Toxic Cost of Going Green | Unreported World

these stones have become crucial to our way of life [Music] they are called cobalt essential in green technologies from electric cars to rechargeable batteries but while its stock price is predicted to soar there are minerals that are worth billions of dollars the people who live and work here are paying a heavy price you [Music] here [Music] the democratic republic of congo or the drc is sitting on nearly 20 trillion pounds of natural resources [Music] it should be one of the richest countries in the world instead most people here live on less than one pound fifty a day [Music] bagged up and ready to sell seventy percent of the well's cobalt comes from the drc it's a critical component in batteries for electric cars but helping rich countries hit their environmental targets comes at a cost to the people who mine it like emmanuel and robert we are family [Music] around a quarter of the countries coupled comes from these makeshift operations called artisanal mines they are run by a local cooperative of miners who get a license from the government there are so many little tents all over this place under it there are holes they told us some as deep as 100 meters these young men go down to dig for minerals see these bags they are minerals this will be taken to the cobalt market to be sold to international buyers emmanuel wants to show us what the mine is like but insisting it's too dangerous for me he agrees to take a camera instead [Music] [Music] while i wait above a man will clamp us down what looks like an endless dark tunnel in fact a manual descends for ages as the mind never seems this man do this every day this young man do this every day so for them it's it's a day job but it's a very risky job it's a very very risky job because imagine going deep underground in darkness and just digging for something this could collapse at any moment [Music] they meet a team of diggers taking a break [Music] [Music] it isn't the only team down here in fact there are many working multiple channels all following whatever seam of cobalt they can find and when they find it they set to work getting it ready for the market they work long hours with barely room to move they earn about three pounds a day more than most in the drc but it's still very low [Music] mines like this are built in the shadows of vast industrial mines the huge pits provide the bulk of the world's cobalt every industrial cobalt mine is majority owned or operated by foreign countries usually it's the chinese while the drc itself owns only a minority stake in most mines [Music] just a few years ago kolwezy was a sleepy town but it has been transformed anywhere you go towns and cities across the world you see monuments of heroes leaders and important figures but here in kolwezy they celebrate minors and the equipment this just shows how important mining is for this community and for the country in general but scientists and doctors are increasingly concerned about its impact on public health because pregnant women in this region have concentrations of heavy metals in their blood that are among the highest ever reported the artisanal mind has important visitors [Music] team of doctors and scientists have traveled to calwesia to conduct some pioneering research [Music] last year they published a landmark study into how newborn babies are affected by mining [Music] it showed that copper and cobalt miners in a city 200 miles away are five and a half times more likely to have children with birth defects now this team wants to find out if the same is true here in kolwezy the episode of the drc is coupled trade we want to see the birth defect because the exposure to certain chemicals including metals are associated with birth defect alongside the scientists local doctors are also trying to work out the scale of the problem in the heart of kolwezy dr billy mcconk has dedicated the last seven years to helping children with birth defects [Music] operated 30 children who had cleft palate last week and they all came back this week so that he can review and see what help they need cleft palate occurs when facial tissues do not form properly in the early months of a pregnancy it's caused by genetic factors and has been linked to pollution in the environment massoud's family has traveled 100 miles to be here and will have to go home tonight but the doctor has bad news you spend more time with this patient what's wrong we ask them to not touch the wounds but if we touch with the hands it can bring infection massoud is three years old he was operated last week but his wounds are not healing well because some people touched and his mouth is infected so he needs to operate again next time it's alarming news for mass roots mother who like many in this clinic was unable to follow the strict regime to keep her child free of infection most of these children come from mining families which dr billy says is no coincidence uh [Music] this is part of dr billy's public health campaign he has come to the market looking for parents he might be able to help [Applause] before long he's in a conversation this man says his child was born with a birth defect the baby was born normally but we when he go it doesn't work can you tell us more about the children it seems extraordinary that as soon as we came here you know people started coming approaching the doctor and telling him you know i have a child with that defect can you help me you know i have a child with you know abnormalities can you help me into this small market and small communities [Music] wherever you go in kolwezy you are never far from one of these enormous piles of dust [Music] they are right next to villages [Music] look at the amount of dust on this lid there is a community living here surrounded by mountains and mountains of mineral waste [Music] the dust which ends up all over town is one of the byproducts of industrial mining it's the impact of this dust that really worries the medical community i've been waiting a phone call from dr billy and he called last night and he said i have shown you what i am able to do which is helping children with cleft balance but i also want to show you what i can't do which is helping children with other abnormalities so today he's taking us to meet these children and their families the first child lives a long way out of the city when we arrive it's so far off the road we follow a motorbike that has been sent to meet us [Music] okay mutombo is two years old and was born with twisted limbs dr billy is concerned his condition is a result of mining pollution his father was a minor he abandoned muthambo and his then 16 year old mother deborah the first time he saw the child it must be difficult to have a disabled child like this in this community but [Music] is only 18 years old she is left with a two-year-old son his father and the in-laws abandon them because they didn't want a disabled child and she has to look after this child for the rest of her life problem [Music] dr billy takes me to meet a two-year-old girl who lives on the edge of this river which is in a mining area kayembe has a condition called hydrocephalus which means water on the brain miriali became pregnant soon after moving here she spent much of her pregnancy selling fruit and veg at artisanal minefields her husband also worked near the mines when did you notice something was wrong [Music] [Music] like many people here miriali did not take the correct supplements when she became pregnant it creates a complicated medical background making it difficult for dr billy to assess the cause of caiamba's condition by example [Music] dr billy and his colleagues are not the only ones worried about coupled mining's impact on water [Music] 20 miles away it's a different river but farmers have the same concerns as dr billy 72 year old vula is sure the water here is toxic they say they are doing all they can but the vegetables are still dying they blame industrial mines upstream research has shown that some rivers in this region are polluted with heavy metals including uranium which makes fish radioactive the farmers are angry because they have already been forced to move once and enjoy transactions [Music] um the scientists have been in town for four days they are along the same river as the farmers they have come to test it because it has a history of mining pollution this is very important for the local people because this river flows miles and miles and joins the congo river which is a source for millions of congolese people they want to know if the water contains toxic metals and if there is any surviving biodiversity the first impressions are much worse than they had anticipated this acid acid yeah we have different pathway of exposure to pollutants and this is one of these kind of exposure so as scientists i can't conclude that can be linked to the birth defect but the example we are collecting is going to show us while dr tony is telling me this the professor is with a local activist who simply says the river is now dead no fishy no fish here no fish there is nothing here why because the river has been polluted and all fish has died you see there is nothing inside no life in the river before leaving kolwezy the scientists took samples from the parents of mutombo and kayembe the results showed that they had four times as much coupled in their blood as the highest values normally observed in people living in western europe it doesn't prove coupled caused their children's malformations but dr billy believes it's another piece in the puzzle [Music] we took our findings to the drc government but they did not reply but the chamber of mines which represents the industrial mining companies said each company has an environmental management plan and monitoring systems which measures levels of waste and other surface or groundwater the industry is taking steps to mitigate dust pollution but says dust also emanates from other industries [Music] the people we met here in kolwezy the scientists doctors children and their families know that their country is rich in mineral resources which they should be benefiting from but they are not in fact it's worse they say mining is polluting the environment and affecting their health and the sad reality is that they feel powerless to do anything about across the world people demand the latest consumer electronics and electric cars at the same time vast industries have been built around hopes that technology will solve the climate emergency but it all leads to one question can a sustainable green revolution be built without the exploitation of others [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Unreported World

