The development of Elon Musk's Tesla gigafactory near Berlin has sparked a controversy as a recent satellite analysis shows that approximately 500,000 trees have been cut for the company construction.
The study was conducted by Kayrros, an environmental intelligence company that said the trees cover an area of 329 hectares and felling of trees happened between March 2020 and May 2023, as reported by The Guardian.
Enironmental activists are opposing the project claiming that the development is contradicting the idea of sustainability which the company has.
The chief analyst of Kayrros said that the number of trees cut for the project is equivalent to about "13,000 tonnes of CO2, which is the annual amount emitted by 2,800 average internal combustion engine cars in the US."
Activists since May have been protesting against the development, attempted to storm the site and also set an electricity pylon on fire which led to a halt in factory production for a few days, the publication reported.
Karolina Drzewo, who is a member from the campaign alliance 'Turn Off Tesla's Tap', said that the production of electric vehicles has caused damage to the environment. She also said that there has been a damage through mining of metals.
"In one of the driest regions in Germany, too much of the environment has already been destroyed," she said, as reported by the publication.
Tesla, in a statement as reported by The Guardian said that there have been cases of incidents in the factory, however, none of them have caused any environmental damage.
Published 23 August 2024, 10:58 IST