A visiting Harvard professor and modern slavery activist has exposed the “horrific” cobalt mining industry in the Congo 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 Congo Blood Powers Our Livestold podcast host Joe Rogan that there is no such thing as “clean cobalt.”
“This is all marketing,” Professor Kara said.
Professor Kara told Rogan that the level of “suffering” of the Congolese people working in the cobalt mines was staggering.
When Rogan asked if there were any cobalt mines in the Congo that did not rely on “child labor” or “slavery,” Professor Kara told him there were none.
“I’ve never seen one and I’ve been to almost every large industrial cobalt mine [in the country],” he said.
One reason for this is that demand for cobalt is exceptionally high.
“Cobalt is found in every rechargeable lithium battery that is made in the world today,” he explained.
As a result, it’s hard to think of a piece of technology that doesn’t rely on cobalt to function, Professor Kara said. “Every smartphone, every tablet, every laptop, and especially every electric vehicle” needs the mineral.
“We cannot function on a day-to-day basis without cobalt, and three-quarters of the supply comes from the Congo,” he added. “And it’s being exploited in appalling, heartbreaking and dangerous conditions.”
But “in general, the world doesn’t know what’s going on” in Congo, Professor Kara said.
“I don’t think people are aware of how horrible it is,” Rogan agreed.
The Biden administration recently signed an agreement with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia to strengthen the green energy supply chain, despite the DRC’s documented problems with child labor.
Cobalt initially “took off because it was used in lithium-ion batteries to maximize their charge and stability,” Professor Kara explained.
“And it just so happened that the Congo is sitting on more cobalt than the rest of the planet combined,” he added.
As a result, Congo, a country of approximately 90 million people, became the center of a geopolitical conflict over valuable minerals.
“Before anyone knew what was happening, [the] chinese government [and] Chinese mining companies took control of almost all the big mines and the local population has been displaced,” Professor Kara said.
Subsequently, the Congolese are “under duress”.
“They dig in absolutely subhuman and appalling conditions for a dollar a day, feeding cobalt into the supply chain to every phone, every tablet and especially electric cars,” he said.
British rapper Zuby recommended that his nearly one million followers watch the interview.
“The latter Joe Rogan Experience The podcast is heavy,” he wrote. “If you have a smartphone or an electric vehicle (that’s 100 percent of you), I highly recommend giving it a listen.”
Some, if not all, of the world’s famous technology and energy companies are involved in the humanitarian crisis, Professor Kara said.
“This is the bottom of the supply chain for your iPhone, your Tesla, your Samsung,” he said.
This article originally appeared in the NY Post and is reproduced with permission