Now the shocking truth about child labour involved in electric toy "cars" and the environmental hypocrites that drive them until they crash..Child labourAmnesty points to serious health risks to child and adult workers in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, documented in a report it issued. More than half the world’s cobalt comes from southern DRC, much of it from artisanal mines that produce 20% of the country’s output.
Artisanal miners as young as seven were seen by researchers who visited nine sites including deep mines dug by hand using basic tools. Miners, the youngest of whom were earning as little as $1 a day, reported suffering chronic lung disease from exposure to cobalt dust.
Cobalt from these mines is sold on to major producers. No country has laws requiring producers to report on their supply chains, which Amnesty says means the chance electric vehicle batteries are “tainted with child labour and other abuses” is unacceptably high.
Battery manufacture now accounts for 60% of the 125,000 tonnes of cobalt mined globally each year.
A move last year by the London Metal Exchange to ban the sale of tainted cobalt was opposed by a consortium of 14 NGOs, including Amnesty, on the grounds it would simply drive the trade underground. They called for greater traceability of the mineral’s sources.
The World Economic Forum's Global Battery Alliance notes two major challenges:
"First, raw materials needed for batteries are extracted at a high human and environmental toll. This includes, for example, child labour, health and safety hazards in informal work, poverty and pollution. Second, a recycling challenge looms over the eleven million tonnes of spent lithium-ion batteries forecast to be discarded by 2030, with few systems in place to enable reuse and recycling in a circular economy for batteries."
The OECD Forum on Responsible Mineral Supply Chains meets in Paris next month, where members are expected to demand companies identify their cobalt sources. Apple, BMW, Daimler, Renault, and battery maker Samsung SDI have already agreed to publish their supply chain data.
Amnesty says most manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries takes place in China, South Korea and Japan, where electricity generation remains dependent on coal and other fossil fuels. They said makers should disclose the carbon footprint of their products.
Read the rest of the ghastly story about the electric toy "car" menace herehttps://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/03/the-dirty-secret-of-electric-vehicles/