"Open letter to anyone who uses a smartphone, drives an electric car, or flies on a plane"

I recently returned from a research trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where tens of thousands of children toil in abject squalor, endure pitiful penny wages, grave injury, and even death in order to mine cobalt.  Once processed, this cobalt is used in the lithium-ion rechargeable batteries that power our electronic devices, allow us to snap photos and videos that capture our lives, and connect us to social media.  It also powers our electric vehicles and is used to build the jet engines that carry us around the world...

In order to assess this misery, I documented thirty-one mining sites in and around the cities of Lubumbashi, Kipushi, Likasi, Kambove, and Kolwezi, at villages in between these cities, and in remote mountains and forests near the Zambian border...At least 35,000 children toil in the southeastern provinces in cobalt mining.  At two mining sites I visited – one in Kipushi and another in Kambove - a total of 4,900 adults and 1,100 children slog in rancid and dehumanizing conditions.  The children, as young as six, are caked in filth as they hack, sort, shovel, and scrounge for cobalt, earning between $0.50 and $0.80 per day of grueling labor.  They endure lacerations and broken bones, and they suffer permanent damage to their health by handling cobalt with their bare hands and by breathing toxic mineral dust all day.  None of these children attend school.  Teenage mothers toil under the blazing sun with delirious infants strapped to their backs, breaking only for a moment to breastfeed their doomed babies.

I ask that you please join me in taking the following two actions: First, refuse to purchase any electronic products until companies that buy cobalt from the DRC create an independet third-party system to ensure their supply chains are clear of oppression, exploitation, cruelty, slavery, and child labor. Second, demand that the CEOs of the companies who buy cobalt from the DRC donate a modest 1% of their net worth and allocate 1% of their company’s annual free cash flow towards the education, health, security, decent pay, and dignified treatment of their employees in DRC. Surely they are worth one penny on every dollar earned off their misery.