Child exploitation claims are casting a large shadow as a new case goes to court. Looking the other way won’t do any more, at least not if these major firms lose the legal argument – which would mean higher product prices. Not what the so-called ‘EV revolution’ needs, with high prices and other issues already deterring buyers.
Cobalt is one of the most important metals in the tech industry, but the use of child labor in cobalt mines in the DRC is a major problem for Big Tech and electric car manufacturers, says OilPrice.com.
There’s a chance that the iPhone you’re about to get for Christmas contains cobalt mined by a six-year-old. There’s also a chance that that six-year-old has been killed or maimed in the processes of mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the lion’s share of the world’s cobalt comes from.
Or, maybe, for those whose Christmas lists are more upscale, you’ll be driving around in a new Tesla next week, with a battery containing cobalt from that same mine.
Our luxuries are necessarily someone else’s sacrifice – and sometimes that sacrifice is the ultimate one.
The EV and electronics revolutions have come at a steep human cost: a boom in child labor in the DRC as child cobalt miners offer battery makers and Big Tech cheap labor.
That’s the focus of the first-ever lawsuit targeting giant tech firms as end-users of cobalt from mines in which young children have died.
Having failed to bring down giant miners of cobalt in DRC, such as Glencore, this time lawyers are going after the end users themselves.
The first reports about child labor in the cobalt mines in the DRC emerged several years ago. And while no one likes to hear that their Tesla, lithium battery, smartphone, or fitness tracker has cost a child his health—or worse, his life—this is the reality of cobalt mining today.
This week, International Rights Advocates filed a lawsuit against Tesla, Apple, Dell, Microsoft, and Alphabet for knowingly benefiting financially from child labor in the DRC.
The suit was filed on behalf of 13 families whose children died or were seriously injured while mining for cobalt. The suit also seeks damages from miners Glencore and Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, which supply cobalt to the tech majors and to Tesla.
The DRC is home to 3.4 million tons of cobalt: a grey metal that was once used for making bright blue pigment. Now, cobalt is an essential component of lithium ion batteries. This 3.4 million tons is more than half of all the cobalt in the world.
Full report here.
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
Reblogged this on Climate- Science.press.
Why would greentards care? Surplus population, it’s a win/win for greenies.
“Or, maybe, for those whose Christmas lists are more upscale, you’ll be driving around in a new Tesla next week”
If you’re that (un)lucky don’t try and charge it here:
*Moat* House 😎
Reblogged this on The Most Revolutionary Act and commented:
While no one likes to hear that their Tesla, lithium battery, smartphone, or fitness tracker has cost a child his health—or worse, his life—this is the reality of cobalt mining today.
Lord Deben needs to be told about this. He’s so keen that UK should run entirely on batteries
Yet another money grab by lawyers — seeking a pot of gold with a golden “Crown of Virtue” for allegedly protecting children.
Let’s ask these lawyers — and their supporters — to place their cell phones on the table in plain view — for all of us to see.
No one wants children to be working in cobalt mines — but every child pulled out of the mines leaves a hungry family with one less wage earner.
This is the shoe-shine boy problem writ large — in many countries, shoe shine boys work the streets, earning a few precious pesos or whatever, feeding themselves and taking home a little to their families. The gringo argument is that by supporting these boys, letting them shine your shoes and paying well and a tip, one is keeping them out of school and depriving them of a future.
The fact is that these boys, most of whom do attend school when and if they can, are learning self-sufficiency and are helping to support heir families, their brothers and sisters.
In a perfect world, their parents would have jobs that pay a living wage, and the kids would be in school.
I know nothing of the economic situation in the DRC — but you can bet that these kids would not be working in the mines if there were jobs for their parents and decent schools to attend.
Attacking the Deep Pockets of western tech companies will not provide jobs, decent homes, and decent schools in the DRC — which is what they need.
“Our luxuries are necessarily someone else’s sacrifice – and sometimes that sacrifice is the ultimate one.”
So if I pick Tanqueray over Seagrams, the kid gets it?
There is hope for you (my countrymen) as long as you can laugh at your masters.
Enjoy!
= = =
‘battery change’ probably means ‘battery charge’?
‘Police ‘waste’ £1.5MILLION on electric cars that they admit are useless for chasing criminals’
Police still chase criminals? Who knew?
‘because they ‘can’t go fast enough’
They bought the wrong car. Teslas are hyper fast. Though you won’t get many for 1.5 million.
‘or far enough’
As my brother taught me over 50 years ago, “You can’t outrun Motorola.”
Looks like a BMW i3 city car.
https://www.evo.co.uk/bmw/i3/page/0/1
‘So with maximum torque available from a standstill it should be no surprise that it puts in a decent 0-62mph time – at 7.3 seconds.’
Decent? Mrs. Bobo taught me 50 years ago to beware people who use adjectives to describe the finite.
‘Floor the throttle’
Throttle? “Floor the rheostat.”
2019 BMW i3 base price in U.S. is $44,000 (!). Obscenely expensive for a police department.
How many parking tickets will the meter maid* who drives it have to issue to pay for it?
BWTM: Used 2017 BMW i3s go for $20,000-25,000 around here, depending on whether they have Range Extender. Range Extender bumps base up to $48,000.
So you face up to 55% depreciation in TWO YEARS!
*Not suitable for anybody else.
Gamecock says:
December 24, 2019 at 2:38 pm
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depreciation hits a lot of conventional engine vehicles. We bought a two year old Lincoln Town Car (2004 Signature series model) that was a ‘program car’. It was in mint condition with moderate mileage. The original sticker on it was about $44,000. We paid a mere $21,000 for it.
International Rights Advocates are social justice colonialists.
How things are done in DRC is none of their business.
DRC rejected their colonialism. So they are attacking customers of DRC businesses, the goal still being to control how things are done in DRC.
Colonialism is evil.