Having a conversation with my GF about cobalt mines. I was trying to listen to NPR about New Jersey introducing “Climate Change” to the state wide curriculum. I was curious and had thoughts but Molly was already googling disturbing images of how they are doing what companies called “artisanal mining” in the Congo. It’s an open pit mine with hundreds of people, mostly woman and children, digging without any protective equipment. It looks chaotic and dangerous and it’s how all the cel phones etc. in the world get powered, LED screens, batteries,… so much of the western modern world’s communications and media requires this. I’m no expert on all the the intricacies of this, but I am in the world and use all the equipment and it isn’t hard to google these things. It was alarming to say the least to see all the children mining a very toxic element with bare hands and no masks. They will all be dead from cancer or heart failure within years. When I googled how cobalt affects the human body, I didn’t see any studies that addressed the high exposure that I saw in the photos. But the studies that I did see seemed like even a small amount above the safe levels for any length of time was bad.
Climate change being introduced to the Jersey school system was getting some pushback and I wondered if it was because “climate change” is one of those buzz words that riles up the people who don’t believe the %97 of environmental scientists that agree that it’s a thing? I was thinking they should just say they are improving the rigors of science education. The phrase just keeps the focus on improving the learning. Molly’s take is that 1, the term “global warming” and “climate change” were created by the big oil producers. and 2, will give money to these small groups who oppose climate change. And 3, no matter what the term is called, the companies will find it and oppose it. Like “critical race theory” was created by a conservative think tank as a way to isolate any history taught about the black experience in America so they could claim it’s bad and any legit history concerning black history is also bad.
Exploiting the Congo. Belgium is still a pretty well off country. The Congolese experienced one of the most diabolical and outright evil humans, king Leopold 2 of Belgium. He is an embarrassment to the entire human race and a huge blight on Belgium. Congo has been exploited for years and today is not much different. The companies that need the resources that the Congo has will hire a legit local company that hires someone else who hires a war lord that then forces the women and children etc to mine the toxic elements.
I remembered a few articles I read that China has been investing heavily in Africa. They need even more precious metals than the west, so I’m sure they are just as bad with the exploitation of workers on a larger scale. When I think of China the first thing that comes to mind is the surveillance state. I have read nothing that this makes life better. It’s a modern day horror show. There was a British journalist who for a “fun” lighthearted two minute filler piece about how amazing and efficient the surveillance system was in Beijing during the 2022 winter olympics left his hotel. He had an hour head start or something and then the “fun” was seeing how long it took for the police to find him. It took them less than 5 minutes or maybe less? to find this guy. He did it as a “haha look at this” piece but I was horrified. Molly put a punctuation on these thoughts with the scenario that as you were about to step off a curb to jaywalk illegally a speaker would pop up out of nowhere and say “Fred it’s illegal to jaywalk, you will be fined”. It’s chilling.