Siddharth Kara’s “Cobalt Red” takes a deep dive into the horrors of mining the valuable mineral — and the many who benefit from others’ suffering. One must acknowledge, however, the following crucial fact—for centuries, enslaving Africans was the nature of colonialism.

Cobalt Red by Siddharth Kara | Waterstones

Despite the many advancements in machinery and techniques, the formal mining industry relies heavily on the hard labor of artisanal miners to boost production at minimal expense.years, child mortality ranks eleventh worst in the world, access to clean drinking water is only 26 percent, and electrification is only 9 percent. The increased demand for cobalt pressured hundreds of thousands of Congolese peasants who could not survive without the dollar or two they earned each day to clamber into the ditches and tunnels, unprotected, to keep the cobalt flowing. Mining technology leaped forward during the late Middle Ages when miners started using black powder from China to blow up large rocks. The severity of harm being caused by cobalt mining is sadly not a new experience for the people of the Congo. It is, despite claims to the contrary, all but impossible to isolate artisanal cobalt from industrial production.

Cobalt Red | Siddharth Kara | 9781250284303 | NetGalley Cobalt Red | Siddharth Kara | 9781250284303 | NetGalley

The result, if nothing is done to tip the scales, could be a massive health and environmental crisis.Technology, now extending from the land to the skies, seas, our bodies, and poised to increase the lethality of war, threatens the exquisite balance of nature. Some have even put in place incentives, including tax waivers, to encourage used electric and hybrid vehicle imports.

Cobalt Red is a flawed account of Congo’s Siddharth Kara’s Cobalt Red is a flawed account of Congo’s

T HE SOLDIERS ARE WILD and wide-eyed as they point their weapons at the villagers trying to enter the mining area at Kamilombe. The reader will hear directly from the Congolese people themselves how they live, work and die to enable our rechargeable lives.They will assure you that conditions are not as bad as they seem and that they are bringing commerce, wages, education, and development to the poorest people of Africa (“saving” them).

Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives

Kolwezi, like the rest of the Congolese Copper Belt, is a land scarred by the mad scramble to feed cobalt up the chain into the hands of consumers across the globe. At no point in their history have the Congolese people benefited in any meaningful way from the monetization of their country’s resources.Spend a short time watching the filth-caked children of the Katanga region scrounge at the earth for cobalt, and you would be unable to determine whether they were working for the benefit of Leopold or a tech company.