Eucalyptus Plantation in the Amazon

Thousands of remote charcoal camps in Brazil have pillaged huge areas of natural rainforest to smoulder into wood charcoal. The charcoal is burnt in blast furnaces which convert iron ore to pig iron, an intermediate product in the steelmaking process. A new Greenpeace report "Driving Destruction in the Amazon" reveals how some of the world’s biggest car companies are using steel products made from this pig iron. The report also exposes how the industry relies on cheap labor, luring workers away from small villages to work in inhumane conditions. Millions of small pig iron blocks are exported and purchased by the Severstal steel mill in Columbus, Mississippi. This plant directly claims to supply Ford, GM, Mercedes and BMW. Greenpeace is demanding that companies implement policies that permanently rule out the use of any product linked to deforestation or slave labor.