The Ford F-150, the best-selling pickup truck in the US, has an all-electric model that some consider lightweight and fast (the battery clocks in at 1,800 lbs. while its total weight is 6,500 lbs).
However, this model has a “troubled trail of aluminum” that originates from the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. A new investigation traced the bulk of the F-150’s aluminum to a Brazilian refinery accused of poisoning thousands of people.
By Sheridan Prasso and Jessica Brice at Bloomberg: [emphasis, links added]
Aluminum used to frame the truck’s passenger compartment can be traced back from Ford Motor Co.’s historic Rouge assembly complex in Dearborn, Michigan, to a parts manufacturer in Pennsylvania, to a smelter in Canada, and, ultimately, to Brazil.
There, in the heart of the Amazon, rust-colored bauxite is being clawed from a mine that has long faced allegations of pollution and land appropriation.
And, near where the Amazon River empties into the Atlantic, a refinery that processes the ore stands accused of sickening thousands of people.
A class-action lawsuit on behalf of 11,000 residents of neighborhoods surrounding that refinery, Hydro Alunorte, names owner Norsk Hydro ASA of Norway as responsible for polluting their rivers and streams.
The suit cites toxic mud containing elevated levels of aluminum and other heavy metals, which are byproducts of refining bauxite into alumina, the white powder that becomes aluminum.
Alunorte’s actions, it alleges, have caused health problems such as cancer, hair loss, neurological dysfunction, birth defects, and increased mortality.
“Every single day we die a little bit,” says Maria do Socorro, 57, whose community group Cainquiama is the lead plaintiff and who lives in an open-air house not far from the refinery.
Her grandson’s organs broke through his skin at birth, and eight people in her family have been stricken with cancer, she says, including herself and her husband, who she says died as a result. “We are victims of this company, Hydro. They come and make money and leave nothing for us.”
Ford, which started manufacturing the F-150 Lightning EV last April, calls it “the truck of the future.” …
That transformation needs aluminum. Lots of it. Demand for aluminum parts is coming from all automakers, especially those switching to EVs.
A typical North American car contains about 500 pounds of aluminum, almost twice the amount 20 years ago, and electric vehicles have about 150 pounds more, according to consultants Ducker Carlisle.
Ford, which made the switch to aluminum from steel for the exterior of the combustion-engine F-150 in 2015, says it uses 682 pounds of the metal in the electric version, not counting what’s in the battery and other pre-assembled components.
Much of the aluminum that sheathes the truck, in addition to what Hydro provides, can also be traced to the Amazon, a Bloomberg News investigation found.
Read full story here
Why the diatribe on aluminum? It doesn’t belong here.
I sure hope the Eco-Freaks come to their senses and opposes this whole thing or will they still allow their stupid ideology get in the way