Should the Belo Monte Dam be built in Para, Brazil?

A message from Pandora

• http://vimeo.com/28181753

Belo Monte Dam: Do the economic benefits outweigh the social and environmental costs?The Belo Monte Dam is a proposed hydroelectric dam complex on the Xingu River in the state of Pará, Brazil. The planned installed capacity of the dam complex would be 11,233 Megawatts (MW), which would make it the second-largest hydroelectric dam complex in Brazil, and the world's third-largest in installed capacity, behind Three Gorges Dam (China) and Itaipu Dam (Brazil-Paraguay). Electricity from the dams would presumably power the extraction and refinery of large mineral deposits in Pará, such as bauxite, the raw material for aluminum. However, there is some opposition to the dams' construction regarding their impacts to the region's environment.

Environmental and social change in the Amazon

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2011/sep/29/belo-monte-dam-braziil-amazon?intcmp=239

• http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=belo+monte+dam+fish&view=detail&id=9AF243F0C44F536D4F65AE10AC3FF5CD540D21E9&first=0&FORM=IDFRIR Sigourney Weaver – Against the dam

2014 BELO MONTE

CONFERENCE – SHOULD THE DAM BE BUILT?

James Cameron, Avatar cast and crew and other celebs

Indigenous groups

Amazon Watch

Dam Builders and Miners

Brazilian Government

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/sep/29/brazilian-judge-monte-bello-dam?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487 - Dam halted Sept 2011

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/01/brazil-belo-monte-dam - Environment agency allows Dam June 2011

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/18/avatar-james-cameron-brazil-dam?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487 Apr 2010 James Cameron

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/02/brazil-amazon-rainforest-hydroelectric-dam Indigenous people and environment to be harmed by dam Feb 2010

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/aug/23/brazil-amazon-electricity Harm to tribes Aug 2009

Questions 8CN• Amazon watch to miners: have you ever actually talked to an Indian?

• Celeb to miners: why would you want dam that will wash minerals away- trees give minerals?

• Indigenous to Govt: why is ok to destroy our home when we have had no impact

• Govt to celeb: why do you care?

• AW to indigenous: how do you feel about this?

• Miners to indigenous: why stop construction if it creates jobs/ build economy

• Indigenous to govt: do you want to live with no diversity?

• Govt to indigenous: what is wrong with a new beginning?

• Celeb to govt: why cant you use other renewable resources?

• Celeb to govt: the govt is meant to be with the people?

• Celeb to miners: why cant you mine somewhere else or get materials elsewhere?

• Indigenous to miner: Our life is river yours in minerals- why are going to take away your own life along with ours?

Questions

• Celebrities to miners - how is it going to provide energy for the Olympics if it isn’t going to be started until 2015?

• Celebs to government – meant to be for the people but almost all of the people are against it

• Miners to Indigenous - the fish can be moved downstream• Amazon Watch to Miners you can recycle aluminum and tin you

don’t need to mine more• Amazon W to Government – where will the indigenous go?• Government to Amazon watch/indig/celebs – 23 million people with

energy – only 1% of people affected• Indigenous people to miners 70% will go to households/30% to

industry – olympics – where will the extra energy come from?

QuestionsFrom the government to James Cameron “James how do we know that your

involvement with this was not just a publicity stunt for your movie Avatar?”Amazon Watch to the government“ Where will the indigenous people live after the dam is built?”Celebs to government Is it worth destroying the biodiversity of the Amazon to provide power for 23 million

people?Miners to celebs“The dam will provide jobs for the village people”Indigenous to government“Why have you not been open about the project?”Government to Amazon Watch/Celebs“You said the building of the dam would contribute to global warming. However, China

and the USA contribute much more, what do you have to say about that?”Amazon watch to government?“How do you feel about the environmental consequences of the dam?”Celebs to miners“Is it worth displacing 40,000 people for only 16,000 temp jobs and 2,000 permanent

ones?”Amazon watch to miners“How do you feel about the displacement of all of these people. What do you expect them

to do?”

