Unreported World investigates the dirty business of cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The mineral is fuelling the planet’s green revolution, but at what cost?
Around seventy percent of the world’s cobalt is mined in the Central African country, mostly from the southern Katanga area, thought to be one of the ten most polluted places on earth. Reporter Jamal Osman travels to Kolwezi, a city dependent on supplying Cobalt, a critical component for electric cars and rechargeable batteries. Residents are employed by large multinational companies, or in smaller, and more dangerous artisanal mines. We meet the men who clamber down dark weaving airless tunnels to extract cobalt for as little as $150 per month. But is the paycheck worth the health risks that doctors have uncovered?
EVs aren’t even really going green. They are less destructive than ICEVs, but they’re still awful for the environment.
Yes yes the merits can be debated left and right, it doesn’t change my point that they’re tarnishing the entire idea of going green.
Yeah I wasn’t disagreeing with you.