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Archive for April 25th, 2010
ALERT! Brazil’s Proposed Belo Monte Dam Damns Amazonian Rainforests and Peoples
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on April 25th, 2010
The wild and free Xingu River is critical to maintaining intact the Amazon, its peoples, Brazil's national advancement, and the Earth we share
TAKE ACTION! The Brazilian government continues with plans to build the massive Belo Monte Dam [search] on the Xingu River in the Amazon rainforest [search], despite massive domestic and international opposition. The 11.2 billion dollar dam will flood an estimated 500 square kilometers of the Amazon rainforest and threaten the survival of tens of thousands of indigenous and traditional peoples who depend on the Xingu River for their livelihoods. The Kayapó leader Raoni Metuktire, who gained international exposure touring the world with Sting, said indigenous men from the Xingu were preparing their bows and arrows in order to fight off the dam. "I think that today the war is about to start once more and the Indians will be forced to kill the white men again so they leave our lands alone.
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Army tackles wildcat gold mines in Venezuela jungle
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 25th, 2010
Reuters: Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez on Sunday ordered troops to crack down on wildcat miners who use mercury, chain-saws and high-pressure hoses to strip gold from beneath the South American nation's jungles. Venezuela's southern forests contain some of Latin America's largest deposits of gold. Industrial mining is scarce in the region, but hundreds of local miners have devastated tracts of forest in the past few decades. "This is a crime that we cannot keep on permitting. Look ...
Water pollution expert derides UN sanitation claims
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 25th, 2010
Guardian: Hundreds of millions of people that the UN declares have gained access to safe water and sanitation are still struggling with polluted supplies and raw sewage, a leading expert has told the Guardian. In its latest report on the progress of the UN Millennium Development Goal to halve the proportion of people lacking access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, the World Health Organisation said that since 1990 1.3 billion people had gained access to improved drinking water and ...