When people talk about “natural” versus “artificial”, there is an assumption that technology sits on the artificial side, but the elements and materials it is made from come from the Earth and are handled by many people. What really is “natural” after all? “It is impossible to talk about a green energy transitioning world without these minerals,” said leader and speaker Kave Bulambo in a 2024 speech. She continued, “when you start to dig deep to try and understand this equation, you realize that under this shiny Big Tech movement lies a world of exploitation for men, women, and even children laboring in cobalt mines in the [Democratic Republic of] Congo.”³¹⁹

It would be disingenuous to attempt to disentangle the human rights abuses connected to creating technologies from their environmental impacts. Siddarth Kara, a researcher of modern-day slavery, discussed the environmental impacts of cobalt mining: “Millions of trees have been cut down, the air around mines is hazy with dust and grit, and the water has been contaminated with toxic effluents from the mining processing.”³²⁰

Cobalt is a stone that has an almost eerie blue color — for centuries it has been used in the arts³²¹. It has also become essential for the manufacturing of rechargeable batteries — like those that enable smartphones, laptops, electric cars, and more. Cobalt is just one of the natural resources powering the ‘green energy revolution’.³²² But this important stone can be toxic to touch and breathe, especially in high doses.

To understand the harmful effects of cobalt mining in the DRC, it is essential to consider its colonial history. Continued exploitation of the country’s resources persisted, even after gaining formal independence in 1960, and is a legacy that continues to shape the country’s mining sector today.³²³ Kolwezi, a city in the DRC, was built by Belgium under an apartheid-style system of urban segregation, and now has many large open-pit mines situated in and around its periphery.³²⁴ Large deposits of cobalt have been found in the DRC, accounting for over 70% of the world’s reserves.³²⁵

Both multinational companies with concessions and artisanal miners are involved in cobalt mining in the DRC, though industrial mines now dominate the region. Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM) remains widespread, with thousands of informal miners working in dangerous conditions to extract cobalt by hand. Kara described how so-called ‘artisanal miners’ — including children — are digging for cobalt, saying: “The bottom of the supply chain, where almost all the world's cobalt is coming from, is a horror show.”³²⁶

What comes to mind when you think of something artisanal? It is probably not informal workers digging in hazardous, often toxic conditions, either earning a subsistence income for their families or working in small groups to extract minerals for commercial sale. ‘Artisanal’ has a meaning of small-scale and handmade, which is true in a sense for the work of ‘artisanal miners’. But the term ‘artisanal’ is evocative of a quaint neighborhood farmers market or traditional handmade cheese or soap — not often thought of as children and adults digging toxic stones from the ground with their bare hands. The term partly comes from its low-tech nature, as it involves individuals mining deposits that are either unprofitable, unsafe, or otherwise unsuitable for large-scale mining companies. Yet, artisanal mining is far from small-scale. Over 100 million people worldwide are engaged in or rely on the income it generates.³²⁷ While it may seem more wholesome than industrial mining, an industry with one of the worst track records for human rights abuses,³²⁸ artisanal mining often lacks environmental and worker safeguards, as well as protections for women’s and children’s rights.³²⁹

This form of mining is common in Kolwezi in the DRC, especially in areas where people have been displaced by large-scale mining projects.³³⁰ Despite attempts to formalise the sector, informal mining persists, with reports of “Creuseurs” (translated as “diggers”, as they are known locally) continuing to dig under their homes or in newly ‘illegal’ sites outside the formal mine boundaries. As one miner Edmond Kalenga, put it: “The minerals are like a snake moving through the village. You just followed the snake”.³³¹

A 2022 Amnesty International report detailed several case studies of human rights abuses at three sites where they used documentary evidence, satellite images, and interviews with former residents to determine that people had been forcibly evicted from their homes, in the name of energy transition mining.³³² Forced evictions constitute a fundamental breach of human rights, and lead to loss of livelihood, and the loss of other human rights such as access to basic services including health and education.³³³ The forced evictions occurred as part of the government's efforts to formalise the mining sector, carried out in collaboration with mining companies.³³⁴ People living close to polluted mines are subjected to severe health problems. The DRC mining region is one of the ten most polluted areas worldwide.³³⁵ Research suggests a correlation between exposure to heavy metals such as cobalt and birth defects,³³⁶ and children have been found with a high concentration of cobalt in their urine.³³⁷

As well as the human rights violations already mentioned, the innumerable environmental and health costs are connected, with issues like biodiversity loss, pollution (air, soil, water), and the socio-economic consequences of job insecurity, violence, and loss of livelihoods. These impacts not only exacerbate one another but also lead to further challenges, including displacement, gender-based violence, and the erosion of cultural knowledge.³³⁸ Diamonds are not the only conflict mineral – as you can see, cobalt is among the many minerals which are extracted through degrading means with devastating results.

