theSIGNAL ENVIRONMENT
17 October 2026
"What we do to the forests of the world is but a mirror of what we do to ourselves."
NEWSBUSINESSTECHNOLOGYWORLDSCIENCECULTUREENVIRONMENTSPORT
Environment

The Rainforest Hidden Inside Your Electric Car

An analysis of corporate disclosures and trade data links nickel from felled Indonesian rainforest to batteries used by some of the world's biggest carmakers.

When Wadimula, a Tolaki elder, looks out from his home in Sulawesi, he sees the edge of a 21,000-hectare mining concession where forest once stood. His people, he says, used to leave offerings to the trees in return for protection. Now the trees are disappearing, and the ore beneath them may end up in a car in Detroit, Wolfsburg or Shanghai. An analysis of corporate disclosures and trade flows from the past two years suggests that nickel from the Cahaya and Hengjaya mines enters the battery supply chains of Volkswagen, Ford and Tesla, among others.

Satellite imagery shows widespread loss of primary rainforest on the nickel-rich land of the Tolaki. The ore is sent to a smelter in Morowali, on Indonesia's east coast, run by a subsidiary of Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt. There it is refined into mixed hydroxide precipitate, worth $606m when shipped to China in 2024 and a further $470m in 2025. Huayou makes cathodes for CATL, the world's largest battery maker, and its reports list US and European carmakers as customers.

Separate files and trade data point to a second route, via Poland, to the South Korean group LG. The paradox is plain. Electric vehicles remain far less harmful than petrol and diesel engines, yet the minerals that power them are often extracted from some of the planet's most fragile places. Nickel is prized because it increases energy density and range, and Sulawesi holds the world's largest deposits.

Photo: MiningWatch Portugal / Unsplash
Cleared rainforest on Sulawesi, where nickel mining has replaced primary forest on indigenous Tolaki land.
Discuss
  • Why might carmakers struggle to trace minerals through supply chains that cross several countries and many intermediaries?
  • Electric cars are cleaner than petrol cars, yet their batteries can cause deforestation. How should consumers weigh this trade-off?
  • Environmental groups say the popularity of large SUVs worsens mining damage. Should governments limit vehicle size or battery capacity?
Science

Hurricane Simon Sends Ripples Into Space's Edge

On October 11, Hurricane Simon, a Category 4 storm with 250 km/h winds, hammered Mexico's Pacific coast without making landfall. Its eye passed about 50 kilometers offshore, bringing flooding to Manzanillo and raising fears of mudslides. Overhead, a NOAA-21 satellite saw something stranger: gravity waves rippling outward through the upper atmosphere, driven by violent updrafts near the eyewall.…
  • If hurricanes shake the upper atmosphere, what might that mean for forecasting and satellites?
Science

A Cancer Protein Becomes an Immune Weapon

Colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer death among people under 50, and patients whose tumors resist chemotherapy and immunotherapy have few options left. Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory found a possible opening. PPARD, a protein that helps cells burn fat, feeds tumors, yet activating it in immune cells made them better fighters in mice. Semir Beyaz argues that cell "fitness" depends on diet.…
  • If one protein can both feed and fight tumors, how should drugs target it?
"
Destroying the forest means destroying our own life.
Wadimula, Tolaki elder
ASIA · Environment
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AFRICA · Environment
From black soldier flies to mealworms: farming insects for food, fodder and fertiliser in Uganda
AMERICAS · Environment
Scientists deploy a 24-armed secret weapon to save California’s kelp forests
EUROPE · Environment
Mont Blanc, the ‘roof of Europe’, loses more than a metre of height in a year
theSIGNAL IN THE LAB
1VOCABULARY
concessionprimary rainforest
supply chainssmelterenergy density
fragileeyewall
2GRAMMAR FOCUS
Inversion — negative adverbials (Not only did..., Hardly had...)
When a negative or restrictive adverbial (e.g. Not only, Hardly, Rarely, Never, Under no circumstances) opens a sentence, the auxiliary verb comes before the subject, as in a question: 'Not only did the storm flood the coast...'. With 'Hardly/No sooner', use the past perfect, followed by 'when' or 'than'.
did · had · than · when · Rarely · Not only · Under
  1. Hardly the satellite detected the gravity waves when scientists realised how far the storm's effects reached.
  2. No sooner had the ore left the Sulawesi mine it begun its long journey through several countries to a battery factory.
  3. does a single carmaker have a complete view of the supply chain, from felled tree to finished battery.
  4. Not only the mining concession destroy primary rainforest, but it also threatened the traditions of the Tolaki people.
  5. Hardly had the hurricane passed Manzanillo fears of mudslides began to spread.
  6. no circumstances should the damage at the start of the chain be ignored by the companies that profit from it.
3PHRASAL VERBS
Match the phrasal verb to its definition. All six appear in today’s articles.
  1. to leave (offerings) so that the trees would protect them; to give something in exchange for something else, as in 'used to leave offerings ___ return'. Which phrasal verb means to end up in a place or situation, perhaps unexpectedly: 'the ore may ___ in a car in Detroit'?
  2. to look at a place from a position inside or above it, often through a window: 'When Wadimula ___ from his home in Sulawesi, he sees the edge of a mining concession'
  3. to be transmitted or spread to something or someone: 'nickel from the mines ___ the battery supply chains of Volkswagen, Ford and Tesla'. Which phrasal verb means 'to send away or move outward in all directions', as gravity waves do from a storm?
  4. to hit or strike something with great force and cause serious damage: 'Hurricane Simon ___ Mexico's Pacific coast without making landfall'
  5. to move across a place without stopping or making contact, as the storm's eye did, about 50 kilometers offshore: 'Its eye ___ about 50 kilometers offshore'
4CRITICAL THINKING
Both the nickel story and the PPARD story involve the same substance helping and harming depending on context: nickel powers cleaner cars but destroys forest, while PPARD feeds tumors yet strengthens immune cells. What does this suggest about how we should judge technologies or discoveries that carry built-in contradictions? Is it ever reasonable to accept a harmful side effect if the overall benefit is larger, and who gets to decide?
5CREATIVE · HEADLINES
Write a headline for the top story in each of the following styles. One line each, no explanation:
  • TABLOID NEWSPAPER
  • LUXURY MAGAZINE
  • ACTIVIST BLOG
6WRITING
Imagine you are Wadimula, the Tolaki elder, writing a short open letter to the owner of an electric car in Detroit or Wolfsburg. In 120-150 words, describe what you see from your home and explain what you would like the driver to know and to do.
7DEGREES OF EXTREMITY
Complete each ladder from mild to strong.
  • damaging→→
  • shrinking→→
  • worrying→→
  • unusual→→
  • strong→→
  • limited→→
8SPEAKING
  1. Should buyers of electric cars be told where their metals come from?
  2. Would you pay more for a battery with a guaranteed clean origin?
  3. Is it fair to expect poorer countries to protect forests for everyone's benefit?
  4. How much should a company be blamed for what its suppliers do?