How US corporations poisoned this Indigenous community
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- Опубликовано: 15 авг 2022
- Invisible chemicals changed the Mohawk way of life. They’re probably in you, too.
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In the 1950s, the US and Canada embarked on a massive project to widen the St. Lawrence River, transforming the region to facilitate commerce, attract industry, and boost both nations’ economies. But there was a third nation in the region whose people were not consulted, and whose lifestyle was completely transformed by the project: the Mohawk of Akwesasne.
The St. Lawrence River has been central to Mohawk culture in the region for thousands of years. The river’s fish form the central part of their diet. But for the Mohawk, the fish aren’t a “resource” to be used. They’re an equal partner in a relationship in which both humans and wildlife have sacred responsibilities to one another. These relationships are central to the Mohawk worldview, and they mirror similar ways of understanding the natural world in other Indigenous communities.
But the bid to lure industry to the region worked. Two major manufacturers built factories close to Akwesasne, and by the 1980s, the Mohawk learned that General Motors and Reynolds Metal had been poisoning the river for decades with cancer-causing chemicals called PCBs. Fish in the river were found to have extremely dangerous levels of PCBs. It presented the community with a devastating choice: continue to fish and risk health problems like cancer and thyroid disorders, or stop fishing and lose the connection with the river, and with their ancestors.
Sources and further reading:
The Akwesasne Task Force on the Environment: sites.google.com/site/atfeonl... (need to confirm)
Reporting from the 1980s on the environmental situation in Akwesasne: www.latimes.com/archives/la-x...
Winona LaDuke (1999): “Akwesasne: Mohawk Mothers’ Milk and PCBs,” All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life (South End Press)
Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner: “Monsanto, PCBs, and the creation of a ‘worldwide ecological problem,’” Journal of Public Health Policy (2018) 39:463-540
Elizabeth Hoover (2013): “Cultural and health implications of fish advisories in a Native American community,” Ecological Processes 2:4
The full statement we received from Alcoa, owner of Reynolds Metals, is as follows:
“Today, Reynolds Metals Company and the U.S. EPA continue to monitor the various remediation solutions related to the St. Lawrence River and the historical operations from Reynolds Metals Company near Massena. The remediation work was designed in 2000, after public input and consultation, to protect human health and the environment. The work included dredging and capping portions of the river.
“In 2021, the U.S. EPA completed its fourth, five-year review of the remediation project. EPA confirmed that the remediation work is effective and that it continues to protect human health and the environment.
“Alcoa Inc., the former parent company to Alcoa Corporation, acquired Reynolds Metals in 2000. In November of 2016, Alcoa Inc. separated into two companies, Arconic Inc. and Alcoa Corporation, and Reynolds was assigned to Alcoa Corporation.”
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This is why regulation is so important. You can never EVER trust corporations and billionaires to do the right thing.
Yes because the government is who we want regulating these things 🙄🐑
So so true. It’s disgusting 😞
@@torsteinrocks Right. And corporations are the best option to regulate themselves. 😒
@@torsteinrocks if you have a better alternative, speak your truth
How do you regulate Colonialism and Conquest?
“Grassy Narrows” (Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation) in Canada is also another awful example of this. Massive amounts of mercury poisoning from a paper mill dumping it into a river in the 1960s and 1970s.
So many impacts today on their relationship with the land, access to safe traditional food and their livelihood. Used to be a huge touristic spot for fishing.
My grandparents owned a cabin in northern Wisconsin, we would go there all the time to fish and swim, one year, it stunk so bad we could not stand it, that was the year a paper mill had started on that lake. That was 60 years ago or so.... every since then, people are gradually told not to eat very many fish from Wisconsin due to mercury, but, there is so much more... those PCBs and Teflon are in everything.... nano particles. It seems important for us to love each other and everything else natural, plants, animals, water, air, now, and maybe if we can heal it, if we can not, then at least we all can feel the love and spread it around.
Hearing them speak their native language and sing their folk songs hits hard. It really makes you realize what we're losing by killing Indigenous populations through destruction of their homelands. Rich histories, cultural identities, and beautiful languages and traditions are being taken away because white men want to line their pockets. My heart breaks for the Indigenous Americans whose lands and cultures we've taken away. We need to hold our leaders accountable.
They wouldn’t have fared this way if they had developed more
@@orionfernandes4587 In order to make tools out of Iron in North America, Iron Tools were needed. This is why Native Americans' only Metal Tools were made out of Copper...
