The video highlights the environmental and human impact of the aluminum supply chain, particularly how it affects communities in the Amazon. The starting point of this supply chain involves extensive mining in the Amazon rainforest, leading to deforestation and pollution. This process includes extracting bauxite, refining it into aluminum, and eventually using it to manufacture products like the Ford F-150 truck in the United States. The video outlines the environmental degradation and health issues experienced by local communities as a result of aluminum production.

The video reveals the complexity and lack of transparency within the global aluminum supply chain and emphasizes the disconnect between consumers' green choices and their unintended negative impact. It also discusses the legal efforts made by affected communities in Brazil to seek redress from the aluminum companies responsible for the pollution, detailing both local and international lawsuits. Despite some companies like Ford being initially unaware of these supply chain issues, the video illustrates the necessary steps to investigate and improve sustainable practices.

Main takeaways from the video:

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. bauxite [ˈbɔːksaɪt] - (noun) - A rock composed mainly of hydrous aluminum oxides and aluminum hydroxides, used as a source of aluminum. - Synonyms: (aluminum ore, mineral, raw material)

They scrape out long strips of soil, they get to the bauxite, then they claw that bauxite out.

2. refinery [rɪˈfaɪnəri] - (noun) - An industrial plant for purifying a crude substance such as metal, oil, or sugar. - Synonyms: (plant, processing plant, facility)

The Allinarche refinery is located within the Amazon rainforest.

3. caustic soda [ˈkɔːstɪk ˈsəʊdə] - (noun) - Another term for sodium hydroxide (NaOH), a strong alkaline compound used in cleaning and manufacturing. - Synonyms: (sodium hydroxide, lye, alkali)

In order to separate the red mud that turns into the white powder alumina that's used to make aluminum, you have to add caustic soda.

4. indigenous [ɪnˈdɪdʒɪnəs] - (adjective) - Originating or occurring naturally in a particular place; native. - Synonyms: (native, original, aboriginal)

These are very poor communities. They're largely indigenous communities or black communities.

5. toxic sludge [ˈtɒksɪk slʌdʒ] - (noun) - Waste matter, often hazardous and containing pollutants, that is produced during industrial processes. - Synonyms: (hazardous waste, pollutant, effluent)

...flooded the communities with this toxic sludge of water.

6. transparency [trænsˈpærənsi] - (noun) - The quality of being done in an open way without secrets, clear and straightforward. - Synonyms: (clarity, openness, candidness)

It's extremely difficult to chase an aluminum supply chain. There's very little transparency.

7. sustainable [səˈsteɪnəbl̩] - (adjective) - Capable of being maintained over the long term without harming the environment or depleting resources. - Synonyms: (renewable, eco-friendly, green)

sustainable supply chains have become sort of all the rage recently.

8. jurisdiction [ˌdʒʊrɪsˈdɪkʃən] - (noun) - The official power to make legal decisions and judgments. - Synonyms: (authority, control, power)

...there's a court there that ruled that it has jurisdiction over the case because Norse Kaidro also operates in the Netherlands.

9. limbo [ˈlɪmboʊ] - (noun) - An uncertain situation that you cannot control and in which there is no progress or improvement. - Synonyms: (uncertainty, predicament, suspension)

It is very easy to get cases and leave them into like sort of this judicial limbo in which they will just never be resolved.

10. environmental degradation [ɪnˌvaɪrənˈmɛntl ˌdɛɡrəˈdeɪʃən] - (noun) - The deterioration of the environment through the depletion of resources and destruction of ecosystems. - Synonyms: (ecological harm, habitat loss, deterioration)

The video outlines the environmental degradation and health issues experienced by local communities as a result of aluminum production.

