HELP-Matrix Blog: Stop Belo Monte in Brazilian Amazon! #StopBeloMonte ~ http://bit.ly/Og7SZo ~
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WHAT DID YOU DO ONCE YOU KNEW? http://on.fb.me/OEZORo
by Drew Dellinger
Support Chief Raoni on Saturday, June 23, 2012 at 10:52am
'It's 3.23 in the morning and I'm awake, because my great-great-grandchildren won't let me sleep. My great-great-grandchildren ask me in dreams "What did you do while the planet was plundered? What did you do when The Earth was unravelling? Surely you didi *something* when the Seasons started failing, as the mammals, reptiles, birds were all dying. Did you fill the streets with protest when Democracy was stolen? What did you *do*, once you knew?" '
THE BELO MONTE DAM is, as James Cameron has stated many times, 'AVATAR' in Reality,
Please, tell *everyone* you come into contact with what is happening in The Amazon Rainforest. Use your Facebook Page too, for it's a powerful way to spread the word.
Tell them of Belo Monte, (third largest dam in the world) and the other 59 dams which Brazil's President, Dilma Rousseff, has planned for The Rainforest and the terrible Decimation and Destruction that is already starting to happen as Belo Monte is already being constructed. We *can* still stop this from being completed.
Tell them of the Impending Genocide shortly to be visited upon the Indigenous People of the Rainforest who will be affected by these dams. Chief Raoni of The Kayapo, and Shayla Juruna too, have both given decades of their life to trying to stop Belo Monte, travelling the world, speaking with World 'Leaders' and celebrities, to anyone who will listen.
Belo Monte is now being built illegally and VERY fast! There are still many lawsuits against it, yet Dilma Rousseff is steaming ahead with this insane idea. Many of those who backed her Presidential Campaign were then given contracts to build this dam. She has chosen to ignore deep concern from the United Nations and Amnesty International about her shocking treatment of the Indigenous Tribes affected, along with ignoring *millions* of signatures from around the world!
Indigenous People all over the world are under huge threat now, as their Land, Rivers, Mountains and Forests are being stolen and plundered for profit...
"25% of our oxygen, or every 4th breath of air we inhale, can be attributed to the Amazon Rain Forest. What happens to the web of life affects us all. The Belo Monte Dam is the first of 60 dams proposed by Brazil. Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?" - Jack Kohler
Speak to them of The Tar Sands, of the many Sociopaths presently running the major Corporations and the world, of how they simply do not care about the terrible damage being done to Mother Earth.
Then, tell them there are over 7 BILLION of *us* on this planet and if all of us start connecting, start being that Human Microphone of The Occupy Movement, we CAN turn this all around! We CAN and *MUST* now become Guardians of Mother Earth and EVERY Species who dwells upon Her.
Ask them to contact their mainstream media, TV, Radio, Newspapers...They can reach many of them via Facebook itself, using the 'search' box at the top of the page, then sending them a message or sharing this 'note' out.
Please tell them to use THEIR pages to spread the message as well, for Facebook can, quite literally, change the world, if used for the right purposes.
Below, in the 'comment' boxes there are many links about Belo Monte and The Amazon Rainforest, to be shared with everyone you know...
Worriers 2 Warriors!
Chief Raoni and Shayla Juruna, along with ALL the Indigenous People affected NEED the help of us all to stop Belo Monte...
Thank you!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/occupy-the-dam-brazils-indigenous-uprising
posted Jul 23, 2012
In the Amazonian backcountry, tribes are challenging construction of the world’s third-largest dam—by dismantling it. Here’s what they can teach us about standing up to power.
Click here to view photo essay of the indigenous resistance to the Belo Monte Dam construction.
Photos courtesy of International Rivers.
Last month, hundreds of indigenous demonstrators began dismantling a dam in the heart of Brazil’s rainforest to protest the destruction it will bring to lands they have loved and honored for centuries. The Brazilian government is determined to promote construction of the massive, $14 billion Belo Monte Dam, which will be the world’s third largest when it is completed in 2019. It is being developed by Norte Energia, a consortium of ten of the world’s largest construction, engineering, and mining firms set up specifically for the project.