@@davidhollenshead4892 I know
@@orionfernandes4587 They don't need to develop more. they are perfect the way they are. White people need to listen to them and not destroy land, water and air to make money. You're just another disgusting white supremacist.
Not just our leaders. Ourselves. Every one of us. Every individual makes an impact
“A river has a right to community and a right to build community around itself.” 💯💯💯
rivers have rights
Don't know if your being sarcastic, but yes - exactly.
It's incredible how Monsanto is always involved in these kind of stories
It's also annoying that the Monsanto Chemical Company got away with their rename. They got an unrelated agricultural group they bought to be renamed to Monsanto so everyone (including legally) would blame them. While the chemical company renamed itself to Solutia Inc.
It’s sick and sad that the Indigenous Peoples, whom have the closest connection to the land and water, were not consulted. It’s criminal how the First Peoples across North America suffer because of our ignorance, and because of our greed.😢
It is the curse of the great to have to walk over corpses.
Hey bud, did you know that ignorance and greed led native peoples like the Mohawk to turn against their own neighbors and do unspeakable things in order to grow their own power and influence in their region? No, you probably don't, because you lack the brain for it. I would venture a guess that you are a big fan of Disney's "Pocahontas." Might I recommend Avatar.. aka Pocahontas in Space..
@@kamikaze.7607 who is the great? Those polluting the environment and killing off living creatures? Why must anyone walk on the corpses of others?
the storytelling of natives about the creation of land is so beautiful and touching, and about the pollution, thank you vox for making this public for a wider audience the world needs to know
It reminds me of what they did when Celilo Falls was forever altered here in Oregon and Washington with-in the Columbia River Gorge region and it greatly effected everything. Especially the native people and all of our connections to the ecosystem and our natural resources. All due to dams, pollution, control, miss use of the waterways and completely ruining a flourishing ecosystem and salmon, lamprey, sturgeon, trout habitat biome... It frustrates me. We don't need hydroelectric anymore, we need our Beaver's back. It will help forest health, aid in fire protection, help the ecosystem flourish in biodiversity. So many things. The transportation of nutrients from the ocean to inland, sediment flow through the river out to a estuary at the mouth of the Willamette river. We need to restore that because we are directly connected to our natural environment and if it's flourishing, we are flourishing.
The problem is USA paid millions just for scalps of natives.
And their grandchildren running Congress must protect their family’s legacy.
That. Is saddening.
And disturbing.
The sad thing is that we can have Hydropower and yet can still have a healthy river. The issue is the cost of the fish ladders and the land they take up is more than the federal government wants to spend...
We're making progress with reintroducing salmon back into our rivers out here in Coeur D'Alene/Spokane/Kalispell/Kootenai etc tribal land
This is a great presentation. Maine just banned the use of sludge on agriculture....which contains PCBs PFAS ect. Please keep doing work that pressures corporations to act responsibly but also warns the public of danger. There is so much PFAS ...the forever chemical....in new England that I'm reconsidering moving there. Sad part is, theres even more pFAS where I live now in NJ
This seems like a suboptimal response to pfas. Wastewater sludge is a recycled product that is superior for carbon sequestration and soil biodiversity when compared with synthetic fertilizers. Shoving the sludge in a landfill and replacing it with fossil fuel derived synthetic alternatives will contribute to climate change and exhaust agricultural land in the long term. I understand that Maine is a small state that cant single handedly remove forever chemicals from our products, but upstream interventions are ultimately a better way to address this problem.
@@Yubel0 but its killing people with PFOAs " FOREVER CHEMICALS"
@@lizparsons7301 I agree that PFAS exposure is a factor of concern for human health and that land application of biosolids can potentially increase that exposure. My cause of concern is that the law is too broad and carries negative externalities. While wastewater treatment plants dont have good ways to remove "forever chemicals", their concentration in sludge will depend on the influent the plant receives. Setting a maximum allowable concentration in agricultural biosolids like we do with other potentially harmful chemicals would be a more nuanced response that would minimize environmental and economic harms.
@@Yubel0 please look at how widespread PFAS is in New England.....because of sludge. Scientific jargon means nothing when peoples teeth are falling out and their fetuses are dying .....
What is so sad is that farms being farmed organically are even shutting down because of sludge used on land in the 80s....its a forever chemical destroying families and wildlife for generations. Get rid of all your teflon folks!!!
