Chris Pollon

Feb 8, 2024 | nationalobserver.com | Christopher Pollon |Chris Pollon

Late January marked the fifth anniversary of the world's worst modern-day tailings dam disaster at an iron ore mine in Brumadinho, Brazil. The collapse killed at least 270 people. They were mostly Vale company employees eating lunch in a canteen directly below a dam that gave way, sending a tidal wave of 12 million cubic metres of toxic orange sludge eight kilometres downstream, bulldozing houses, offices and people.

Nov 17, 2023 | nationalobserver.com | Christopher Pollon |Chris Pollon

North Americans love driving SUVs and big pickup trucks as passenger vehicles — a trend expected to continue as drivers replace their fossil-fuel rides with electrics. But is it possible to drive a big electric truck and be green at the same time? In early November, I arranged to test drive a Ford F-150 Lightning — the EV version of North America’s bestselling pickup. Not because I need a truck, but to better understand the real cost of this behemoth on the world.