Tag Archives: brazil
Corn a sign of Brazil’s growing clout
Guardian: As US cornfields withered in drought conditions last summer, Brazil’s once empty Cerrado region produced a bumper crop of the grain, helping feed livestock on US farms and ease a drought-related spike in prices. US imports of Brazilian corn were small by world standards. Continue reading
Indigenous groups re-occupy Belo Monte dam in the Amazon
Mongabay: Construction on Brazil’s megadam, Belo Monte, has been halted again as around 150 demonstrators, most of them from nearby indigenous tribes, have occupied the main construction site at Pimental. Continue reading
Amazon deforestation could trigger drop in rainfall across South America
Mongabay: Deforestation could cause rainfall across the Amazon rainforest to drop precipitously, warns a new study published in the journal Nature. Using a computer model that accounts for forest cover and rainfall patterns, Dominick Spracklen of the University of Leeds and colleagues estimate that large-scale deforestation in the Amazon could reduce basin-wide rainfall 12 percent during the wet season and 21 percent in the dry season by 2050. Localized swings would be greater Continue reading
Judge overturns suspension of Brazil’s Belo Monte dam
Reuters: A Brazilian judge said on Monday construction could resume on the controversial $13 billion Belo Monte dam in the Amazon, alleviating concerns that key work would not be done ahead of the rainy season. Continue reading
Hydropower Dam to Flood Sacred Amazon Indigenous Site
Inter Press Service: The Sete Quedas or “seven waterfalls” on the Teles Pires River, which runs through the Amazon rainforest states of Mato Grosso and Pará in central Brazil, are a spiritual oasis venerated by several indigenous groups. But the 20-metre-high rocky falls are to be covered by a reservoir created by a hydroelectric dam that is to flood an area of 95 square km. “It’s a sacred area, our creator and mother. Continue reading
Q&A: Water and Food Security Are Inseparable
Inter Press Service: With the U.N. ominously warning of an impending food crisis following severe droughts in farmlands in the United States, Brazil, Russia and at least two rain-deprived states in India, the world will once again turn its attention to a finite natural resource: water Continue reading
The Dam Boom in the Amazon
New York Times: 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. Continue reading
Brazil’s environmental leadership at risk, warn scientists
Mongabay: The Brazilian government is putting its global environmental leadership at risk by ignoring scientific concern on large infrastructure projects and changes in the country’s forest laws, warned an association of more than 1,200 tropical scientists gathering last week in Bonito, Brazil on the heels of the disappointing Rio+20 Earth Summit. While world leaders convened in Rio de Janeiro for the U.N. Continue reading
Belo Monte, An Announcement of War
Intercontinental Cry: Belo Monte, An Announcement Of War is an independent, crowd-funded, feature-length documentary about the largest ongoing construction project in Brazil and the permanent struggle to stop it. The entire film has been uploaded to the internet for anyone who wishes to view it. Visit the film’s official website: www.BeloMonteoFilme.org Synopsis “BELO MONTE, AN ANNOUNCEMENT OF WAR” A Documentary about the largest ongoing construction project in Brazil, where both OPINIONS/DEPOSITIONS for and against… Continue reading
