Cobalt Red

Now in paperback: the powerful,revelatory New York Times and Publishers Weekly bestsellershortlisted for the Financial Times Best Business Book of the Year Award. 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 searingfirst-ever exposé of the immense toll taken on the people and environment of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by cobalt miningas 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 livingworkingand dying for cobalt. To uncover the truth about brutal mining practicesKara investigated militia-controlled mining areastraced the supply chain of child-mined cobalt from toxic pit to consumer-facing tech giantsand 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 todaythe batteries that power our smartphonestabletslaptopsand electric vehicles. Roughly 75 percent of the world’s supply of cobalt is mined in the Congooften 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 bookKara argues that we must all care about what is happening in the Congo—because we are all implicated.