Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Wordless Wednesday: Behind the Belo Monte Damn (pun intended)






If they don't own the land, then neither do we.

For More information check out: The Guardian.

To sign a petition to stop the building of this damn go to: Stop the Belo Monte Monster Dam

13 comments:

  1. It's important to support these people and to stop the dam.

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  2. I think more information is needed here. It often happens that people who are relocated actually receive better housing than they previously had. It is also importante to notice that the energy created by Belo Monte will result in better a more equitable distribution of energy in Brazil. This may result in development reaching places where energy was lacking before and impede people from those locations to be forced to move to look for jobs elsewhere ( and they usually end up living in the favelas and periferias).

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  3. congrats for the support rachel!more people should do that and talking about polemic...I thought you might like to read this link

    http://escrevalolaescreva.blogspot.com/2011/06/cqc-anti-amamentacao-vai-pra-pqp.html

    it's one post that my friend Lola wrote about breastfeeding and intolerance,when I read it it reminded me your great posts about it.check it out,tell what you think!
    keep loving you and your blog.
    kxx

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  4. I love the objective translation done in cases like this, "totalmente modificada" is translated as "KILLED" and not "totally altered" and "compromising" our way of life is "imperelling our lives"

    The whole project will displace 40,000 people (less than improvements in Rio for the olympics) and provide renewable energy for millions. It will bring growth, skilled jobs and energy to areas that don't have it.

    If you look at the number of people voluntarily abandoning ribeirinho communities in the amazon each year in search of better opportunities in the big cities, displacing 40,000 isn't that bad.
    People really should be focusing the debate on making sure the displaced communities get fair treatment and fair compensation for the move.

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  5. Anon, you make a good point there. The completion of the move is an important one and, when in a rush to be done, things can be missed.

    Honestly though, the amount of energy isn't that much in consideration to the ecological damage done to the area. While it does provide "clean" energy (minus the obvious mess), it isn't the end all solution to providing growing Brazil with energy. This is where technology needs to step up.

    As for moving them to better places, what if they don't want to go? Who cares if other people leave, what about the ones who want to stay? What if they discovered a HUGE amount of oil below Centro and wanted to drill in the middle of Rua Presidente Vargas. Yes, Apples and Oranges but don't you think they'd consider it

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  6. Eminent domain shall always rule. Like we learned in law,"rex non potest peccare."

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  7. I think Brazil is too quick to built Dams when they could and should take advantage of the HUGE SUN and WIND potential for renewable energy.
    At least it's not freaking NUCLEAR POWER, I guess, the less of two evils! :(
    Entire towns have been moved around all of Brazil for the construction of Hidroeletrical power plants, I think Rachel makes a great point regarding new technologies.
    They could install HUGE Solar Power and Wind Towers all over the Amazon with little damage to the enviroment, no people displacement/relocation and the same development/opportunities for the local residents.
    We still have Old Diesel Powered electrical power plants in New England being replaced with NEW CLEAN WIND turbines and even UNDER the OCEAN Turbines to generate clean electricity and get rid of our old 150 year old power plants, not to mention, we still IMPORT electricity from Quebec and it cost a us fortune!
    Ray

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  9. I just feel so bad for the little people who get lost in this. It is like all these international groups telling people not to leave their houses in Rio when the gov tells them to move from the olympics.

    Rather than fighting for decent compensation, they convince the people to turn down housing and fight to keep their house until the bulldozers tear them down with everything in it and the people really have no where left to go.

    Rather than exposing militia violence and how isolated/miserable the housing options the people are giving really are, they set it up so its "poor people vs. expansion" and most average citizens side with the gov and the road, damn, etc. they think is important to them.

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  10. That is an interesting point Anon. At some point it may be good to cut your losses and get the people damn good lawyers to make sure they are taken care of.

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  11. "They could install HUGE Solar Power and Wind Towers all over the Amazon with little damage to the enviroment, no people displacement/relocation and the same development/opportunities for the local residents."
    Really? So you think that to built Solar Power or Wind Tower Plants wouldn't take LOTS of space too? Do you think that this Plants would just be floating over the forest or what? They would have to relocate the habitants and put down trees from a HUGE area too. Specially because Solar Power is 6x less efficient than hydro. It would need a much bigger area to produce the same amount of energy. Wind Towers would cost 173% more to be built and to maintain it is expensive too. So you really think these are better options?

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  12. I think the idea of any other option is enough reason to stop and think this over as it will require the removal of people and the end of life as they know it. We rush too quickly into getting MORE power. MORE MORE MORE. Slow down. Figure things out. Use less energy. There's a start. Hell, if we just shut down the internet we would save a lot of energy ;)

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