On Tuesday local time, a power transmission tower near Tesla's Berlin super factory caught fire, causing production to come to a halt and is expected to last for several days.
This fire is not a natural disaster, but a man-made one. This also angered Tesla CEO Musk, who was far across the ocean, and criticized the arsonists for being extremely foolish.
However, those who were praised as "foolish" by Musk did not take it seriously and instead loudly declared responsibility for the matter. A far left radical organization claiming to be Vulkangruppe Tesla Abschalten (the volcanic organization that shut down Tesla) has posted a letter online admitting to planning arson and claiming to destroy Tesla.
The organization criticized Tesla for using natural and human resources to produce cars and giant trucks, falsely claiming that electric vehicles can alleviate the climate crisis, but ultimately exacerbating environmental degradation.
I chose to set fire on Tuesday because the organization sees the fire as one of the Women's Day gifts to Tesla to express its dissatisfaction with Tesla's unsustainable and unethical corporate behavior. This not only raises local concerns about radicalism, but also becomes one of the latest conflicts between Tesla's businesses, the environment, and labor
Climate radicals
The police stated that they are aware that the signature of this letter is Agua De Pau, which is the name of a volcano in the Azores in the North Atlantic. It will take several days for the authorities to verify the accuracy of the information.
As early as 2019, Germany had already listed this volcanic organization as a left-wing extremist organization. Since 2011, the organization has been suspected of involvement in multiple arson attacks in Berlin, using different volcano names.
Among them, Tesla's battery factory in Greenhead was damaged in May 2021, reportedly related to this organization.
The German government previously stated that the organization gained a say in climate activities through influential destructive activities. But the impact it causes far exceeds the direct damage borne by the damaged unit.
As a targeted victim, Tesla clearly needs to deal with the growing voices of questioning, including the dissatisfaction of ordinary people with its factory's environmental measures and corporate responsibility. More profoundly, this fire will further drive discussions in society about the role of the electric vehicle industry in climate change and may exacerbate friction between Tesla and the German community.
Previously, many workers at the Berlin factory in Germany complained that Tesla's work system caused fatigue and even injuries to personnel. Tesla's refusal to form a union has also sparked strong protests in many European countries.