Hydroelectric energy is anything but “clean” when measured in terms of the excruciating pain it causes individuals, social institutions, and local ecology.
The Belo Monte Dam is the most controversial of dozens of dams planned in the Amazon region and threatens the lives and livelihoods of thousands of Amazonian people, plants, and animals. Situated on the Xingu River, the dam is set to flood roughly 150 square miles of already-stressed rainforest and deprive an estimated 20,000 people of their homes, their incomes, and—for those who succumb to malaria, bilharzia, and other diseases carried by insects and snails that are predicted to breed in the new reservoir—their lives. Moreover, the influx of immigrants will bring massive disruption to the socioeconomic balance of the region. People whose livelihoods have primarily depended on hunting and gathering or farming may suddenly find themselves forced to take jobs as manual laborers, servants, and prostitutes.
History has shown again and again that dams in general wreak havoc in areas where they are built, despite promises to the contrary by developers and governments. Hydroelectric energy is anything but “clean” when measured in terms of the excruciating pain it causes individuals, social institutions, and local ecology. The costs—often hidden—include those associated with the privatization of water; the extinction of plants that might provide cures for cancer, HIV, and other diseases; the silting up of rivers and lakes; and the disruption of migratory patterns for many species of birds.
The indigenous cultures threatened by the Belo Monte Dam, including those of the Xikrin, Juruna, Arara, Parakanã, Kuruaya and Kayapó tribes, are tied to the land: generations have hunted and gathered and cultivated the same areas for centuries. They—as well as local flora and fauna—have suffered disproportionately from the effects of other hydroelectric dams, while rarely gaining any of the potential benefits. Now they are fighting back.
Indigenous leaders from these groups have asked the Brazilian government to immediately withdraw the installation license for Belo Monte. They demand a halt to work until the government puts into place "effective programs and measures to address the impacts of the dam on local people." They point out that a promised monetary program to compensate for the negative impacts of the mega-dam has not yet been presented in local villages; also, that a system to ensure small boat navigation in the vicinity of the cofferdams, temporary enclosures built to facilitate the construction process, has not been implemented. Without such a system, many will be isolated from markets, health care facilities, and other services. The cofferdams have already rendered much of the region’s water undrinkable and unsuitable for bathing. Wells promised by the government and Norte Energia have not yet been drilled. The list of grievances goes on and on and is only the latest in a very old story of exploitation of nature and people in the name of “progress.” Far too often, this has meant benefiting only the wealthiest in society and business.
Yet here in the backcountry of Brazil, there is a difference: the makings of a new story. The indigenous people’s occupation of the dam garnered international attention, connecting their situation to other events across the globe—the Arab Spring, democratic revolutions in Latin America, the Occupy Movement, and austerity strikes in Spain and other European nations. Brazil’s indigenous protesters have essentially joined protesters on every continent who are demanding that rights be restored to the people.
Crude Reflections
from the Amazon
After enduring years of toxic dumping and rising cancer rates, indigenous Ecuadorians took oil giant Chevron to court to fight for the life of the rainforest—and its people.
Stories take time to evolve. This one—the story of people awakening on a global level to the need to oppose and replace exploitative dreams—is still in its beginning phase. And the first chapter has been powerful, elegant, and bold.
A few years ago I was invited, with a group, to Ladakh, a protectorate of India, to meet with the Dalai Lama. Among a great deal of sage advice he offered was the following: “It is important to pray and meditate for peace, for a more compassionate and better world. But if that is all you do, it is a waste of time. You also must take actions to make that happen. Every single day.”
It is time for each and every one us to follow that advice.
Opposing the Belo Monte Dam project provides an opportunity for you and me to honor those words, and those leading resistance to it can help us understand the importance of looking around—in our neighborhoods as well as globally—to determine what else we can do to change the story.
After enduring years of toxic dumping and rising cancer rates, indigenous Ecuadorians took oil giant Chevron to court to fight for the life of the rainforest—and its people.
