This morning's paper reports that Brazil has finally given the green light for a massive dam on the Xingu River, a tributary of the Amazon. As many as 40,000 people are expected to be displaced with the flooding of 500 square kilometres of land.
The Vancouver Sun has reprinted Louise Gray's article from The Telegraph. She reports that after 35 years of struggle against environmental campaigns and indigenous rainforest peoples, the Belo Monte Dam has been given the go-ahead.
Norte Energia, a consortium of nine companies, has been awarded the project for what will be the third largest dam in the world, requiring about the same amount of concrete as the Panama Canal.
Brazil will host the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016.
The same issue of The Sun reports that a huge power transmission line project planned for northern BC is currently being reviewed by the government. The proposed line is slated to travel through Memorial Lava Bed Park, land owned by the Nisga'a First Nation.
A few months ago, indigenous peoples' and environmentalists' opposition to planned development in the Sacred Headwaters of several major BC Rivers was a topic of one of the 2009 Massey Lectures given by Wade Davis on CBC radio.
In spite of all we know, and even while Iceland's volcano remains active, it seems that the lobbies for economic activity still trump those for environmental concerns.
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