Charging your phone is costing more than you know

ISLAMABAD: The metals inside your battery, lithium, cobalt, and rare earths are getting harder to find, and dirtier to extract. 

Mined in Congo, Chile, and Australia, these minerals come at a steep human and environmental cost, child miners, drained water reserves, and toxic waste. 

As demand skyrockets, shortages are looming and with them, price hikes, trade wars, and a stalled green future. 

For countries such as Pakistan, that means more expensive phones, laptops, even solar panels. So, the next time your battery is low, remember: the real crisis is not your dead phone, it is the dying supply chain behind it.