A Last Stand for the Xingu 2: Stop the Belo Monte Dam

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A Last Stand for the Xingu 2: Stop the Belo Monte Dam

Posted on August 25, 2011 under

On the banks of the Xingu River in Brazil, construction crews have begun arriving to work on the Belo Monte Dam, which will cause extensive devastation to Amazon biodiversity, and its people. Indigenous leaders like Sheyla Juruna, bravely rally the people, for their very survival. As Atossa Soltani, Executive Director at Amazon Watch has succinctly spoken, this is truly one of the defining environmental battles of our time.

“President Dilma Rousseff has so far refused to hear that Brazil can avoid senseless destruction of forests and communities in the Amazon by choosing green energy alternatives like solar, wind and energy efficiency. But how long can she ignore the growing chorus of indigenous people, scientists, and even the ex-head of Brazil’s Electric Energy Agency urging Brazil to opt for alternatives to the Belo Monte Dam?” ~ Atossa Soltani

The construction of this destructive mega-dam, which will devastate the already fragile Amazon basin, can not be allowed to continue. Please click here to be redirected to amazonwatch.org. Support the demands of Brazilian civil society. Defend the Amazon, its people and stop the Belo Monte Dam Complex. There will also be a video on the support page with scenes from a historic indigenous gathering held in the Kayapó village, Amazonian state of Mato Grosso. The assembly was called to discuss the impending human rights and environmental disaster, the Belo Monte Dam, on the Lower Xingu.

The Belo Monte Dam represents life extinction to Brazil’s indigenous people and the Amazon rain forest. Tens of thousands of people have protested the streets, demonstrating in 22 cities in Brazil, in unity against the building of the Belo Monte Dam. On Monday, August 22nd, actions were organized in 18 cities around the globe, demonstrating in solidarity with the Kayapos. Please continue to stand with and support the Xingu Urgent Action Fund, join the demonstrations and sign the petition here to President Dilma, calling on her to cancel the Belo Monte Dam.

The Belo Monte Dam project represents extinction to Brazil’s indigenous people & the vast biodiversity in the Amazon rain forest. The Amazon is one of the last precious pieces to the biodiversity puzzle on the planet. It is teeming with life; life that gives us life. When there are no more rain forests, there will be no more human beings. Without the Amazon, where will your grandchildren get their oxygen? Stand with the Kayapos for your own posterity.

All life on this planet is connected on a very fundamental level. It is time for humanity to see that statement as more than just a shamanistic euphemism, because it is cold, hard scientific fact.

Anthony Damiano
Founder of AELLA

Posted by Ronald Blom on August 24th, 2011, 13:11 (Reply to this comment)
We simply can not live without our longs and we need then now more than ever. Stop this madnesses and stop eating meat and driving on Bio-fuel.
Posted by Johanna Majon on August 24th, 2011, 18:33 (Reply to this comment)
Whole world is fucked up, this is really last drop to finish our planet and the nature people and so many things more. They must be out of they`re minds . I hope with all my heart that they stop !
Posted by Maureen Ellen Roth on August 26th, 2011, 01:20 (Reply to this comment)
This week Brazil`s leading tv station` O Globo` are running a series on the wonders of the construction of this monstosity. It`s all so disgusting!
Posted by michael Herwick on September 3rd, 2011, 14:41 (Reply to this comment)
I hope they will open their mind, their eyes and their hearts for the amazing beauty they are going to destroy and they will cry lakes of tears, just because of the plan they have and I pray they will stop the destruction
Posted by nahid on September 7th, 2011, 05:52 (Reply to this comment)
please stop devastation to Amazon
Posted by beatrice de filippis on September 7th, 2011, 07:01 (Reply to this comment)
This is genocide.
This is a massacre towards nature and mother earth.
This is the end.
Posted by helen smith on September 7th, 2011, 19:50 (Reply to this comment)
please stop the destruction think of these people their land the animals and plants PLEASE think AGAIN
Posted by Janet Chernin on October 12th, 2011, 02:07 (Reply to this comment)
Disgusting – what the hell are they thinking to literally MURDER an indigenous peoples and every living creature in the path of this ‘damn’ation? A destruction of an Eco system. This is a pogrom – This is a global holocaust
Posted by Tina Miaoulis on October 31st, 2011, 09:05 (Reply to this comment)
Please let the indigenous peoples of the Amazon live in peace. The destruction of this region of the world is not just about the rights of the indigenous whether human or animal, but the continued health of our planet, the ecosystem and the life on earth that now hangs in the balance.
Posted by Jennifer Doherty on March 24th, 2012, 14:17 (Reply to this comment)
Excellent article

Thank you so much , this is very interesting article.

The World Bank estimates that forcible “development-induced displacement and resettlement” now affects 10 million people per year. According to the World Bank an estimated 33 million people have been displaced by development projects such as dams, urban development and irrigation canals in India alone.

India is well ahead in this respect. A country with as many as over 3600 large dams within its belt can never be the exceptional case regarding displacement. The number of development induced displacement is higher than the conflict induced displacement in India. According to Bogumil Terminski an estimated more than 10 million people have been displaced by development each year.

Athough the exact number of development-induced displaced people (DIDPs) is difficult to know, estimates are that in the last decade 90–100 million people have been displaced by urban, irrigation and power projects alone, with the number of people displaced by urban development becoming greater than those displaced by large infrastructure projects (such as dams). DIDPs outnumber refugees, with the added problem that their plight is often more concealed.

This is what experts have termed “development-induced displacement.” According to Michael Cernea, a World Bank analyst, the causes of development-induced displacement include water supply (dams, reservoirs, irrigation); urban infrastructure; transportation (roads, highways, canals); energy (mining, power plants, oil exploration and extraction, pipelines); agricultural expansion; parks and forest reserves; and population redistribution schemes.