The Human Cost of Going Green | Bloomberg Investigates

Elisha Goku proposed, nobody had looked into the aluminum supply chain and made that direct connection from turning green and going more environmentally aware to, in fact, actual destruction in the Amazon at its source. Part of that supply chain starts deep in the Amazon, and then it ends up in Dearborn, where the Ford f 150 is made. Consumers in the United States, they're not necessarily understanding that those green choices come with an impact. Mining, sort of, by definition, is always a dirty business. When you're talking about mines in the Amazon region, you have to first tear down large swaths of natural rainforest just to get to the mines. They scrape out long strips of soil, they get to the bauxite, then they claw that bauxite out.

Then they ship that ore to a refinery along the Amazon river, and that ore is separated, and it produced massive amounts of waste on both of those steps. The Allinarche refinery is located within the Amazon rainforest. It is on a tributary of the Amazon river itself, and it is an absolutely enormous complex. It's completely surrounded by green and communities that have lived around there for decades. It came in, it built this entire huge industrial complex. The entire thing is a gigantic area of smokestacks and slurry containers and waste ponds. In order to separate the red mud that turns into the white powder alumina that's used to make aluminum, you have to add caustic soda, heat it to very high temperatures, and then add lime. The waste from that process goes into these waste area, essentially ponds, but they're giant. They're like lakes. The landscape around that area has just changed from night and day. It used to be the case where it was very fertile land. They were able to grow acai there. They had mango trees, and they were able to survive on this land. Now they say that nothing grows. These are very poor communities. They're largely indigenous communities or black communities. They're extremely vulnerable.

There are allegations that over the past more than ten years, the refinery has been slowly poisoning the communities. It's not all by Norsk Hydro's Allo Norci. There's a number of plants, but Norse Hydro alonorchi is the largest plant that's there. There are allegations that in 2018, these biggest waste depositories that they maintain overflowed during heavy rains and flooded the communities with this toxic sludge of water. Eleonore completely denies that anything happened at that time, but the people say that it did. Einda ojo sage. Doris. Doris, no copy to do post attack on Tamina police. Loudus Keshe, kiddo. Positive contaminant okay. SS induces process minaris minarius toda atabella period chemicals which quatro ahechirado. This is element scheme. This is influence atmospheric with severity inclusive fruit. So sometime last year, I heard about this lawsuit that the residents were bringing against a Illumina refinery.

When I traveled to Barcarena, I asked to meet the claimants in this lawsuit, and there are nine people who are part of the lawsuit. And then there is a 10th organization that is part of the lawsuit, that is an organization that represents indigenous people in the area. Those. There are 11,000 people who are part of that suit. The government sponsored a medical test for people in the communities to test the levels of heavy metals in their blood and in their hair. And people only have that one medical exam to actually verify the fact that they've been feeling sick for years. People were literally chasing me down the street with their health reports, wanting to show me how sick they are from the pollution. One lady had 175 times the allowable amount of aluminum in her hair, multiple times the amount of lead in her bloodstream. These people suffer considerable health problems. They can't drink the water. The water is completely polluted, and the entire area in Barcarena, it's a terrible situation for a lot of the people in this community.

I sat down with Maria do Socojo, who is the lead of the Killambola association in the area, and her association is the lead plaintiff in this case. She lost a grandson a couple years back. He was born with skin that was so thin, she says, that his intestines actually burst out of his body when he was born. It Mohel Otter is a kid. NASA Pincino hash Gadoki tennis Burakara memo temple Allo Norci is the refinery in Baccarena, which is owned by a company named Norsky. The largest shareholders of Norskidro is the norwegian government, which has been one of the biggest critics of Brazil's track record when it comes to protecting the Amazon. In Norway, there's an enormous push towards environmental use of hydroelectricity. It's all very green. There are very stricteen environmental standards that companies have to adhere to in Norway. And the irony here, and something that a lot of people in the Amazon are upset about, is the fact that the government of Norway has come to Brazil, criticized the government for, in fact, its destruction of the Amazon, and at the same time is the largest owner of a company that is accused of polluting in the Amazon process.