Stories take time to evolve. This one—the story of people awakening on a global level to the need to oppose and replace exploitative dreams—is still in its beginning phase. And the first chapter has been powerful, elegant, and bold.
A few years ago I was invited, with a group, to Ladakh, a protectorate of India, to meet with the Dalai Lama. Among a great deal of sage advice he offered was the following: “It is important to pray and meditate for peace, for a more compassionate and better world. But if that is all you do, it is a waste of time. You also must take actions to make that happen. Every single day.”
It is time for each and every one us to follow that advice.
Opposing the Belo Monte Dam project provides an opportunity for you and me to honor those words, and those leading resistance to it can help us understand the importance of looking around—in our neighborhoods as well as globally—to determine what else we can do to change the story.
John Perkins wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. John is the author of New York Times bestseller Confessions of an Economic Hitman and, most recently, Hoodwinked: An Economic Hitman Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded—and What We Need to Do to Remake Them.
Interested?
The Dam Boom in the Amazon - NYTimes.com
http://nyti.ms/NgqJlw ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WHAT DID YOU DO ONCE YOU KNEW? http://on.fb.me/OEZORo
by Drew Dellinger
Support Chief Raoni on Saturday, June 23, 2012 at 10:52am
'It's 3.23 in the morning and I'm awake, because my great-great-grandchildren won't let me sleep. My great-great-grandchildren ask me in dreams "What did you do while the planet was plundered? What did you do when The Earth was unravelling? Surely you didi *something* when the Seasons started failing, as the mammals, reptiles, birds were all dying. Did you fill the streets with protest when Democracy was stolen? What did you *do*, once you knew?" '
THE BELO MONTE DAM is, as James Cameron has stated many times, 'AVATAR' in Reality,
Please, tell *everyone* you come into contact with what is happening in The Amazon Rainforest. Use your Facebook Page too, for it's a powerful way to spread the word.
Tell them of Belo Monte, (third largest dam in the world) and the other 59 dams which Brazil's President, Dilma Rousseff, has planned for The Rainforest and the terrible Decimation and Destruction that is already starting to happen as Belo Monte is already being constructed. We *can* still stop this from being completed.
Tell them of the Impending Genocide shortly to be visited upon the Indigenous People of the Rainforest who will be affected by these dams. Chief Raoni of The Kayapo, and Shayla Juruna too, have both given decades of their life to trying to stop Belo Monte, travelling the world, speaking with World 'Leaders' and celebrities, to anyone who will listen.
Belo Monte is now being built illegally and VERY fast! There are still many lawsuits against it, yet Dilma Rousseff is steaming ahead with this insane idea. Many of those who backed her Presidential Campaign were then given contracts to build this dam. She has chosen to ignore deep concern from the United Nations and Amnesty International about her shocking treatment of the Indigenous Tribes affected, along with ignoring *millions* of signatures from around the world!
Indigenous People all over the world are under huge threat now, as their Land, Rivers, Mountains and Forests are being stolen and plundered for profit...
"25% of our oxygen, or every 4th breath of air we inhale, can be attributed to the Amazon Rain Forest. What happens to the web of life affects us all. The Belo Monte Dam is the first of 60 dams proposed by Brazil. Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?" - Jack Kohler
Speak to them of The Tar Sands, of the many Sociopaths presently running the major Corporations and the world, of how they simply do not care about the terrible damage being done to Mother Earth.
Then, tell them there are over 7 BILLION of *us* on this planet and if all of us start connecting, start being that Human Microphone of The Occupy Movement, we CAN turn this all around! We CAN and *MUST* now become Guardians of Mother Earth and EVERY Species who dwells upon Her.
Ask them to contact their mainstream media, TV, Radio, Newspapers...They can reach many of them via Facebook itself, using the 'search' box at the top of the page, then sending them a message or sharing this 'note' out.
Please tell them to use THEIR pages to spread the message as well, for Facebook can, quite literally, change the world, if used for the right purposes.
Below, in the 'comment' boxes there are many links about Belo Monte and The Amazon Rainforest, to be shared with everyone you know...
Worriers 2 Warriors!
Chief Raoni and Shayla Juruna, along with ALL the Indigenous People affected NEED the help of us all to stop Belo Monte...
