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Cobalt Red
The revelatory New York Times and Publishers Weekly bestseller, longlisted for the Financial Times Best Business Book of the Year Award.
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.
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Reviews
What an absolute amazing story that takes you back and forth but most importantly shares the state of the Congo when it comes to the slavery that exists, and we are talking 2020!
By 55KTW
Just read it. It’s crucially important to do that.
By marhahus
I’m dumbfounded by this horrible, lingering exploitation that’s still so deeply rooted in Africa. How can our United Nations and business conglomerates continue to provide stepping stones and bridges to parasitic rulers, then just turn their heads? The rise in property taxes, the price of gasoline or eggs, or the delays at airports seem so trivial after reading about the lives of these destitute people.
By Philastein
Awesome topic and well done research, author did a good job at making me feel bad for reading it on an ipad! Worth a read. However, poorly organized background context lead to a lot of repeated info.
By fishmanw99