I'm honestly surprised that Pfas is still in circulation in the US at all! Here in Denmark where I'm from Pfas and Pfos have been completely banned from over 50 years, but we still deal with the consequences of it to this day with many aquifers having dangerous amounts of Pfas and Pfos in them. They were most notably used in fire estinguishing equipment here back in the day which after use would sink into the ground and into the aquifers.
Should we lament the decline of manufacturing in North America when our companies pollute this much? I can only imagine what these corporations are currently getting away with in less developed nations.
Japan is the single worst nation for polluting developing countries. They have no "cradle to grave" legislation and thus have dumped their toxic waste in the ocean and poorer nations. The reason that the Somali fishermen turned to piracy is one example: whole containers filled with barrels of toxic waste labeled in Japanese have washed ashore there. There are some Central European companies that are also offenders...
Well let's see. Nestlé, Hershey, Mars, and Mondelez are getting away with child slavery in western Africa (Ivory Coast in particular), Nestlé in particular is also getting away with stealing water from poor villages in Pakistan and bottling it for profit, Nike and Patagonia are getting away with using Uighur forced labor in Xinjiang, Coca-Cola is getting away with paying a terrorist organization to murder union organizers in Colombia...
The irony of the world is that those who can never be staisfied will always ruin everything for those who are happy with what they have.
There has been a lot of injustices that occurred against all the native people in the United States and Canada. Other countries too, but I am most familiar with United States history.
Yeah, they also caused mass sterilization of Native American women. I think this was by lying and saying the hysterectomies they gave were reversible when they weren’t.
“Over a six-year period in the 1970s, physicians sterilized perhaps 25% of Native American women of childbearing age. That history matters.” - TIME
I got teary eyed when the lady started singing. You can feel the pain of all that was taken.
People who build polluting things like that over a fragile place of nature and the homeland of tribes are ignorant and greedy😡
It’s so sad 😞
That's capitalism, baby!
People who build polluting things like that over a fragile place of nature and the homeland of tribes are "job creators" and "respectable businessmen".
And that's part of the problem, as the viking said, that's capitalism, baby.
"Capitalism means weak devoured by the hungry, that's what happens when companies are more powerful than countries..."
What's in your fridge?
@@hmp5718 Soylent Green and Blue
It's unbelievable but Monsanto shows up in EVERY bad story!
Yes, and let's not forget that Monsanto sponsored many exhibits at Disneyland, showcasing their chemicals to the public--with Walt Disney's full cooperation.
I'd say Dupont is more present (from Chemical companies only)
It's annoying that the Monsanto Chemical Company got away with their rename. They got an unrelated agricultural group they bought to be renamed to Monsanto so everyone (including legally) would blame them. While the chemical company renamed itself to Solutia Inc.
If anything, the focus on the name "Monsanto" helped them get away with it.
What a depressing yet beautiful story. You really translated the story of these people well. Thank you for telling their story.
The disrespect we've had for indigenous peoples, the environment, living creatures, and frankly, ourselves, is truly a depressing sight to behold. The First Nations tribes had solutions and relationships to nature to thrive on this continent, and our ancestors came here, slaughtered the existing communities and wild animal populations, and then poisoned ourselves and the resources we rely on. All for shower curtains and non-stick frying pans. Whoopee.
... your ancestors.
@@airwriq yes, 98% American's ancestors
@@dimamatat5548 do you think this 'progress' has actually made us happier though?
⁴454p
@@dimamatat5548 Hitler thought that too. You only get to say this because your not one of the sacrificed. Would you like to be so I can have a better life? That’s progress for me after all
Yet another example of human greed. It's all about what can we take from nature and others. In this case, it is indigenous people. WE NEED MORE SUCH FILMS VOX, I WAS MOVED WATCHING THIS ONE.
The first thing i will do when my channel takes of is making a feature-length documentary about the natives and how we have all wronged them over the centuries.
Truly disgusting 😔
The picture is a lot bigger than that.
Agreed, it is truly disgusting. I will not be surprised if Nature strikes back at us, for... I hate greedy and selfish people, for they are the reason our mother is dying.
-Dishonorable ways of hunting,.
×Through driving creatures to extinction.
-Disturbing the natural balance, by murdering all the predators and prey that keep the ecosystem healthy.
×Wolves are a good example here in Scandinavia, but their are other species as well around.
-Destroying entire habitats=Animal attacks, because that the animals don't have any place to live in.
