precisely because of that cobalt mining for their batteries. But our phones also require cobalt. The need for lithium ion batteries made relatively unimportant cobalt a highly desired substance within the last few decades. The U.S. was set to have one cobalt mine in Idaho, but it closed before starting to operate. We need these mines — not to chase the Biden administration’s impossible “net zero” dreams, but because the electronics that form such a key part of our society require cobalt.
I previously highlighted the ethical concerns around cobalt mining for electric vehicle (EV) batteries. According to “Ethical Consumer” in 2022: “70% of the world’s cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo.” But there’s a massive child labor problem in the DRC. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), child labor is involved in Congo’s cobalt ore, copper, diamond, gold, tantalum ore, tin ore, and tungsten ore mining. Despite the smug smile on your hippie uncle’s face as he drives his Tesla, his toxic EV battery is dependent on exploitation of kids.
Related: Net Zero’s Dirty Secret: Child Labor in Congo’s Mines
It gets worse. Much of the DRC’s cobalt is under the influence or control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which also has a modest little goal of taking down America and dominating the world. As of March, “China’s share of cobalt production is expected to reach half of global output, up from 44 percent currently. China’s cobalt refining reached 140,000 metric tons in 2022–77 percent share of the world’s refining capacity.” So your phone quite possibly depends on our worst enemy for its cobalt. That’s not exactly what we’d call an encouraging state of affairs. Oh, by the way, Hunter Biden was part of a venture that helped the Chinese buy one of the world’s biggest cobalt deposits.
It’s absolutely chilling that Communist China controls so much of the world’s cobalt. As I write this article on a phone that requires that cobalt, I can’t help but wonder — how long until China weaponizes its cobalt control to exploit America, just as the DRC exploits children to get that cobalt out of the ground?
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