Blackwater: How dark can the heart be in the face of profit

In 2000, Julia Roberts won the Oscar for her biopic "Never Let Me Go".
The film tells a true story.
A single mother works as an odd job in a law firm, but is accidentally assigned a sewage pollution case. But as she investigates, the small case leads to a conspiracy by a large corporation.
As the Chinese title of the film suggests, the heroine chooses to "never compromise".
She decides to use her weak shoulders to take on the responsibility of seeking justice for the hundreds of people who have been affected by the pollution.
Today, Basset will also share a case of water pollution.
In this film, however, the pollution is a million times more serious than in "Never Give Up".
Because this time, the victims are all of humanity.
Blackwater
Spoilers for this article.
1
Rob Billot is a leading American lawyer.
Specialising in environmental law and working at Taft, Rob became a partner at the firm early on.
He works with clients such as ExxonMobil, a Fortune 500 giant.
But what Rob didn't expect was that
Just when he was on the cusp of success, one case would cost him his career, if not his entire fortune.
On this day, Rob was approached by two "poor relatives from back home".
The two peasants claim to be friends of Rob's grandmother and, although they don't know how much Rob's legal fees are, they intend to hire him as their own litigator.
And the person they were suing.
It was the world's chemical giant: DuPont.
The farmer, Wilbur, is convinced that DuPont is polluting the land and water on his farm.
Rob did not take the case seriously at first, but he did not want to displease his grandmother, so he found a chance to visit Wilbur.
But the next thing Rob saw was a scene he would never forget.
The bull on the farm attacked the man as if he had lost his mind, and Wilbur had to shoot his own animal to protect Rob.
What surprised Rob was still to come.
The bull's teeth were black, his insides were swollen and his hooves looked like they had been born with some kind of deformity.
According to Wilbur, more than a hundred cows had died on his farm.
His farm has been turned into a graveyard.
Rob knew that suing DuPont was no joke.
This multinational company is a real behemoth, they hold the most powerful financial resources and the most advanced chemical technology.
Of course, they also had the best team of lawyers.
At first, DuPont did not take Rob's queries seriously. They quickly provided information about the chemical plants near Wilbur's farm.
At the time, the US Environmental Protection Agency was immature in its regulation of chemical releases. For a chemical giant like DuPont, it was more of a self-regulation.
And Rob soon found in the information a chemical called PFOA, a substance that was not regulated by the EPA or by DuPont.
Not only that, but there was not even a description of this substance in the internet sources or in any literature.
The law in the USA states that the defendant who is questioned must unconditionally produce the materials required by the plaintiff.
And when Rob approached DuPont's chief legal counsel to ask questions about PFOA, it was as if he had come into direct contact with the scales of the DuPont beast.
Under legal constraints, DuPont provided Rob with the PFOA materials, but they were 110,000 pages long and disorganised enough to fill an entire room!
DuPont's obvious aim was to get Robb to back off.
However, Robb is a serious, hard-headed man.
As he pulls the pieces together, everything about the PFOA comes together for him.
During the Manhattan Project, a chemical substance was developed in the United States.
This substance repelled other elements, especially water, and was considered the best waterproof coating.
As a result, there were companies ready to put this substance into production on a large scale, and DuPont was one of them.
Slowly, however, DuPont itself realised that something was wrong with the substance.
At first, they noticed that workers in the production of PFOA were suffering from fever and nausea.
DuPont then carried out targeted experiments on monkeys and rats.
These animals successively showed signs of swollen internal organs, various types of cancer and deformities in their young.
PFOA is toxic and DuPont knew it.
Not only did they know it, but they knew it 40 years ago.
But they didn't stop production because the PFOA industry was too profitable. The profits from this product amount to a billion dollars a year
Unaware of the dangers of PFOA to the government and the general public, DuPont chose to cover up the truth and continued to use the substance in the manufacture of other products for huge profits.
The most well-known is the non-stick pans that were used in the early years, the main raw material for which was PFOA (fluorotelon).
Behind this great wealth lies such a great evil.
At this point in the case, each of us in the audience has basically come to our own conclusions.
However, in the real Dupont case, the legal battle between Robb and Dupont has just begun.
After helping Wilbur win the case against the polluted farms, Rob takes on DuPont again.
He wrote a 972-page letter of complaint listing 136 counts against DuPont.
Rob sent the letter to the US Environmental Protection Agency, this time on behalf of the more than 70,000 villagers who had been poisoned by DuPont and by PFOA.
Since 2005, Robb has been collecting blood samples from the community, as requested by the court.
If you felt that the use of DuPont products had caused you health problems, you could provide your own blood sample.
Soon, more than 20,000 blood samples from the community were collected.
However, it was an incredibly long process to investigate and prove that the disease was directly related to DuPont's PFOA.
Rob's road to litigation was fraught with hardship.
While civilians who had been affected by PFOA died of various persistent illnesses, some of the families of those who died turned on Robb.
Rob devoted all his energy to the DuPont case without making any substantial progress, limiting his income to the point of not being able to meet basic household expenses.
Is justice, indeed, going to be absent?
The creative team is a dazzling one.
As presented in the film, the investigation uncovered the horrific and shocking nature of DuPont's abuses.
But what really catches the eye in this story is undoubtedly the true events behind it.
According to Robb's investigation, when DuPont discovered that PFOA was toxic, they first started experimenting not on animals, but on humans!
They mixed PFOA into cigarettes and offered these to factory workers.
Without exception, all the workers suffered severe physical reactions.
The pregnant female worker worked on the front line where the PFOA was produced.
As a result, she gave birth to a child who suffered from severe facial deformities; the baby's nose even had only one nostril.
During the long forensic process of the case.
Many of the people affected by PFOA lost their lives due to various cancers and rare kidney diseases.
And it was not until 2015 that the results of the investigation into DuPont and PFOA were made public.
It has been scientifically established that PFOA can cause a wide range of malignant diseases in humans, including kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid tumours, pre-eclampsia and many more.
Moreover, once ingested, PFOA remains in the body permanently.
It cannot be broken down or excreted by the body itself.
Some scientists speculate, based on statistics, that PHOA may already be present in the bodies of all species worldwide, including 99% of humans.
The narration at the end of the film gives an account of the subsequent developments in the DuPont case.
DuPont eventually paid out US$ 670.7 million to settle the 3,535 cases in which PFOA was sued for contamination and damage to humans.
But $600 million in damages is a drop in the bucket compared to what DuPont made in the PFOA industry.
The 3,535 victims are also a drop in the bucket compared to the harm and impact of PFOA on all of humanity.
What does unchecked greed do to us?
What are the consequences of unchecked ignorance and lust, other than the satisfaction of a momentary munchies?
With history as a lesson, we can only hope that all of us will be able to walk in awe, and that we will also be able to walk further.