Brazil Refuses to Stop Amazon Dam Construction

06/04/2011 at 7:53 am · Filed under Human Action, Natural Resources, Political and Corporate Action, Wildlife and tagged: Amazon, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Belo Monte, Bill Clinton, Brazil, Hydroelectricity, James Cameron, Xingu River

www.nytimes.com 5th April 2011, video by Amazon Watch and narrated by Sigourney Weaver.

The Brazilian government has emphatically refused to stop the construction of a new dam in the Amazon amid fears that it will displace tens of thousands of indigenous people and cause environmental harm. The Belo Monte hydroelectric dam, if completed, will be the third largest in the world but it has faced strong opposition from environmental and human rights organisations. The dam, with a predicted cost of $17 billion, would divert a 62 mile stretch of the Xingu River in Pará state. Critics claim this will result in the flooding of 120,000 acres of rainforest and displace between 20,000 and 40,000 local groups. The government say these figures will be a lot lower. The opposition movement has attracted high profile supporters including James Cameron, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bill Clinton. The final decision to be made about the dam is now resting with Ibama, Brazil’s environmental protection agency. So far two presidents of Ibama have resigned from their posts, reportedly due to friction with the country’s leadership. Brazil currently receives about 80% of its energy from hydroelectric power.

Comments (4)