“The bad guy here is poverty,” duPont said. “Don and I really worked hard on this film not to look like a bunch of gringos pointing fingers.
“That’s not what it’s about. It’s about educating people. In the film we show barefooted young men in barrels mixing mercury into the mud with their feet.
“Mercury binds with the gold, and then they burn the mercury into the air. It’s estimated 100 tons of mercury is going into the Amazon atmosphere every year — that’s not counting the mercury being poured straight into the rivers.”
As horrific as the visible images are, duPont and others fear the invisible damage may prove even more severe. About 20 percent of the world’s fresh water flows to the sea from Amazon rivers.
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