Wow. The lawyer in Brazil, Ismail Morris, he has tried and tried in brazilian courts to bring this case to get redressed for these people. They don't have access to basic healthcare, basic medical exams. And so what he's been fighting for in brazilian courts is to get the company to at least pay some contribution or provide medical care or do something for the surrounding community, for people who say, our health is affected, our drinking water is affected, we need help. Prakash Pesosh kujnu tabishi okay. KiTAKIno Hill, Vedaki Il Provo Statistical Taverna Kiwalumi activists and researchers, they've been studying this, and they've proven over and over and over that these communities are, are polluted. What they haven't been able to do is make that final leap from all this pollution to the refinery. So they haven't been able to make that final jump from cause and effect. What they need is they need the government to say, okay, norse kidro, you need to open your doors. You need to let them get this material so that they can compare the composition from the toxic metals in the water to the toxic metals in these, the waste deposits.

It's extremely difficult to chase an aluminum supply chain. There's very little transparency. I tracked ships with a vessel finder online. You could see where the ships were leaving which port and going to another port carrying what kind of cargo. It took me a considerable amount of time, in fact, a few months, to be able to finally trace the entire supply chain, from bauxite to alumina to aluminum, then into the United States to part suppliers, and then ultimately to Ford. It's time for electric to turn into lightning. An electric truck that can match the ambitions of this nation.

Even before Ford announced that it was going to make an electric version of its best selling pickup, it had already started switching from steel to aluminum, because aluminum is a lot lighter, and so it reduces gas consumption in these vehicles and makes it generally more efficient of a vehicle. The switch into electric vehicles accelerated that drive even more to use more and more aluminum. The typical vehicle in the United States uses about 500 pounds of aluminum, and an EV will use 150 pounds more than that. The shift from gasoline fueled vehicles into electric vehicles is hugely important for the us government's goal of reducing carbon emissions. But in order to complete that shift, carmakers need to reach middle America. And so the Ford F 150 is targets. That audience perfectly remember where you were when you heard about it.

So when I approached Ford, they were initially unaware of the links, direct links between their supply chain and Brazil. So it took my researching the whole supply chain, finding those links via Canada into the US that actually caused Ford to then say, we are now going to investigate our supply chain. I think that american consumers need to understand that there's a cost of going green. And until we can put enough awareness and enough attention and enough pressure on places that are also providing those natural resources that are allowing us to make green choices, the rest of the world is going to suffer the consequences.

sustainable supply chains have become sort of all the rage recently. Companies are rushing to be able to say that their supply chains are sustainable. In a lot of cases, they haven't actually done the work to connect all these dots to the ground. So they say everything is legal. It's a sustainable supply chain. And what you find in these developing nations is that what's legal can't be the bar of what's sustainable and what's green aluminium. It makes our lives lighter and easier.

After five attempts to sue Norse Kaidro in brazilian courts, the brazilian lawyer teamed up with a global law firm and decided to bring the suit in the Netherlands. And there's a court there that ruled that it has jurisdiction over the case because Norse Kaidro also operates in the Netherlands and the parent company is the same as the one that is operating the Elenorche refinery in the Amazon. They took the case abroad because at home they'd had several cases that had been stuck in the judicial system for years. It is very easy to get cases and leave them into like sort of this judicial limbo in which they will just never be resolved. Sabu kijiga condom isami toxicological mohil magical mice. You can see ojalinda, my voice. Panoramic toxico elements toxic.

So after we publish the story, there have been a number of inquiries. Closer looks at the aluminum supply chain in the US. It really does appear that a very large portion of the aluminum in the us supply chain is linked to this destruction in the Amazon and the pollution that is alleged to be from this refinery in Brazil. The solution here is the pressure from the end users. And that means companies like Ford going back through their supply chain and saying, hey, where do you get this alumina from? Where do you get this bauxite from? And pressing for more higher environmental standards. Because the environmental standards in Brazil are pretty lax. And it's only when companies at the end of the chain and consumers who buy those products and put the pressure on the companies demand higher standards that those standards get fixed at the source.

Economics, Global, Environment, Ford F-150, Pollution, Sustainable Supply Chain, Bloomberg Originals