An
unflinching investigation reveals the human rights abuses behind the
Congo’s cobalt mining operation—and the moral implications that
affect us all.
Cobalt Red is the searing,
first-ever exposé 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.
Activist and researcher Siddharth Kara has traveled deep into cobalt
territory to document the testimonies of the people living, working,
and dying for cobalt. To uncover the truth about brutal mining
practices, Kara investigated militia-controlled mining areas, traced
the supply chain of child-mined cobalt from toxic pit to
consumer-facing tech giants, and gathered shocking testimonies of
people who endure immense suffering and even die mining cobalt.
Cobalt is an essential component to
every lithium-ion rechargeable battery made today, the batteries that
power our smartphones, tablets, laptops, and electric vehicles.
Roughly 75 percent of the world’s supply of cobalt is mined in the
Congo, often by peasants and children in sub-human conditions.
Billions of people in the world cannot conduct their daily lives
without participating in a human rights and environmental catastrophe
in the Congo. In this stark and crucial book, Kara argues that we
must all care about what is happening in the Congo—because we are
all implicated.