Thank you!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/occupy-the-dam-brazils-indigenous-uprising
Occupy the Dam: Brazil’s Indigenous Uprising
by John Perkinsposted Jul 23, 2012
In the Amazonian backcountry, tribes are challenging construction of the world’s third-largest dam—by dismantling it. Here’s what they can teach us about standing up to power.
Click here to view photo essay of the indigenous resistance to the Belo Monte Dam construction.
Photos courtesy of International Rivers.
Last month, hundreds of indigenous demonstrators began dismantling a dam in the heart of Brazil’s rainforest to protest the destruction it will bring to lands they have loved and honored for centuries. The Brazilian government is determined to promote construction of the massive, $14 billion Belo Monte Dam, which will be the world’s third largest when it is completed in 2019. It is being developed by Norte Energia, a consortium of ten of the world’s largest construction, engineering, and mining firms set up specifically for the project.
Hydroelectric energy is anything but “clean” when measured in terms of the excruciating pain it causes individuals, social institutions, and local ecology.
The Belo Monte Dam is the most controversial of dozens of dams planned in the Amazon region and threatens the lives and livelihoods of thousands of Amazonian people, plants, and animals. Situated on the Xingu River, the dam is set to flood roughly 150 square miles of already-stressed rainforest and deprive an estimated 20,000 people of their homes, their incomes, and—for those who succumb to malaria, bilharzia, and other diseases carried by insects and snails that are predicted to breed in the new reservoir—their lives. Moreover, the influx of immigrants will bring massive disruption to the socioeconomic balance of the region. People whose livelihoods have primarily depended on hunting and gathering or farming may suddenly find themselves forced to take jobs as manual laborers, servants, and prostitutes.
History has shown again and again that dams in general wreak havoc in areas where they are built, despite promises to the contrary by developers and governments. Hydroelectric energy is anything but “clean” when measured in terms of the excruciating pain it causes individuals, social institutions, and local ecology. The costs—often hidden—include those associated with the privatization of water; the extinction of plants that might provide cures for cancer, HIV, and other diseases; the silting up of rivers and lakes; and the disruption of migratory patterns for many species of birds.
The indigenous cultures threatened by the Belo Monte Dam, including those of the Xikrin, Juruna, Arara, Parakanã, Kuruaya and Kayapó tribes, are tied to the land: generations have hunted and gathered and cultivated the same areas for centuries. They—as well as local flora and fauna—have suffered disproportionately from the effects of other hydroelectric dams, while rarely gaining any of the potential benefits. Now they are fighting back.
The indigenous people’s occupation of the dam garnered international attention, connecting their situation to other events across the globe.
Indigenous leaders from these groups have asked the Brazilian government to immediately withdraw the installation license for Belo Monte. They demand a halt to work until the government puts into place "effective programs and measures to address the impacts of the dam on local people." They point out that a promised monetary program to compensate for the negative impacts of the mega-dam has not yet been presented in local villages; also, that a system to ensure small boat navigation in the vicinity of the cofferdams, temporary enclosures built to facilitate the construction process, has not been implemented. Without such a system, many will be isolated from markets, health care facilities, and other services. The cofferdams have already rendered much of the region’s water undrinkable and unsuitable for bathing. Wells promised by the government and Norte Energia have not yet been drilled. The list of grievances goes on and on and is only the latest in a very old story of exploitation of nature and people in the name of “progress.” Far too often, this has meant benefiting only the wealthiest in society and business.
Yet here in the backcountry of Brazil, there is a difference: the makings of a new story. The indigenous people’s occupation of the dam garnered international attention, connecting their situation to other events across the globe—the Arab Spring, democratic revolutions in Latin America, the Occupy Movement, and austerity strikes in Spain and other European nations. Brazil’s indigenous protesters have essentially joined protesters on every continent who are demanding that rights be restored to the people.
Crude Reflections
from the Amazon
After enduring years of toxic dumping and rising cancer rates, indigenous Ecuadorians took oil giant Chevron to court to fight for the life of the rainforest—and its people.
