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Diary    H4'ed 11/30/15

Do you know about coltan?

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From flickr.com/photos/9834364@N08/4167863962/: Visualizing Africa's Coltan Trade

Posted by Katie Singer

www.electronicsilentspring.com

Coltan (short for Columbite-tantalite) is a black, tar-like mineral. Refining makes coltan a heat-resistant powder that can hold a high electric charge. Refined coltan is a crucial element in devices that store energy, including mobile phones, laptops, tablets, digital still cameras, video cameras, ink jet printers, hearing aids, pacemakers, jet enginines, X-ray film and pagers.

The Congo holds 64% of the world's coltan. Mining for coltan has contributed to mass rapes and more loss of life than any other single situation since World War II. Unfortunately, to satisfy our hunger for electronics, corporations will pay any price for coltan and other minerals required for devices to work.

To learn more, check out:

Consuming the Congo: War and Conflict Minerals in the World's Deadliest Place by Peter Eichstaedt.

http://www.friendsofthecongo.org/resource-center/coltan.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/congos-tragedy-the-war-theworld:forgot-6101835.html

http://www.projectcensored.org/5-high-tech-genocide-in-congo/

Posted by Katie Singer

www.electronicsilentspring.com

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Katie Singer writes about nature and technology in Letters to Greta. She spoke about the Internet's footprint in 2018, at the United Nations' Forum on Science, Technology & Innovation, and, in 2019, on a panel with the climatologist Dr. (more...)
 

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