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Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives
The revelatory New York Times bestseller
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.
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.
Editorial Reviews
Praise for Cobalt Red
"Powerful...heart-wrenching...compelling." ― The Wall Street Journal
"Harrowing...a righteous quest to expose injustice." ― The New York Times Book Review
"With extraordinary tenacity and compassion, Siddharth Kara evokes one of the most dramatic divides between wealth and poverty in the world today. His reporting on how the dangerous, ill-paid labor of Congo children provides a mineral essential to our cellphones will break your heart. I hope policy-makers on every continent will read this book." ― Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's Ghost
"Cobalt Red is a riveting, eye-opening, terribly important book that sheds light on a vast ongoing catastrophe. Everyone who uses a smartphone, an electric vehicle, or anything else powered by rechargeable batteries needs to read what Siddharth Kara has uncovered." ― Jon Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air
"Meticulously researched and brilliantly written by Siddharth Kara, Cobalt Red documents the frenzied scramble for cobalt and the exploitation of the poorest people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo."
― Baroness Arminka Helic, House of Lords, UK
"Siddharth Kara's powerfully told and meticulously researched book exposes the dirty secret that much of our 'clean' energy is powered by the violent exploitation, and blood, of children in the Congo. He makes a compelling case for the urgent need to address this modern form of slavery. " ― Nick Grono, CEO, Freedom Fund
"As the world continues to embrace the net zero agenda and becomes ever more dependent on personal electronic devices and new technologies, this compelling book paints a dire portrait of the conditions under which a crucial natural resource is extracted. Drawing on multiple field missions and first-hand accounts of the process of cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Siddharth Kara shows in vivid detail not only life on the ground and the true human cost of extraction, but also the gross inequalities built into global value chains and business models that underpin this industry. This account reinforces our understanding of the interdependent and mutually reinforcing nature of all human rights and the many negative externalities of our modern global economy." ― Todd Landman, Professor of Political Science, Pro Vice Chancellor of the Faculty of Social Sciences, and Executive Director of the Rights Lab at the University of Nottingh...
"Powerful...heart-wrenching...compelling." ― The Wall Street Journal
"Harrowing...a righteous quest to expose injustice." ― The New York Times Book Review
"With extraordinary tenacity and compassion, Siddharth Kara evokes one of the most dramatic divides between wealth and poverty in the world today. His reporting on how the dangerous, ill-paid labor of Congo children provides a mineral essential to our cellphones will break your heart. I hope policy-makers on every continent will read this book." ― Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's Ghost
"Cobalt Red is a riveting, eye-opening, terribly important book that sheds light on a vast ongoing catastrophe. Everyone who uses a smartphone, an electric vehicle, or anything else powered by rechargeable batteries needs to read what Siddharth Kara has uncovered." ― Jon Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air
"Meticulously researched and brilliantly written by Siddharth Kara, Cobalt Red documents the frenzied scramble for cobalt and the exploitation of the poorest people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo."
― Baroness Arminka Helic, House of Lords, UK
"Siddharth Kara's powerfully told and meticulously researched book exposes the dirty secret that much of our 'clean' energy is powered by the violent exploitation, and blood, of children in the Congo. He makes a compelling case for the urgent need to address this modern form of slavery. " ― Nick Grono, CEO, Freedom Fund
"As the world continues to embrace the net zero agenda and becomes ever more dependent on personal electronic devices and new technologies, this compelling book paints a dire portrait of the conditions under which a crucial natural resource is extracted. Drawing on multiple field missions and first-hand accounts of the process of cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Siddharth Kara shows in vivid detail not only life on the ground and the true human cost of extraction, but also the gross inequalities built into global value chains and business models that underpin this industry. This account reinforces our understanding of the interdependent and mutually reinforcing nature of all human rights and the many negative externalities of our modern global economy." ― Todd Landman, Professor of Political Science, Pro Vice Chancellor of the Faculty of Social Sciences, and Executive Director of the Rights Lab at the University of Nottingh...
