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  • (slow, deliberate music)

  • - Today, I'm digging through an iPhone,

  • looking for a very particular material.

  • We've talked a bunch on the channel

  • about how different types of minerals and metals

  • can end up in electronics like this one,

  • and where they come from in the world.

  • So there's gold, which conducts electricity really well.

  • Lots of gold is mined in Nevada, Colombia, and China.

  • Lithium of course, is found in a lot of batteries,

  • and lots of lithium comes from South America.

  • But the material we're looking for is actually here.

  • This is a tantalum capacitor.

  • Or at least we think it's a tantalum capacitor.

  • Apple makes it really hard to identify parts

  • in our motherboard.

  • But we found some schematics that pointed us

  • in this general area.

  • Looks like it's right here.

  • It's a component that stores electrical charges.

  • Tantalum is an element that's derived from an ore

  • called columbite-tantalite, or coltan.

  • Tantalum is highly sought after because it's got

  • a very high melting point and it resists corrosion.

  • We wanted to get our eyes on this capacitor

  • because the tiny scrap of metal inside

  • has some huge implications.

  • It's a piece of a complex web we've all woven

  • between humans, nature, and resources.

  • And now, in the middle of COVID-19,

  • this web takes on an extra resonance

  • because it could cause the next pandemic.

  • (slow, deliberate music)

  • That's a big claim, so let's break it down.

  • A lot of coltan can be traced back

  • to The Democratic Republic of Congo.

  • Some comes from large industrial open pit mines.

  • The kind of mine we're used to seeing images of.

  • But most coltan actually comes from much smaller operations.

  • This is often called artisanal or subsistence mining.

  • It's often just people digging holes with shovels and picks

  • to make a living.

  • Subsistence mining means humans cutting their way

  • through really remote areas.

  • By clearing land to make way for mining,

  • people interact with wildlife in ways

  • they wouldn't otherwise.

  • And that's where things can get messy.

  • - Yeah, what we're talking about is spillover.

  • - Our environment reporter Justine has been looking into

  • all of this and she'll take it from here.

  • - So basically when humans intermingle with wildlife,

  • chances increase for something called a spillover event.

  • This is when a virus jumps from one species to another.

  • It's how most new infectious diseases emerge,

  • including COVID-19.

  • When one species bites, eats, gets pooped on by another,

  • viruses from one species might infect the other.

  • Artisanal mining offers up a lot of opportunities

  • for spillover between animals and humans.

  • To get some specifics, I called up Michael Nest.

  • - Can you hear me okay?

  • Can you see me okay?

  • - [Justine] He wrote an entire book about coltan

  • and he walked me through the details of how exactly

  • one spillover event could happen.

  • - You might not have much of a perimeter at all

  • between a pit where somebody is mining

  • and the forest itself.

  • So people might go into the bush,

  • or rely on people who live the forest to bring them food.

  • - [Justine] In this case, food is bushmeat,

  • wild animals hunted, killed, and eaten.

  • In the DRC, bushmeat can mean a porcupine, rat--

  • - [Michael] A bush pig, or part of a gorilla.

  • - It's a viable way for animal viruses to meet

  • their first human host.

  • And it happens pretty often.

  • One study of miners working in the eastern DRC

  • found that a majority of them relied regularly on bushmeat.

  • They had no alternative.

  • - If you are a poor mine worker and you get the opportunity

  • to kill a gorilla and eat it because it's free meat,

  • you're very likely to do that,

  • if you think you can get away with doing that.

  • - And it's not just about bushmeat.

  • Some animals might get drawn in closer by mining.

  • Bats, for example, might take up residence in mines.

  • That ups the odds of a miner getting scratched or bitten

  • or exposed to waste.

  • Other wildlife might get displaced.

  • They might run into new groups of animals

  • and those interactions mean more chances for spillover.

  • - So it's not just the access to bush food,

  • but it's also the very close proximity to forest

  • with very little attention paid to health infrastructure

  • or public health.

  • - So far there hasn't been a major viral outbreak

  • that we can trace back to coltan mining.

  • But all the ingredients for spillover are there.

  • It's a recipe for another pandemic.

  • And it has happened around other mines.

  • An outbreak of Marburg killed 128 people in the DRC

  • between 1998 and 2000.

  • Marburg is a viral hemorrhagic fever, similar to Ebola.

  • Most of those who died were gold miners

  • who probably picked up the virus from bats

  • or other critters in mines,

  • and then spread it to their families.

  • And in 1994,

  • 31 people died from outbreaks of Ebola

  • in gold mining villages in Gabon.

  • Scientists suspect that the virus could have jumped

  • from chimpanzees to humans.

  • And if you take the widest possible view,

  • you see that there are hotspots all over the world

  • where new infectious diseases are emerging.

  • In many of those cases,

  • it's happening where people are clearing land

  • for things like mining, logging, and agriculture.

  • (high pitched musical note)

  • Because of COVID-19,

  • there's been a lot of talk about China's wet markets,

  • where researchers initially thought the virus made the jump

  • from animals to humans.

  • But the journey of this phone's minerals

  • shows that the threat of spillover is so much bigger

  • than just one scenario.

  • - Everybody's talking about the wet market (indistinct).

  • But those just really literally

  • is the tip of the iceberg really.

  • - [Justine] Carlos Zambrana-Torrelio is a scientist

  • at EcoHealth Alliance,

  • a nonprofit that works to spot animal viruses

  • before they spill over into humans.

  • He says we need to think about the connection between

  • our demand for electronics, the destruction of habitats,

  • and the consequences.

  • - Pretty much every year there's a new iPhone.

  • We should remember that it's coming from somewhere

  • in the world.

  • And then there's a whole chain that it's been affecting.

  • - [Justine] Since 2009, EcoHealth Alliance,

  • in partnership with USAID, found 1200 viruses in animals,

  • including more than 140 new Corona viruses

  • that could one day pose another global threat.

  • They'll continue to study the virus's behavior,

  • but virus behavior depends a lot on human behavior.

  • There's no getting around it.

  • - So we need to start thinking about the future as a whole,

  • as humanity, as a planet,

  • how we want to deal with this problem.

  • Do we want another pandemic 10 years from now?

  • Next year?

  • In the 50 years from now?

  • - [Justine] The next pandemic will almost certainly

  • come from some spillover in a viral hotspot.

  • And that really shouldn't come as a surprise.

  • - Usually humans, we see ourselves outside the system.

  • But we are really part of the system.

  • The reason that we share most of the diseases with animals

  • is because we are animals.

  • We are part of the animal kingdom.

  • (slow, deliberate music)

  • - Thanks so much for watching.

  • If you wanna see more of our COVID-19 coverage,

  • check out theverge.com and don't forget to subscribe.

(slow, deliberate music)

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