Independent thinking for complex markets and current events
In a discovery that’s got economists giddy and environmentalists reeling, Japan has found something very special deep under the Pacific Ocean. Scientists have uncovered a seabed covered with nodules near Minami-Tori-shima Island worth a staggering $26.29 billion. But while the find promises to turbocharge Japan’s economy for the next decade, critics warn it could sink …
500,000 acres of farmland are now without water due to the shutoff order. The shutoff order affects 6,400 groundwater users. The decision is linked to a predicted yearly shortfall and noncompliance with mitigations. Jervois, a company mining for cobalt, received approval to operate 24/7 shortly after the water curtailment order. The mining operation requires significant …
How ‘modern-day slavery’ in the Congo powers the rechargeable battery economy Smartphones, computers and electric vehicles may be emblems of the modern world, but, says Siddharth Kara, their rechargeable batteries are frequently powered by cobalt mined by workers laboring in slave-like conditions in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Kara, a fellow at Harvard’s T.H. Chan …