Posted on 08/24/2023 5:51:45 AM PDT by Alas Babylon!
The U.S. is turning to a much-criticized source as it races to secure supplies of battery metals to meet the growing demand for electric vehicles.
To do so, it is homing in on cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s informal mining sector, where miners, sometimes including children, often work with no safety equipment in dangerous, hand-dug mines. Congo supplies around 70% of the world’s cobalt, a key metal in the lithium-ion batteries used in EVs, with about a third of that coming from these so-called artisanal miners.
The U.S. Agency for International Development said earlier this year that it would issue grants to companies that source critical minerals from Congo and were willing to support artisanal miners. Meanwhile, the Labor Department has been working with officials in the country to help improve working conditions and oversight.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
IS IT IMMORAL TO DRIVE AN ELECTRIC VEHICLE? - https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/06/is-it-immoral-to-drive-an-electric-vehicle.php
Is it ethical to purchase a lithium battery powered EV? - https://www.cfact.org/2022/06/07/is-it-ethical-to-purchase-a-lithium-battery-powered-ev/
If You’re Worried About Rising Gas Prices, Watch This - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-q4nGBHWTI
blood diamonds . . . now blood Teslas.
the truth about evs is that they are being used to destroy private transportation
so no they do not care
see bird chopping turbines
African mines are the modern equivalent of slave plantations…just out of sight and out of minds of the liberal western world that is focused on calling their indigenous governments “democracies”
“Does the American/Western European Left even know? Do they even care?”
Yes, they know EVERYTHING that we know. But no, they NEVER care, as long as their power is advanced. In this case, EVs are CRITICAL to ending the use of gasoline cars, which has been a goal of the Left from at least the 1950s (when they were just a bunch of university Leftists that everyone else chose to ignore, other than Senator McCarthy) - literally no other viable way to end gasoline cars - so Congo has to pay the price.
BUT, let’s see what ultimately results in Niger - if that coup is successful, then a similar anti-Western coup in Congo would not surprise me a bit and if we’re REALLY LUCKY, Congo will tell us to shove it, regarding Cobalt.
Electric Cars: Inconvenient Facts, Part One - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2HneqfZGsM
Electric Cars: Inconvenient Facts, Part 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptI6BRVC1Kw
the data on Katanga and Copperbelt generally estimate the number of youth (under 18 years) at 40% of all workers in the region’s mines.
https://www.humanium.org/en/child-labor-in-the-mines-of-the-democratic-republic-of-congo/
Sometimes or 40%, which is it?
all so some Liberal elite can drive his Telsa and tell the world that “their saving the planet to create a better world for children to grow up.....”
“Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries already power the majority of electric vehicles in the Chinese market”
“until recently automakers selling EVs here have eschewed them because car buyers wanted more range than they could reasonably deliver.”
I said that rhetorically. Of course I know why we don't. The same reason the Dims do their best to block us from drilling our own oil. They like us being dependent on others.
Drill baby drill. Mine baby mine.
“Artisanal miners” is up there on the hypocritical scale of euphemisms.
It has to be #1. What could possibly top that?
Why don’t we mine cobalt?
The same reason we don’t want to mine lithium.
Why don’t they want tar sands production in the western US?
The process is incredibly bad for the environment.
Plus, as a mining/extraction company you are not liable for the toxic issues that the employees will have for the rest of their life IF that mining/purification happens in these foreign countries.
EPA and Lawyers. Those are the real reasons.
Come On Man. They purchase for those miners the best $.99 flip flops money can buy.
Is it true that the WH said the other day that after thinking it over, they’ve determined that asbestos isn’t really as bad an insulator in home construction as was originally thought.
I need help here. What’s the point on having batteries if there is no way to recharge them without using power generated from fossil fuel sources? I cannot reconcile that EV’s are being pushed and at the same time Americans are being told to turn down their air conditioners to save energy.
Strip mine The Congo, before Russia gets it all!
Thats what the upcoming African Wars will be all about.
>Re: Congo kid “artisanal miners”
>>It has to be #1. What could possibly top that?
I don’t know, but it deserves a Smoky Backroom research project thread of its own.
As conservatives, always and forever our argument should be free markets free markets free markets and let Americans produce our own energy and Americans choose as individuals what energy they want most (for their homes and driving).
When the left demands a one-size-fits-all solution (i.e. everybody drive EV's, ban natural gas, use only solar and wind), as conservatives our response should never be a "better" one-size-fits-all solution (block EVs and solar, everybody use coal and natural gas for homes and drive ICE cars). Our response should be to get rid of restrictions and incentives --- just government get out of the way.
“Our response should be to get rid of restrictions and incentives -— just government get out of the way.”
In an ideal world, that would be true. But that is a lot like the argument that we must play by the Marquess of Queensberry Rules in elections while they use the most crooked, most evil, most underhanded ways of cheating to steal elections. And, after every victory, they become more and more brazen.
At some point, the gloves have to come off and we tell the Marquess “stuff it.” If not, we will all go down in defeat. Unfortunately, we must become them to defeat them. But there are no two ways about it, sad but true.
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