-Over fishing our Oceans, Seas, Lakes, Swamps and Rivers, which has stolen the 🌎 beauty.
@@mauntak404 not really. We ruin the world for our own greed. More, for less. Our greed will be our downfall
These corporations need to be sued, and they need to pay the indigenous millions for this devastating blow to their land.
They did
No, the top people need the threat of JAIL time. Then you will see it stop.
Really we just want you to leave our land abs recognize our right to form sovereign independent Nations
You're missing a big point. The indigenous people did lose a lot, obviously. But if you listen to what the indigenous peoples themselves are saying, they don't want monetary compensation as the ultimate end, they want nature and ecosystem restored to what it was before the factories and waterways came up. They want Nature to be compensated by restoration. Unfortunately our money is of no value to Nature. We have to rebuild the broken ecosystem and undo the damage to the environment. The correct punishment would be forcing the CEOs and shareholders of those companies(shares bring liability) to get into the swamps and rivers to restore them manually. They need to be put to labour to restore the habitat. Prison and fines won't teach anybody any lessons.
All of any money earned through settlement won't bring back what the Mohawk lost, nor make them healthy.
For these people, the Mohawks, all of the wealth they seek is brought from the land and water. No amount of money can buy or replace that.
Well documented how the indigenous people are affected.
Maybe how colonization affects and destroys communities, countries, cultures
not well enough imo, myself as an indirect beneficiary of north american conquest of these indigenous people/first nations. so much more must be done to preserve the history and culture of these peoples including the language and oral traditions. if one compares such preservation in north america with new zealand, it presents at least a jumping off point for how we can better preserve and elevate indigenous culture all across north america.
Never trust corporations
Never and none of them
@@BentleyBohemian_96 mean while you typed this comment m a device made by a corporation
@@Mrpoopy5 doesn't mean the corporation is trusted just because its services are used. The device used to leave the comment was made by several corporations.
@@Mrpoopy5 "Yet you participate in society, curious!"
@@Mrpoopy5 cant always win right .. These people incorporated these tactics ans maneuvers way since 96 when i was born theyve been planning it for ages
We can thank ourselves for giving companies the ability to continue to decimate resources and environments. We wanted capitalism. We got it.
Monsanto, the toxic gift that keeps on taking.
😔
Didn't know that Monsanto also hurts Americans
@@justaname9544 Monsanto hurts everything it touches with the sole reason of making money for its stockholders and upper management. they absolutely don't care about anything else.
Between 1955 and 1966, the Monsanto corporation sponsored Disneyland’s “Hall of Chemistry,” a Tomorrowland exhibit that touted the benefits of " Better Living Through Chemistry " . . . ( Yaaa.... that's the ticket! )
It's also annoying that the Monsanto Chemical Company got away with their rename. They got an unrelated agricultural group they bought to be renamed to Monsanto so everyone (including legally) would blame them. While the chemical company renamed itself to Solutia Inc.
If anything, the focus on the name "Monsanto" helped them get away with it.
Thank you Vox for a documentary full of love for minorities. This was made with so much care and respect for the indigenous people and as an outsider, I get to appreciate their fight for their beautiful culture and tradition. It is nice to know that they were somehow compensated but I hope their people will flourish as it should have before the destruction of their homes.
This is just so heartbreaking. I don’t understand how some people and corporations can be so greedy and selfish 🤦🏽♀️😞
They don't view people as human if profits are involved. Especially non white ones. :(
Research the Dutch East India Company
Research capitalism
@@privateaccount1839 oh god DEIC is bad too
@@spicychad55 their behind all the corporations and the inner city of London
There is always someone with more money and less appreciation for whatever it is we treasure. Something being priceless doesn't mean it can be bought at great cost. It means that thing cannot be replaced by anyone or anything, no matter how great the means.
Ah yes Monsanto…. always there in history. The common denominator in health and environment problems
The same could be said of DuPont, Dow, ExxonMobil, Nestlé...
It's annoying that the Monsanto Chemical Company got away with their rename. They got an unrelated agricultural group they bought to be renamed to Monsanto so everyone (including legally) would blame them. While the chemical company renamed itself to Solutia Inc.
If anything, the focus on the name "Monsanto" helped them get away with it.