• Government to tribes: what is wrong with moving somewhere else in a new area?• Government to celebs: why do you care so much about the dam being built?• Government to Amazon watch: why are you thinking about preserving all of this water because in about 30 years

the Amazon river will dry up anyway• Government to Amazon watch: why do you think building the dam is bad for the environment? • Government o celebs: how do we know that your impression against the dam is not just a stage for Avatar? • Government to tribes: how will this dam impact you? • Government to miners: why do you think the dam is a good source of energy• Amazon watch to govt: where are the natives going to go when the dam is built? • Amazon watch to govt: why do you need to build the dam so urgently?• Amazon watch to dam builders: have you thought about how much this will affect people and animals? • Dam builders to tribes: why should we stop the construction if it creates and build the economy? • Dam builders to AW: how would you like to get energy without building the dam? • Dam builders to celeb: how do want to make movies without energy• Tribes to miners: don't you want to sustain the earth so the next generation can see it? • Tribes to govt: why build a dam that costs a lot and then pay for all the flooding?• Tribes to govt: how will the dam provide energy for all Brazilians when 50% will, go to industrial users?• Tribes to govt: would you rather live in a country with no diversity and destroy all the animals and plants• Celebs to govt: have you discussed the ideas with the tribes and how it changed your views? • Celebs to miners: how have you reacted to mine protests in the past? Is this how you will deal with it in the future?• Celebs to tribes: how the youth in your tribe responded to the situation?

• Amazon watch to miners: don’t you feel bad about taking these peoples lands away?

• Amazon watch to dam builders: why is this dam in particular needed to be built?

• Amazon watch to government: how do you expect the tribal people to be happy by just giving them the new land to live on? They have lived on this land for year

• Amazon watch to celebs: why do you care now, why you use up countless resources for movies and concerts etc…

• Amazon watch to celebs: Why would you want to contribute to global warming even more, by creating more power than you already have enough of.

• Amazon watch to tribal people: how do you feel about this being built?

•

• *Celebs to Miners: Do you feel comfortable wiping out such a significant part of the sacred Amazon?

• *Celebs to Tribes: Were you consulted in the plans to make the Belo Monte Dam?

• *Celebs to Amazon Watch: In total, how much of the Amazon will be affected by building the Belo Monte Dam?

• *Celebs to Government: What will you do if rehoming the tribal people becomes a Top-down experiment? How will you provide the money to fix this?

• *Celebs to Government: Aren’t you supposed to help every person in Brazil? Isn’t why you were elected? Celebs to Miners: Do you find it fair that you are throwing people off their land for electricity they don’t need?

• *Celebs to Government: Are you aware that the tribal people have different, and limited, modern education? How do you plan on finding them good jobs despite this?

Government to tribes:

What is wrong with moving people to better homes, better environment with better food and a better life?

We do understand that you have been living like this for centuries but this doesn’t mean that you can stop the world from evolving and moving on just because you can’t evolve with it.

 

Government to Amazon Watch:

You are spending too much time and money focusing on the Amazon River, when in about 30 years, it will dry up anyway. Why? This money could be used to benefit Brazil in so many other ways.

 

Government to miners:

Don’t you feel slightly guilty for destroying the land and participating in the destruction of the forest?

 

Government to Celebrities:

What does this have anything to do with you? This won’t affect you in any way whatsoever.

 

President to rest of people:

What do you think?

Dam builders to celebrities: this is hardly going to affect your life in anyway so why do you care?

Dam builders to government: what will you get out of this or how will building/ not building the dam effect you as the government or the economy?

Dam builders to tribes: do you not think that your health is anything would benefit from new and improved appliances?

Dam builders to Amazon watch: you don’t object to the evolution from cave men to you nowadays. What’s so different for tribes? Do you really think you can live like that for generations to generations?

Dam Builders and Industrialists

• http://www.brazil.org.uk/environment/belomonte.html - benefits

• http://www.alcoa.com/brazil/en/news/whats_new/2005_11_30.asp?initSection=1000 – mining company

• http://www.alcoa.com/brazil/en/news/whats_new/2005_11_30.asp?initSection=1000# - Alcoa mining company

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium - aluminium• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauxite - Bauxite• http://www.khl.com/magazines/international-construction/

detail/item55847/Norte-Energia-consortium-awarded-Belo-Monte-contract/ - Norte Energia building contract

Indigenous

• http://amazonwatch.org/work/xingu-river-and-its-people - peoples

• http://www.survivalinternational.org/about/belo-monte-dam - uncontacted people

General info

• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/brazil/8287289/Brazils-Belo-Monte-dam-a-history-of-celebrity-opposition.html - RECENT NEWS ARTICLE DAM OPPOSITION

• http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/blog/zachary-hurwitz/2011-1-13/ibama-president-resigns-over-belo-monte-licensing - MINISTERS RESIGN OVER DAM

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11674234 - good overview and sustainability

New articles

• http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324020804578150964211301692.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

• http://www.bendbulletin.com/article/20130103/NEWS0107/301030328/

• http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2012/12/12/brics-risky-businesses/#axzz2Hc6h9iJZ