They called on the Tesla car company to boycott the polluters

Russia’s indigenous people are revolting against "dirty mining" in the Arctic

• Norilsk is one of the most polluted regions in the world.

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• Workers clear waterways after a diesel leak.

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• Nickel mining causes severe damage to the environment.

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• Polar region.

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During the months of August and September, every year, the indigenous inhabitants of Ost Afam, in the Tamir region, the Arctic, throw nets into the river “Afam”, to catch the Tujonok fish, an important traditional food.

However, residents of the Arctic region of Russia stopped hunting early, around the beginning of this month.

Local residents were unable to find fish in other common sites, along the river basin fed by Lake Piaasino, which is located a few miles north of the industrial city of Norilsk.

Gennady Shchukin, a member of the Dolgan ethnic group, has no doubts about who is causing the problem.

And in late May, a spare fuel tank at a power plant near Norilsk exploded, flooding local waterways with about 23,000 tons of diesel.

The oil washed for miles, which led to the conversion of part of the river "Ambarnaya", which feeds Lake "Piaccino", to a bright red color.

Norilsk Nickel, the Russian nickel mining company responsible for the leak, says it acted quickly to contain the contamination, but Shchukin worries that the contamination is much more widespread than the company claims, and that his people will suffer the consequences for years.

"We expect the river has been poisoned for a long time," Shchukin said.

Perhaps there will be no fish in these rivers and the lake for several years, and this is very difficult, of course, for the indigenous people. ”

good chance

But Shchukin does not sit idly by. Last month, he launched the Apurgen Forum, which includes a group of activists and indigenous leaders of Russia headed by Shchukin, as part of a campaign to raise awareness of the effects of Norilsk Nickel’s activity on their communities and to demand compensation.

Instead of focusing on the shadowy Arctic mining company, the forum is targeting someone of international interest - Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Nickel is a key ingredient in electric vehicle batteries, allowing them to store more energy at lower cost.

Tesla and other electric car manufacturers need a lot of it.

But the "Oburgen" forum wants Musk to commit that his company will not buy any nickel related to "Norilsk nickel" until the huge Russian polluter cleans rivers and water bodies.

"We do not want the next industrial revolution for electric cars and clean energy to be at the expense of the rights of indigenous peoples and local lands," said Dmitry Berezkov, a member of the forum and social media campaign coordinator, adding, "We believe that if (Tesla) can establish a strategy and rules for itself in ... In the field of human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples with regard to nickel, it might be a good opportunity to influence the nickel market in general. ”

And "Norilsk Nickel", also known as "Nornickel", is among the largest producers of nickel on Earth.

The company says it is the largest producer of so-called class 1 nickel, or high-purity nickel, the type that battery manufacturers aspire to.

Toxic area

Even before this year's oil spill, Nornickel was one of the largest polluters in the Arctic.

Nickel production sites on the Taimer Peninsula and their refineries on the Kola Peninsula are enormous sources of regional air pollution.

The discharge of polluted water from the company's industrial facilities led to severe pollution of heavy metals in the water bodies and the nearby soil.

Shchukin says locals call the area around Norilsk, a vast barren land of dead trees and mud, "the toxic zone."

And when a diesel storage tank at a power plant at Nornickel collapsed on May 29, a chronic environmental disaster turned into an acute crisis.

The leak, which prompted Russian President Vladimir Putin to declare a federal state of emergency, in early June was described as the second largest oil accident in Russia's modern history.

Greenpeace compared it to the 1989 Exxon Valdez gas spill.

By mid-June, the company said it had removed 90% of the leaked fuel;

By the end of October, "Nornickel" plans to collect the rest and treat polluted river shores.

Just a trick

However, the members of the "Oborgen" forum are skeptical of "Nournikel "’s assessment of the situation.

Based on what they have seen on the ground and their long history of doing business with the company.

While the latter has conducted an "expert review" to assess the impact of the spill on local indigenous communities and created a new department to reach out to indigenous people, activists believe the measures are a hoax.

They say local voices critical of the company are routinely ignored, and Nournickel has not responded to a request for comment on these allegations.

"I fear that the problem will not be diagnosed, and the leak is much more dangerous than what is being photographed for us," said Pavel Sulyandziga, a member of the forum, who lives in the United States. "There will definitely be an impact on the traditional way of life, especially fishing."

Shchukin and others in the indigenous community also feared that reindeer, another traditional food source, could be exposed to poisoning.

Independent researchers share these concerns, and three Arctic researchers warned, in July, of the potential widespread environmental impacts due to the accumulation of toxins in the water and soil, which the company says has cleaned.

"Over months and years, these toxins will build up within the food chain, starting with microorganisms, and ultimately cause problems for larger organisms like fish and birds," the researchers wrote.

first step

The activists' efforts are beginning to bear fruit;

Sami Council, a non-governmental organization representing a group of indigenous people who live in Finland, Norway, Russia and Sweden, issued a statement in support of the advocacy of the Aborgon Forum.

Meanwhile, the Culture Survival organization for indigenous rights is currently collecting signatures for its own open letter, asking Tesla not to associate with Nornickel.

More than 70 organizations worldwide signed the letter.

If the campaign caused the loss of "Nournickel" for a huge decade, observers believe that this will have an impact "not only on its policies, but on the sector in general."

The first step towards developing international standards for the supply of nickel may be by responsible sources.

Fundamental questions

Theia Reuvrancus, a political scientist at Providence College in Rhode Island, who studies disputes over extracting minerals for green technologies, says the Aborgen forum was clever in focusing its campaign on Elon Musk, because of Tesla's market power, and because of the perception that sustainability is It is among the company's core principles.

"Electric vehicles literally mean giving up carbon," she added. "So, are they good for the environment, are they good for the climate, are they good for local communities?"

These are fundamental questions for industries that say they are helping to tackle the climate crisis. ”

As for the Nornickel environmental record, Andrei Bogrove, who heads the environmental protection committee at the company's mines, said the water and soil cleaning process was "in full swing."

He insisted that the company "is committed to producing minerals with environmental sensitivity in mind," and it invests large sums in reducing hazardous emissions, but also used factories that were built in the Soviet era when engineers largely ignored environmental aspects.

For environmental groups, addressing these concerns is very important, and she said that "a shift to clean energy cannot be backed by dirty mining."

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