A few years ago I was invited, with a group, to Ladakh, a protectorate of India, to meet with the Dalai Lama. Among a great deal of sage advice he offered was the following: “It is important to pray and meditate for peace, for a more compassionate and better world. But if that is all you do, it is a waste of time. You also must take actions to make that happen. Every single day.”
It is time for each and every one us to follow that advice.
Opposing the Belo Monte Dam project provides an opportunity for you and me to honor those words, and those leading resistance to it can help us understand the importance of looking around—in our neighborhoods as well as globally—to determine what else we can do to change the story.
After enduring years of toxic dumping and rising cancer rates, indigenous Ecuadorians took oil giant Chevron to court to fight for the life of the rainforest—and its people.
Stories take time to evolve. This one—the story of people awakening on a global level to the need to oppose and replace exploitative dreams—is still in its beginning phase. And the first chapter has been powerful, elegant, and bold.
A few years ago I was invited, with a group, to Ladakh, a protectorate of India, to meet with the Dalai Lama. Among a great deal of sage advice he offered was the following: “It is important to pray and meditate for peace, for a more compassionate and better world. But if that is all you do, it is a waste of time. You also must take actions to make that happen. Every single day.”
It is time for each and every one us to follow that advice.
Opposing the Belo Monte Dam project provides an opportunity for you and me to honor those words, and those leading resistance to it can help us understand the importance of looking around—in our neighborhoods as well as globally—to determine what else we can do to change the story.
John Perkins wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. John is the author of New York Times bestseller Confessions of an Economic Hitman and, most recently, Hoodwinked: An Economic Hitman Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded—and What We Need to Do to Remake Them.
Interested?
- What's Wrong with Dams?
A dam can disrupt a river's entire ecosystem, from headwaters to delta. - Fracking Bans that Can Stand
In New York, judges are standing up for communities’ rights to say no to corporate drilling. - What a 10-Year-Old Did for the Tar Sands
The Dam Boom in the Amazon - NYTimes.com
http://nyti.ms/NgqJlw ~
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Protesters at the Belo Monte dam site in Brazil.
By CHARLES LYONS
Published: June 30, 2012
~~
Rio De Janeiro
One project has galvanized the anti-dam movement in Brazil — the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu River, a tributary of the Amazon in Pará State. At a cost of roughly $16 billion, it is one of 30 large dams that have been announced for Brazil’s Amazon region.
At last month’s United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development here, it was hard to miss the irony of delegates gathering to promote a “cleaner, greener and more prosperous world for all” as opponents of Belo Monte protested in the streets of Rio and Indians occupied the dam site.
Belo Monte’s first turbine is expected to be operational in three years, the entire project in seven. It will be the world’s third largest hydroelectric dam, capable of generating more than 11,000 megawatts of electricity. (In New York, Consolidated Edison’s record demand is 13,189 megawatts, set last July.)
The Brazilian government and executives at Norte Energia, the consortium of companies behind the dam, say the project is vital to meeting the energy needs of a country poised to become the world’s fifth largest economy by 2017. They argue that in 10 years, Brazil will need 56 percent more electricity, and that hydropower is the cleanest, cheapest and most dependable option.
The finished dam will stretch nearly four miles across the majestic Xingu. It will also radically transform the land and the lives of at least 20,000 people, including thousands of Indians who have lived along the river for centuries. The project includes two dams, two canals, two reservoirs and a system of dikes. More earth will have to be dug than was moved to construct the Panama Canal, according to the environmental group International Rivers.
Other environmental groups say the dam will flood more than 120,000 acres of rain forest and release an enormous amount of the greenhouse gas methane from rotting vegetation suddenly placed on the bottom of a reservoir. Critics also say the seasonal variability of the river’s flow will yield much less power than advertised.
Altamira, a long-neglected, sleepy city in the north of Brazil, has swiftly become a hub of industry. Dilma Rousseff, the president of Brazil, is selling Belo Monte as a shining example of an aggressive “growth-acceleration program,” one that will create jobs, raise living standards, close the gap between rich and poor and generate energy.
