OFFSHORING OPPRESSION: The Dark Side of Green: Indonesia’s ‘Tainted City’ Is Killing Workers.

“A decade ago, Labota was a fishing village; today it’s been subsumed into a sprawling city centered around IMIP, a $15 billion, 3,000-hectare [7,413-acre] industrial complex containing steelworks, coal power plants, and manganese processors, with its own airport and seaport,” reports Wired. “Built as a joint venture between Chinese and Indonesian industrial companies, it is at the heart of Indonesia’s push to supply the electric vehicle market with nickel, a core component of batteries.”

The rush to mine all the nickel that manufacturers can get their hands on — at the hands of car companies eager to please the greens and governments chomping at the bit to get rid of fossil fuel use — takes a heavy toll. The consequences of this drive toward an EV future are genuine environmental damage and an alarming human cost.

Outsourcing our energy needs, whether oil or electric, enriches despots who don’t give a damn about people or the environment.