Talk on Damming the Amazon Rainforest 6/23

[Rudy Ruggles]

The Weston Climate Group is proud to present Willie O’Laughlin, who will give a talk at the Weston Library starting at 7pm on Monday, June 23rd describing the role Rainforests play in our Climate, the development and controversy behind the Belo Monte Dam, and an outline of the resistance movement going forward. 

Brazil is building the world’s third largest dam in the rainforest, the Belo Monte Dam, to produce electricity for their economy. The Belo Monte Dam is the leader in a wave of 100 new dams in the Amazon Rainforest. Dams decrease the fish and wildlife in the rainforest, and change the lives of the Native people on the rivers. The people and development that come into the forest with the dams bring deforestation, mining, and farming to the rainforest, and create big changes in land-use for the rainforest.

The Amazon Rainforest is an important part of the earth because it produces rain and oxygen. The Belo Monte Dam has been under consideration since the 1970s, and construction broke ground in 2011 through a difficult license and permitting process.

The resistance lives on, and Indigenous Tribes are protesting and fighting with the National Guard troops at the dam site today. NGOs like Amazon Watch and International Rivers are working against the dam, and the dam does not have firm support of the Brazilian public.

For more insight on Belo Monte, visit wildxingu.tumblr.com.

[Isabella Jancourtz]

Dear Rudy and all,

     this scenario reminds me of John Boorman's incredible 1985 film "The Emerald Forest" which I remember seeing with my son Josh, then a junior in high school.  It is hard to believe that, almost 30 years later, this battle for the Amazon continues.

      I'm really looking forward to this presentation  Thanks so much for all the good work you are doing to help save our planet.

                                                                Isabella

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