Something similar happened in my country, Italy, near a city called Vicenza. A factory kept polluting the waters of the province for decades, pouring PFAs into rivers, and a lot of people living in some areas, who drank this water, were affected more than others, showing illnesses. The court case to punish the people who orchestrated all of this is still going on, and even if in the end they will get what they deserve, this still won't change the fact that so many people are doomed to a life of illness. Thank you for making this video
That is very sad to read. I hope that Justice will come and that the people of the village will be compensation 🙏
This story is my backyard... I live in Kingston Ontario, right where the St. Lawrence river and Lake Ontario meet. Thank you so much for sharing this story.
I live in the heart land of this
@@xiwhiplash2523 Then leave your invading their land if your not native then your destroying our lake
@@MrGeorge7823 I don't live where they are I live near one of the islands I don't live in there Reserve,
@@MrGeorge7823
you're**
I literrally just finished reading Braiding Sweetgrass and in it Robin Wall Kimmerer talks ALL about this. They deserve SO much more restoration and fixes
“What about the animals?”
“Don’t worry we got rid of them for you!”
prime "colonial" mentality ..... and it still is an ongoing thing. Sure, A LOT of people have become wiser and more caring... but still not enough...
I hate this! It still happens today. All over the Americas. Save the past!!!!
I have to give some limited props to Alcoa for being willing to respond to this video and making a brief statement about what they are doing to make amends to this (particularly when you compare to GM’s and Bayer’s non-responses - shame on both of them), but honestly they should - and could - have done more. If I were them, not only would I have responded with a written statement, I would have send a representative to appear in this video, admit the problems we caused, and talked (and more importantly, listened) to the people affected by our past actions. I would listen to their feedback, their complaints, their criticism, I would even let them just outright yell at us, and promise to carefully evaluate everything they have said and do better than what we have already done.
Given the circumstances, I believe this is the bare minimum these companies should be doing. But then again I’m a bit of a wide-eyed optimist at times.
I've become so jaded.
I've heard these kinds of stories a thousand times. It is all the same. I just gave up, it doesn't matter anymore. We are helpless.
You mean something every US corporation does to the surrounding population? Look at DuPont
DuPont ?
Why stop there ?
Don't forget Bayer, Nestle, Reynolds Aluminum, big Pharma, Coca Cola, Union Carbide .....
The list is endless.
I live in the area mentioned in this video and I garden, fish, and hunt around there. I know plenty of people who use gardening, fishing and hunting as part of subsistence living, and the places in Michigan, Ontario, and all around the great lakes, every year the areas with "safe" levels of such chemicals (or even lead, PCOS, Mercury, etc...) Causes more and more areas to be *completely unsafe to eat from if you garden, fish or hunt... It's sickening just how much dumping was and still is allowed... First one year it'll start with 'pregnant women' shouldn't eat the food from there, then a year or two later it also includes children, till finally they decide it's unsafe for anyone to eat such food
That kills economies, peoples sources of subsistence foods, causes hunger, and so many ailments in the long run, it's a tragedy....
Also I'm sure it effects tourism in certain places that have become mostly tourist based cities for hunting and fishing losing that source of revenue, and with that economic loss they are then stuck with ground that creates unsafe plants/gardens, ground where it's unsafe to hunt for meat , and waterways that are unsafe to fish and eat from, not to mention to drink from
A very very sad situation that effects both the native population and even those non-natives that have lived there for a few generations
Unfortunately we can't go back in the past to fix these things, and there's no funding to fix them when there is a situation that they even can be fixed(as some cannot ever be fixed)
Leave our land. Stop our genocide.
that's part of the plan I guess, pollute their food source so they have to buy food from us
I lived in Montreal all my life and only now learns about this…
Maybe we need a system where companies are required to publicly release their data on internal tests on chemicals. It is pretty obvious that the people who work there are under too much pressure to keep their findings quiet when they find issues and pretend they don't exist.
Using the word corporations is cowardice. Its the people behind the corporations and things won't change until you all call them out. You know who they are. Our ancestors had no problems with calling them out.
The problem IS the corporations. The people behind the actions are just as much a symptom as anything else.
I'm not excusing any of the 'executive decisions makers'. Far from it.
But our current system only allows for one goal. Maximize profits. And this single-minded efficiency only allows for one kind of person to run these companies.
@@Prophes0r um who owns most of these corporations? Native Americans? Women? Black men? Who?🦉?
The narrator's pronunciations of indigenous words are surprisingly good!! Well done
These accounts are always heart-breaking, and are repeated ad nauseum.
Let's not forget that we all once held the means to our own production, even in Britain, before the land held in common was stolen from us.
