The rising popularity of electric vehicles and other technology caused a surge in demand for cobalt, a metal that is mostly found in Africa, where miners are reportedly working in horrific conditions.
The growing market for electric-powered automobiles, smartphones, and other high-tech devices have made for unintended consequences halfway around the world.
Such products — which operate on lithium-ion batteries — typically require cobalt, a chemical element found within the Earth’s crust.
The metal is becoming increasingly associated with the “blood diamond” vernacular.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, a central African country, is where the vast majority of cobalt is currently mined.
While the Congo has largely profited off the metal, international observers have expressed concern over the working conditions of cobalt miners.
Activists have decried inhumane working conditions African cobalt miners are enduring. The precarious situation of depending on an unstable country for a needed resource has also spurred buyers to look elsewhere around the globe.
Peter Faguy, a senior manager within the Department of Energy, used the term “blood cobalt” when describing the situation during a June speech in Washington, D.C., according to Axios. Faguy suggested the removal of cobalt from lithium-ion batteries was a morality issue.
The Department of Energy (DOE) is researching ways to do just that.
The DOE is investing in research being conducted in Lawrence Berkeley and Argonne — two different national laboratories.
Argonne is looking into whether cobalt can be switched with nickel, a metal that can achieve high energy but hasn’t proven stable enough for commercial use.
Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley are examining the possibility of designing a battery made with disordered rock salt.
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Electric cars don’t make sense because of their cost, in reality they don’t do much reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and there is no need to reduce these emissions.
However, too many people in power are not smart enough to recognize the above facts so cobalt will continue to be in demand. One solution could be Australia. It has the second largest cobalt reserves and enough to supply the world for some time. We should stop using the Congo and switch to Australia. It would take very little time for the Congo to correct the working conditions of the miners. This should be something that people of all political view points would support.
What dose it matter to the radical Deep Ecologists in their minds Humans are a Cancer on the earth that must be eliminated their ideas that the total human population on earth should be 0 Zero Zilch they want humans to go extinct like the Dodo