Views: 1,727,211

Keywords: Unreported world, unreported world documentary

Id: ipOeH7GW0M8

Length: 23min 51sec (1431 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 31 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/ATribeOfAfricans]

Man the Congo just gets hammered again and again

[u/Hot_Marionberry_4685]

This documentary is the fossil fuel industry’s equivalent of the sugar industry blaming fat for obesity. Essentially a total sham trying to convince the uninformed that investing in green technology promotes slavery in other countries. You know what else promotes slavery in other countries? Oil, gold, diamonds, avocados, sugar, basically everything. Stop spreading your misinformation you corporate shills.

[u/AdviseGiver]

Tesla is switching all of their base model cars to lithium iron phosphate cells, which last much longer and don't use cobalt, FYI.

[u/TheOtherHercules]

Watched this the other night. It was difficult to see. The thing is, all of this is preventable while still providing the world with the materials it needs.

This is all caused by corporate greed and government corruption. There's nothing stopping us from mining in a safe manner and giving work that pays a living wage to those who live in the country in question.

[u/hakkai999]

Pretty sure cobalt will still be used on "non-green" products regardless so why is this being framed as "See going green still hurts the environment!"?

Is it because this is a bullshit narrative to equate going green as maintaining the status quo? No WAAAAAAY /s

[u/pete1729]

This isn't the cost of going green, it's the result of greed.

[u/-richthealchemist-]

Oh fuck it let’s just carry on polluting the atmosphere with fossil fuels then shall we?

[u/Broke_Beedle]

We never ended slavery we just outsourced it. Almost every industry right now is using slave labor.

[u/Stewy13]

Few things:
First the % of cobalt mined in this fashion is less than 1%
Second the largest user/consumer of cobalt is the fossil fuel industry.

So either it's not a problem, or it is and the solution is eliminating/reducing fossil fuel use. Ironic as it's likely that very industry pushing this narrative about childhood labor.