A photo of indigenous tribes interacting with workers mining nickel for electric vehicle batteries has exposed the dark reality of the renewable energy industry.
In a video posted to Instagram this week, two women and a man from the Hongana Manyama tribe in the Halmahera forest in Indonesia’s Maluku Islands were seen excitedly grabbing the arm of a miner.
In the video, miners wearing high-visibility vests are seen leading tribe members to a tent where they ate rice and took photos and videos with their guests.
Callum Russell, head of research and advocacy at Survival International, warned that the trio could die within days due to their lack of immunity against bacteria.
The disturbing images come as Anthony Albanese throws his full support behind the renewable energy industry as the Climate Council pushes for a ban on the sale of all petrol and diesel vehicles in the country by 2035.
In a video posted on Instagram (pictured) two women and a man from a tribe living in the Halmahera forest in Indonesia are seen enthusiastically grabbing the arm of a miner.
Anthony Albanese has expressed his support for electric vehicles (pictured at a battery site in Perth, WA)
“We know that when these indigenous communities come into contact with outsiders, they die,” Mr Russell said. news.com.au.
‘And overall, about two-thirds of the tribe will die from disease alone when they come into contact.
‘It is an absolute tragedy and catastrophe that is unfolding on the island of Halmahera. “It’s very much the last thing that should be happening.”
Russel said it was ironic that electric car companies were preaching about the environment and at the same time endangering the health of indigenous tribes.
The Halmahera forest is also being affected by rapid deforestation, with at least 17 companies currently mining nickel in the area.
The WBN mine in Halmahera is the largest nickel mine in the world and began operating in Indonesia in 2019.
Telsa does not get its nickel from the mine, and experts are calling on billionaire owner Elon Musk to take a stance against deforestation.
Brisbane mining company Theiss has signed a $125 million contract to provide the mine with loading, hauling and maintaining ore reserves from 2023 to 2027.
Telsa does not currently source its nickel from the WBN mine in Halmahera and experts are calling on Elon Musk to take a stance against deforestation (pictured, a Tesla Model 3 in 2022).
The Labor government will begin imposing penalties on petrol and diesel carmakers from 2025 as part of a plan to reduce carbon emissions from vehicles by 59 per cent by 2029.
The Climate Council wants Australia to go further and ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035, which would include hybrid vehicles because only “zero emission” vehicles would be allowed.
“Based on the pace of vehicle turnover, this date should be set no later than 2035 for Australia to have a zero-emission fleet by 2050,” he said.
“The European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada and some US states are in the process of implementing this approach, with 2035 emerging as a common end date for gasoline and diesel vehicles across these communities.”
Last month, an electric vehicle charging station company collapsed just over a year after Albanese hailed it as a “huge success story.”
Tritium DCFC and its Australian subsidiaries went into administration in April, a year after the Prime Minister visited the facility and hailed the company as the future.
‘This is my third visit to Tritium. Every time I come back I hear about more revenue, more jobs created and more countries Australia exports to,” the Prime Minister said in March 2023.
“This is a great success story and I congratulate everyone at Tritium on their achievements.”
The tritium issues come despite all-electric cars now having a 9.5 per cent share of the Australian vehicle market in March, up from 6.8 per cent in March 2023, with the Tesla Model Y the Australia’s third most popular car last month.
Sales of battery electric cars rose 58.3 percent to 10,464, up from 6,612, according to data from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.