Imagine hatin on the people that you stole the land from
Nandi , i am familiar with this sadly.
Settled, explored and forged the land. Built from the ground up. Truly an amazing tale of progress.
@@X2LR8 Built upon genocide
I like how we say human nature this and human tendencies that as if us regular individuals are doing this. It's not us. That is a generalization that these corporations and nameless CEOs have pushed out to us. We are not doing this.
It is still on humans to deal with the concequences and stop such things from happening... preferably before it becomes irreversible and before death and sickness.... but that is rarely the case uéu
It's the consumers who fund these industries
What I'm stating is that we dont neccesarily have any deniability, because that would say that we have complete amenity because we aren't directly involved in these companies. However, the scale at which our contribution to the pollution problem is proportionally bigger on their side. Part of the issue is that they have made us interdependent on some of these resources making us incapable of changing to many things without us suffering for. Water,food,gas....etc
@@fastertrackcreative but its them causing these issues without regulating themselves or being regulated by a department that is corrupt my money or influence
They're not nameless, they have names and adresses.
I used to live about 30 minutes out of Albany NY and we had a neighbor in my small town who is a modern day Mohawk Tribe member. He hunted all his own meat and had a garden that was fully self sustaining in his backyard. Truly amazing how easily we can make the world work for us in just the right way
The main part of the video is crystal clear - companies need to be taken into responsibility and they need oversight (and not just by corrupt politicians) because they can't be trusted to do the right thing on their own. Secondly it's appalling that our government just decided to take these peoples land and destroy their way of life without consulting or compensating them.
That being said, the second point raises a couple of issues I don't have a good answer to (Not necessarily in regards to the case shown here - but overall, philosophically). Do we halt progress completely to not overstep with a subgroup of people? Do we stop building hydroelectric plants because it displaces people living on an island that's gonna be flooded (even if they're relocated and compensated? What about the ones that absolutely refuse to move?). If they didn't connect the great lakes to the Atlantic, how much C02 would have been additionally emitted, trucking all the goods across land?
Again not saying what those politicians and companies did was right - BY A LONG SHOT. It just made me think about larger issues that I don't have a good answer to. Anybody?
Just to reiterate - we need to massively do better. A lot of these things can be done, doing less or no damage - less profit, more environmentalism. I'm just curious where we put the line.
I think it might come down to, over time, not using fossil fuels for stuff like factories and power plants. It would keep both parties in mind, and it’d keep peace for the most part.
As for now, though, it appears that would take a long, long time; not just for the US, but for the world.
Government regulations are most important, as you said, but corporations can overpower. We mainly need less corrupt and more firm politicians, until new fuels can be implemented over time.
@@BossMan1313 true
One of the main problem nowadays is the lack of communication. Big project like this continue to exist, but decision is taken only by a few, and benefits are for fewer people.
Public consultation, having both business es and organisations around the same table and following rules should be mandatory
Thanks for all, Vox's team. 👍👍
In blinding greed we even steal the very ground we stand on.
Not "we", but them - the corporations. Capitalism is a system that incentivizes greed, as those who aren't willing to ruthlessly undercut everything to save costs will always lose out to the ones who are.
Trying to frame this as "human nature" is capitalist brainwashing to make us think that greed and lack of empathy are just the natural order of things. However, capitalists' interests are not the same as ours.
Ours isn't the only community facing water poisoning from colonial expansion in lands called US and Canada, but I am so thankful to see even a sliver of our community's story and strife with these companies told. I always wanted to know why those plants existed where they did. There are more on the northern shores in Cornwall and the Seaway Valley too that I hope to learn more about. Nia:wen for the excellent work the Vox team does.
Thank you thank you thank you for telling and documenting indigenous stories🙏
13:57 Thank you for including this. It brought me to tears.
Typical of large companies, break them up and unionise the workers!
Extremely well put together video, thank you to everyone at Vox who worked on this. This, and all the stories, truths, and history like this, as.. upsetting as stories like these can be. They need to be heard by everyone.
Corporations need to be held accountable for their inhumane acts, the immense harm they cause, the mass pollution of our planet and our people, all in the name of pure, selfish, evil greed.
A corporations only goal is to generate profit. Many will do so at any cost.
The most heartbreaking thing was listening to the songs about the river and its life in the native language.
heartbreaking, may more people watch and make the changes needed
Keep uploading these very informative videos Vox!
maybe I'm just emotional today but I was SOBBING by the end of it, great job on the vid
This Is the most informative Vox video I’ve ever listened to, thank you.