Companies that make lithium batteries, such as Tesla, occasionally respond to public calls for supply chain transparency,³³⁹ however, as demand for cobalt grows, businesses involved in battery manufacturing must pay attention to ethical and human rights issues along the entire supply chain. Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Apple, Dell, Microsoft, and Tesla have all been accused of purchasing cobalt which was gathered by means of forced labor, and deliberately obscuring their dependence on child labor — including those in extreme poverty. While the US court found that companies purchasing from suppliers were not responsible for the practices of suppliers³⁴⁰, further doubts have already been raised against Apple³⁴¹. “It is a major paradox of the digital era that some of the world’s richest, most innovative companies are able to market incredibly sophisticated devices without being required to show where they source raw materials for their components,” said Emmanuel Umpula, Executive Director of Afrewatch (Africa Resources Watch).³⁴²

The European Parliament has voted in a law that large companies are obliged to conduct human rights and environmental due diligence³⁴³ — a step towards holding corporations accountable for rights violations of their suppliers. But supply chains themselves are not necessarily reliable narrators. In the case of cobalt, suppliers may put the child-labor cobalt together with the child-labor free cobalt in refineries, making it difficult or even impossible to trace³⁴⁴. Furthermore, child-labor free cobalt does not necessarily mean it is free of human exploitation and jarring conditions. For more in-depth information on due diligence and accountability in the DRC’s mining sector, the Carter Center highlights several key recommendations.³⁴⁵

Our energy consumption will only continue to increase with developments like ChatGPT, cryptocurrencies, and faster internet. One researcher found that using generative AI to create one image uses as much energy as charging a smartphone³⁴⁶. A report by Goldman Sachs, a multinational investment firm, found that one AI-powered search used 10 times more electricity than a regular search³⁴⁷. Both Google and Microsoft have self-reported that their carbon emissions have grown as a result of AI.³⁴⁸ With water and food scarcity being a real-world threat, and an ever-warming climate, how long will the planet be able to sustain these systems? When we finally take a critical look at the nature that’s powering our screens, we may see its poisonous impacts on people and the planet.

³¹⁹ Bulambo, Kave. “Why ethics must be a consideration in your tech use.” TEDxSchlossplatz, 2024.

³²⁰ Gross, Terry. “How 'modern-day slavery' in the Congo powers the rechargeable battery economy.” NPR, 2023.

³²¹ Zhang, Yun; et al. “The archaeological and scientific analysis of blue-decorated ceramics in the Tang and Song dynasties.” Archaeometry, 64(6), 1394–1410, 2022.

³²² Nogrady, Bianca. “Cobalt is critical to the renewable energy transition. How can we minimize its social and environmental cost?” Ensia, 2020.

³²³ Dr Bokamba, Eyamba ; et al. “The Re-Conquest of the Congo.” Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, Dossier No. 77, 2024.

³²⁴ Mthembu-Salter, Gregory. “Occasional Paper 35: The Geopolitics of the Global Energy Transition: The Impact on Africa.” South African Institute of International Affairs, 2009.

³²⁵ Baker, Bruce. “Why Cobalt Mining in the DRC Needs Urgent Attention.” Council on Foreign Relations, 2022.

³²⁶ Gross, Terry. “How 'modern-day slavery' in the Congo powers the rechargeable battery economy.” NPR, 2023.

³²⁷ German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. “Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM).” Accessed February 24, 2025.

³²⁸ Hodgkins, Chelsea. “The False Promise of Responsible Mining.” Heinrich Böll Foundation, 2025.

³²⁹ Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF). “Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining.” Accessed February 24, 2025.

³³⁰ Amnesty International & Afrewatch. "This is What We Die For: Human Rights Abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Power the Global Trade in Cobalt." 2016.

³³¹ Electronics Watch. "The 'Creuseurs' ('diggers'), at the Centre of the World's Push for EVs, Are in Peril." Electronics Watch, 2023.

³³² Amnesty International. “DR Congo: ‘We Live in Fear’: How the Cobalt Supply Chain Fuels Human Rights Abuses in the DRC.” 2023.

³³³ United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. “Forced Evictions.” OHCHR, 2024.

³³⁴ Rapoza, Kenneth. “Never Mind the Mines in Congo, There’s Cobalt Under the House.” Bloomberg, 2018.

³³⁵ Kashyap, Rajesh; et al. "Metal Mining and Birth Defects: A Case-Control Study in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo." The Lancet Planetary Health, 2020.

³³⁶ Vega, Renzo; et al. "Current exposure to environmental pollutants in the general adult population of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): A cross-sectional study." The Lancet Public Health,2025.

³³⁷ KU Leuven. “Hidden Costs of Cobalt Mining in DR Congo.” ScienceDaily, 2018.

³³⁸ Environmental Justice Atlas. "Kolwezi Ecological and Sanitary Disaster." EJAtlas, 2024

³³⁹ Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. "Tesla Secures Cobalt Sourcing Deal with Glencore Despite Human Rights Concerns Linked to Cobalt Mining." Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, 2020.

³⁴⁰ Stempel, Jonathan. “US court sides with Apple, Tesla, other tech companies over child labor in Africa.” Reuters, 2024.

³⁴¹ Reuters. “DR Congo presses Apple over minerals supply chain, lawyers say.” 2024.

³⁴² Amnesty International. “This is what we die for: Human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo power the global trade in cobalt.” 2016.

³⁴³ Human Rights Watch. “EU Parliament Approves Supply Chain Law.” 2024.

³⁴⁴ Davie, Michael; et al. “Blood Cobalt: The Congo's Dangerous and Deadly Green Energy Mines.” ABC News In-depth published on YouTube, 2022.

³⁴⁵ Carter Center. "Congo: Governance and Accountability in the Mining Sector." Carter Center, 2017.

³⁴⁶ Heikkilä, Melissa. “Making an image with generative AI uses as much energy as charging your phone.” MIT Technology Review, 2023.

³⁴⁷ Goldman Sachs. “AI is poised to drive 160% increase in data center power demand.” 2024.