When I arrived last November with the Canadian videographer Todd Southgate to document the growing conflicts created by Belo Monte, I found a city in chaotic transition. Pedestrians, bicyclists, horse-drawn wagons, cars and huge Belo Monte trucks competed for right of way at nearly every intersection, where traffic lights were broken or simply did not exist.
“You have an environmental impact study of Belo Monte that is 36 volumes, around 20,000 pages, and it’s basically a work of fiction,” said Mr. Fearnside. “Belo Monte is a spear point for dismantling the whole system of environmental licensing and regulation here.”
In 2010, James Anaya, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people, urged that concerted efforts be made to ensure that “adequate consultations” were made with the Indians and that there be consensus on the project. Based on my talks with indigenous leaders, it’s clear these conditions have not been met.
AT Norte Energia’s headquarters in Brasília, I met with João Pimentel, the director of institutional relations.
Mr. Pimentel argued that the energy generated by the Belo Monte dam would provide dependable electricity to millions of Brazilians and help solve an embarrassing problem — blackouts. But Mr. Fearnside contends that only a quarter of the electricity the dam produces will go to the public. Roughly 30 percent will support heavy industries like aluminum smelting.
Where lawsuits against the environmental licensing process and other issues have stalled in Brazilian courts, opponents have drawn an eclectic coalition to their struggle. The movie director James Cameron and former President Bill Clinton are among those who have urged Brazil to reconsider.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
HELP-Matrix Humane-Liberation-Party Blog
http://help-matrix.blogspot.com/
Humane-Liberation-Party Portal
http://help-matrix.ning.com/
@Peta_de_Aztlan Blog
http://peta-de-aztlan.blogspot.com/
On Twitter @Peta_de_Aztlan
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
By CHARLES LYONS
Published: June 30, 2012
~~
Rio De Janeiro
Multimedia
Related
Times Topic: Levees and Dams
A confrontation between the insatiable appetite for energy and the enduring need for habitability is under way in Brazil as it moves aggressively to harness the power of its rivers with plans for dozens of hydroelectric dams.
Such projects are engineering and aesthetic marvels that provide hydroelectric power and can also control floods and direct water for irrigation. But they also divert rivers, destroy animal habitat, displace entire communities and drown vast amounts of land beneath reservoirs.
One project has galvanized the anti-dam movement in Brazil — the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu River, a tributary of the Amazon in Pará State. At a cost of roughly $16 billion, it is one of 30 large dams that have been announced for Brazil’s Amazon region.
At last month’s United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development here, it was hard to miss the irony of delegates gathering to promote a “cleaner, greener and more prosperous world for all” as opponents of Belo Monte protested in the streets of Rio and Indians occupied the dam site.
Belo Monte’s first turbine is expected to be operational in three years, the entire project in seven. It will be the world’s third largest hydroelectric dam, capable of generating more than 11,000 megawatts of electricity. (In New York, Consolidated Edison’s record demand is 13,189 megawatts, set last July.)
The Brazilian government and executives at Norte Energia, the consortium of companies behind the dam, say the project is vital to meeting the energy needs of a country poised to become the world’s fifth largest economy by 2017. They argue that in 10 years, Brazil will need 56 percent more electricity, and that hydropower is the cleanest, cheapest and most dependable option.
The finished dam will stretch nearly four miles across the majestic Xingu. It will also radically transform the land and the lives of at least 20,000 people, including thousands of Indians who have lived along the river for centuries. The project includes two dams, two canals, two reservoirs and a system of dikes. More earth will have to be dug than was moved to construct the Panama Canal, according to the environmental group International Rivers.
Other environmental groups say the dam will flood more than 120,000 acres of rain forest and release an enormous amount of the greenhouse gas methane from rotting vegetation suddenly placed on the bottom of a reservoir. Critics also say the seasonal variability of the river’s flow will yield much less power than advertised.
Belo Monte is one of dozens of major dams under way or in the planning stages around the world. According to Philip M. Fearnside, a professor at the National Institute for Research in Amazonia, Brazil’s plan for energy expansion calls for 48 large dams by 2020.