How is Monsanto still around with all the evil ways they have been conducting business and harming people's lives.
They aren't. The Monsanto Chemical Company got away with their rename. They got an unrelated agricultural group they bought to be renamed to Monsanto so everyone (including legally) would blame them. While the chemical company renamed itself to Solutia Inc.
If anything, the focus on the name "Monsanto" helped them get away with it.
If nature didn't make it so that the Atlantic touches the "Mid-Continent Empire" then maybe it shouldn't be that way?? Holy heck...
This is such an important story to tell.
Please finish your videos like this more often. It brings it all home in the end when you see the numbers
Watching this in the break room of General Motors lol
This is all horrible. I wish I could believe that those responsible ever get justice, but I just don't see it happening.
I like learning about all of this but it fills me with such a painful helplessness...
Respect nature, nature respect us.
I'm not a spiritual person, that has been spoiled for me. But I think that a connection to the natural world, like the one these people have, must be the most beautiful and fulfilling of all spiritual lives. I'm sorry that they're being treated this way.
The person in the mirror too we are being poisoned, next, just starve em!
The way indigenous people truly care about the world around them is so beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. It hurts to see how much respect they give it and all of it "going to waste" because of greedy companies and countries who polute the world around them. The world qould be so much healthier if we were more like them
Beautiful people. What's been done to them is awful. Hard to believe a large corporation would cover up that they knew their product is toxic (it's not hard to believe).
the sheer carelessness.
This is why a democracy is so important. You can never EVER trust corporations and billionaires and the government they've chosen.
True journalism!!! ❤️🙏🏼❤️
This was beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time…
Thanks for the video VOX!
What an important piece of history that connect us all, it doesn't matter where you are or where you from, we live in the same world and after all this time, wars and social changes we still lacking understanding we are one. This video hurted but also reminded me there is yet to much to fight for and with, thanks.
Q1 6:52, 7:50 Q2 polychlorinated biphenyls (pcbs), q3 13:36
Thanks for the information
I very much appreciate this kind of coverage and think it’s hugely important, and I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but why not make a feature-length video? The stories and the interviews are all there. Seventeen minutes barely dips a toe in the water.
Out of sight, out of mind.
2:54 who else thought a car alarm was going off?
Heart- break..
Thanks for this report
❤Keep spreading the truth🕊❤
And today they give lessons to others about what they should do
Before pointing to someone remember you are pointing three fingers to yourself
Why can’t the government protect us from corporations?
I hate how little they got for decades of suffering. 1.8 million isn't even a slap on the wrist at this point. Even the 18 is nothing. Why do we even bother pretending that was enough of a punishment
That's literally like tossing a coin for a shoe shine. So many of these stories across this continent.
Please tell me companies now have to test new chemicals in lab animals and how they get into the environment like that volatility
immediately clicked on the notification
So beautiful, hearing the kids singing in their language
The woman that was singing crushed me.
Highly recommend reading Braiding Sweetgrass
It will cost nothing but their lives
We as a society are distracted. We need to band together & create communities and use existing communities to make changes in corrupt polices that are against progress
lol, at around the 2:50 mark, the announcer says "container ships like these" - but that is most decidedly not a containership. :-)
Monsanto is now Bayer
Monsanto are still a giant corporation with great sway over the chemical and ecological industries. They aren't an artefact of the past, but remain as powerful as ever today. They largely have continued to evade much responsibility for the countless problems and disasters they have precipitated. They still patent seeds, preventing small farmers from replanting their harvests, and even from replanting seeds they merely happen across in the wild if they turn out to be Monsanto ones. Monsanto themselves have also dumped toxic chemicals in various sites. If you see a historic chemical problem, there's a fair chance Monsanto was somehow involved.
You've fallen for the ploy and also apparently the pseudoscience conspiracy claims about agriculture that have been debunked for years. It's clear that the Monsanto Chemical Company got away with their rename. They got an unrelated agricultural group they bought to be renamed to Monsanto so everyone (including legally) would blame them. While the chemical company renamed itself to Solutia Inc.
If anything, the focus on the name "Monsanto" helped them get away with it.
17:21
bayer-monsanto was a death merger
absolutely ridiculous.
Should not let corporations build manufacturing right on a waterway. Ever
How will we build ships then???