Tag Archive for 'amazon river'

Amazon Forum to Focus on Human Cost of Green Economy

Published on 06/06/2012 in aquatic ecosystems, dams, greenwashing, hydropower, policy, rivers and water diversions. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Photo retrieved from: www.survivalinternational.org

“In Brazil and worldwide, large hydroelectric dams are being falsely deemed a source of “clean energy” critical to powering a “green economy.” Despite calls for “sustainable development” in the preparations for Rio+20, discussions have ignored the social and environmental implications of dam projects. The Belo Monte dam is the tip of the iceberg of an unprecedented wave of dam construction in the Amazon Basin fueled by narrow political and economic interests, with devastating and irreversible consequences for one of the world’s most precious biomes and its peoples.

Twenty-three years after the historic First Encounter of Indigenous Peoples of the Xingu in 1989 the Xingu+23 gathering reaffirms widespread resistance to the damming of one of the Amazon’s largest tributaries as a direct result of the Brazilian government’s refusal to abide by domestic legislation and international agreements regarding human rights and environmental protection. Hundreds of affected fishermen, small-scale farmers, indigenous peoples, social movements, academics, activists and other defenders of the Xingu River and other Amazonian regions will participate in the activities. Brazilian actor Sergio Marone of the Drop of Water Movement will coordinate a committee of renowned Brazilian artists and human rights activists.”

Read more: International Rivers

lily victoria

Dodging Disaster in Lot 129

Published on 04/02/2012 in aquatic ecosystems, contaminated water, greenwashing, oil, policy and rivers. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.alianzaarkana.org

“Now, a new grassroots movement is being launched by the people to block the newest threat to water and life in the Amazon.  The U.S. oil giant, ConocoPhillips, and its collaborators have plans to develop yet another toxic oil project, known as Lot 129,  in one of the most remote and pristine places of the Amazon Rainforest and, therefore, in the world.

Conoco Phillips and its Canadian consortium partners Gran Tierra (20%) and Talisman Energy (35%)  are poised to start digging at least 18 exploratory wells, dozens of helipads, trails, roads and workers’ camps within and along the boundaries of the Alto-Nanay-Pintuyacu-Chambira National Conservation Area and the Allpahuayo-Mishana National Reserve, and in areas overlapping titled ancestral territories of numerous indigenous peoples. This includes a delicate eco-zone known as “Bosques humedos del Napo,” which was recognized as a Ramsar site of internationally significant wetlands.”

Read more: Alianza Arkana

 

lily victoria

Re-mapping the Amazon

Published on 03/29/2012 in aquatic ecosystems, dams, hydropower, management, policy, privatization, rivers, species extinction and water diversions. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Photo retrieved from: www.internationalrivers.org

“Brazil’s River of the Dead is teeming with life, tropical birds, fish and turtles. The river is one of the hundreds of tributaries of the mighty Amazon.

But even this remote region is being developed. Not far from this part of Brazil construction has begun on the huge and hugely controversial Belo Monte hydroelectric dam. When finished, it will generate a vast amount of electricity and flood a vast area of the rainforest. It’s just one of 60 dams planned in the Brazilian Amazon.

Balancing Brazil’s growing need for energy and protecting the rainforest was front and center back in January 2011, when Dilma Rousseff addressed Congress after being sworn as Brazil’s first female president.”

Read more: International Rivers

 

lily victoria

Predicting the World’s Next Water Pollution Disaster

Published on 12/23/2010 in contaminated water, dams, fracking, greenwashing, groundwater, hydropower, mining, oceans, oil, products, rivers, tap water, wastewater, waterborne diseases and world water supply. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

A worker samples water from a well at a coal bed methane drill site. Photo retrieved from: www.nationalgeographic.com

“Only a tiny fraction of the ore miners exhume contains gold, copper, lead, zinc, or the other metals they’re after. The rest is waste, or tailings, full of large quantities of metals and minerals ranging from benign to very toxic. These fine-grained wastes are often held in tailings ponds that can cover many square miles.

Unfortunately the dams holding tailing ponds aren’t always examples of high-level engineering and, in some countries, may be made by simply bulldozing the tailings themselves into an embankment, explains geologist Johnnie Moore, of the University of Montana.

“There is the potential for huge amounts of [toxic waste] to move into a river system whenever any of those things break, and in fact it does happen,” he said.

Last summer a discharge of acidic waste escaped from a Fujan province copper plant run by China’s largest gold producer, Zijin Mining Group Co. The accident poisoned enough Ting River fish to feed 70,000 people for a year and also contaminated their water supply, according to reports from the Reuters news agency. Two years earlier, runoff from a gold mine near Dadong contaminated the water supply for more than 200,000 people. Over the years, similar disasters have occurred in Spain, Peru, the Philippines, and elsewhere, and there are plenty of other sites in China that scientists have their eye on.

Other toxic processes that use mercury and cyanide to extract valuable minerals from rock create the potential for environmental disaster as well.”

Read more: National Geographic

lily victoria

Peru Water Wars Threaten Agricultural Export Boom

Published on 09/13/2010 in climate change, groundwater, oceans, rivers, water shortage, water wars and world water supply. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.arabnews.com

“Though the World Bank and its International Finance Corporation have been involved in a more sustainable project in northern Peru that uses water from the Amazon to irrigate fields, its work with well water in Ica has put it in the middle of a vexing problem.

Peru is South America’s third-largest country and a top exporter of high-value specialty crops like asparagus. Farmers say it could become a breadbasket like Brazil or Argentina, well-positioned to feed a growing global population.

But it suffers from acute water shortages on its Pacific Ocean coast and they are expected to worsen as its ice fields in the Andes, the world’s largest collection of tropical glaciers, melt because of climate change.

In Ica, where there is little control over who pumps water, the aquifer could dry up before the government comes up with a plan to pipe in rainwater from the Andes or the Amazon as it has done in northern Peru.”

Read more: Arab News

lily victoria

Amazon River Level In Peru At 40-Year Low

Published on 09/07/2010 in climate change, rivers and world water supply. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.bbc.co.uk

“The Amazon river has dropped to its lowest level in 40 years in north-eastern Peru, causing severe economic disruption in a region where it is the main transport route.

At least six large boats have been stranded near the port city of Iquitos.

The low water level is the result of a prolonged spell of dry weather, Peru’s national meteorological office said.

The river is expected to fall further before the rainy season begins next month.

Cut off

Iquitos and other towns in Peru’s rainforest region have no road links to the rest of the country, and depend on the Amazon and its tributaries for transport.

Food and other supplies are now being brought in by smaller boats that can navigate the shallow channels, weaving between exposed mud banks.”

Read more: BBC News

lily victoria

Amazon Dam Project Pits Economic Benefit Against Protection of Indigenous Lands

Published on 04/17/2010 in dams, rivers and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

amazonwatch.org

“RIO DE JANEIRO — The indigenous leaders had a plan. They would unite for a last, desperate stand against the mammoth dam threatening their lands in the Amazon, vowing to give their lives, if necessary, to prevent it from being built.

“This will be our last cry for help,” said the chief of the Arara tribe, José Carlos Arara, after a meeting of leaders from 13 tribes last month. “We are not here to kill. We are here to defend our rights.”

“For indigenous groups, the drying out of the Xingu would change life as they know it. So at their meeting last month, leaders from 13 tribes made an unusual decision: They decided to create a new tribe of about 2,500, and then station it directly on the construction site, occupying it for years, if need be.”

read more: New York Times

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