Altamira, a long-neglected, sleepy city in the north of Brazil, has swiftly become a hub of industry. Dilma Rousseff, the president of Brazil, is selling Belo Monte as a shining example of an aggressive “growth-acceleration program,” one that will create jobs, raise living standards, close the gap between rich and poor and generate energy.
Such a narrative, as told in videos slickly produced by Norte Energia, glosses over Belo Monte’s negative impact on the Xingu region, impossible to miss in Altamira.
When I arrived last November with the Canadian videographer Todd Southgate to document the growing conflicts created by Belo Monte, I found a city in chaotic transition. Pedestrians, bicyclists, horse-drawn wagons, cars and huge Belo Monte trucks competed for right of way at nearly every intersection, where traffic lights were broken or simply did not exist.
“You have an environmental impact study of Belo Monte that is 36 volumes, around 20,000 pages, and it’s basically a work of fiction,” said Mr. Fearnside. “Belo Monte is a spear point for dismantling the whole system of environmental licensing and regulation here.”
In 2010, James Anaya, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people, urged that concerted efforts be made to ensure that “adequate consultations” were made with the Indians and that there be consensus on the project. Based on my talks with indigenous leaders, it’s clear these conditions have not been met.
AT Norte Energia’s headquarters in Brasília, I met with João Pimentel, the director of institutional relations.
“Electricity to us means comfort — not only for us, but for everybody,” he said. “It means my computer, it means my iPhone.” Noting that Belo Monte had been radically scaled back from earlier plans, he said the dam’s environmental impact would be minimal. The river will be navigable, he added, even during the dry season, and no indigenous lands will be flooded. “They will have their way of life preserved,” he said.
Mr. Pimentel argued that the energy generated by the Belo Monte dam would provide dependable electricity to millions of Brazilians and help solve an embarrassing problem — blackouts. But Mr. Fearnside contends that only a quarter of the electricity the dam produces will go to the public. Roughly 30 percent will support heavy industries like aluminum smelting.
Where lawsuits against the environmental licensing process and other issues have stalled in Brazilian courts, opponents have drawn an eclectic coalition to their struggle. The movie director James Cameron and former President Bill Clinton are among those who have urged Brazil to reconsider.
Brazil has never wanted the international community to influence its environmental or other policies. Yet as the so-called country of the future continues to make its remarkable entrance onto the world stage — with a growing economy, the World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympics two years later — it’s whittling away at one of the planet’s most vital resources, the Amazon, while ignoring the continuing drama facing the people who live along the Xingu River.
Charles Lyons is a multimedia journalist and filmmaker.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
AMAZON WATCH@AmazonWatch
Belo Monte Dam - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ~ http://bit.ly/Og5Kkg ~
AMAZON WATCH @AmazonWatch
Belo Monte Dam: Not Just a Threat to the Environment | Scoop News http://bit.ly/Os1NGH ~
For the people of the Xingu, for the Amazon and for the planet: #StopBeloMonte http://bit.ly/OCUJWy pic.twitter.com/p15JMR5s ~
FAMILY! Support and Follow AMAZON WATCH @AmazonWatch ~ Protect the rainforest ~advance rights of indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin .
~~
Charles Lyons is a multimedia journalist and filmmaker.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
AMAZON WATCH
Belo Monte Dam - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ~ http://bit.ly/Og5Kkg ~
AMAZON WATCH @AmazonWatch
Belo Monte Dam: Not Just a Threat to the Environment | Scoop News http://bit.ly/Os1NGH ~
For the people of the Xingu, for the Amazon and for the planet: #StopBeloMonte http://bit.ly/OCUJWy pic.twitter.com/p15JMR5s ~
FAMILY! Support and Follow AMAZON WATCH @AmazonWatch ~ Protect the rainforest ~advance rights of indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin .
~~
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
HELP-Matrix Humane-Liberation-Party Blog
http://help-matrix.blogspot.com/
Humane-Liberation-Party Portal
http://help-matrix.ning.com/
@Peta_de_Aztlan Blog
http://peta-de-aztlan.blogspot.com/
On Twitter @Peta_de_Aztlan
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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ReplyDelete