Readers Top Reviews
Marcia
Rarely has a book had such a profound effect on my views of the world, but Siddharth Kara’s writing grabbed hold of my heart and twisted it throughout this eye-opening read. At first I was staggered by the heaviness of the data presented, but then I was drawn into the horrors of these artisanal miners lives and my heart broke for them. The Congo’s wealth of natural riches has long been raped by other countries seeking fortunes. The latest craze is cobalt which is needed increasingly more every year for smartphones, tablets, watches, golf cart batteries and lately for electric car batteries. As I sat there reading this arc on my kindle, I read this quote, “Please tell the people in your country, a child in the Congo dies every day so that they can plug in their phones.” The guilt I feel is undeniable…living the easy life while those who make these items possible for us purely for our own enjoyment are down crawling in hand dug tunnels mining the cobalt by hand, fearing for their very lives. The horrors of the mining itself, the contamination of the water, food sources, and air they breathe, the lack of food and clean water, medical facilities, and education are astounding to absorb. Families cannot afford to pay for school thus their young children are thrust into the mining process, sieving the ore and breaking it into small pieces to give to others who pay them pitifully small amounts, while older children and adults risk their lives tunneling deep under the ground with sometimes only a piece of rebar as a tool. Most adults mining earn less than $1.00 per day while the greedy companies, mostly from China pocket the rest. So many children and adults killed and maimed so we can use our devices. Siddharth Kara is turning a brilliant spotlight on these inhumane practices. My hope is that people will read the truth of his many trips and interviews and feel compassion for the miners and their families, while the companies that produce the products that benefit us all turn up the heat on the way the mines are really being run, as exposed by Kara. Although the officials in the Congo believe that they need to help themselves, someone needs to start the ball rolling. Another quote spoke to me. “The mineral reserves in Congo will last another forty years, maybe fifty? During that time, the population of Congo will double. If our resources are sold to foreigners for the benefit of the political elite, instead of investing in education and development for our people, in two generations, we will have two hundred million people who are poor, uneducated, and have nothing left of value.” Many many thanks to Siddharth Kara for opening my eyes to this devastating issue, St. Martin’s Press for having the wisdom to publish it, and NetGalley for affording me the opportunity to read an arc of this soon to be published action provoking book. Now...
DJK2167DJK2167Mar
Cobalt Red is an exceptional book. Initially, I was concerned that I might be too foreign from the subject to understand all the dynamics at play and/or keep track of the various entities at play, but Kara's writing style makes the book extremely digestible. Most importantly, it's a book that confronts some hard truths that very few people seem to be discussing. Truly a must read.
amazreviewDJK2167
True investigative work. Gives an insightful account of what's really going in with cobalt mining.... a version ignored and hidden. Amazing to realize the risks and efforts that have to be done in order to uncover the realities taking place today. Hopefully with greater awareness, changes will come to improve the lives of the Congolese.
LeilaamazreviewDJ
Did you know that your electronic devices are powered by people suffering unspeakably grueling work conditions, no safety standards, and appallingly low wages? Every time you pick up your iPhone or turn on your flat-screen TV, you’re contributing to an environmental and human rights catastrophe. Not only at factories in China, but also in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. What? The Congo? Yes. The Congo. Allow this meticulously researched and written book to take you behind the scenes in the country’s cobalt mines, the source of an essential component of rechargeable batteries. Siddharth Kara, a leading expert on modern-day slavery, uncovers the widespread abuses, such as child and forced labor, that feeds the supply chain of your device’s power source. From mining to manufacturing, Kara provides a comprehensive explanation of the process in an engaging way that is accessible even to those with little prior knowledge of the subject. An exposé of the immense human and environmental toll of cobalt mining, it is told through searing testimonies of the people who endure it daily. We all contribute to the horrors they suffer, and we owe it to them to become informed and then to become active in finding a way to right these wrongs.
