Friday, June 3, 2011

Belo Monte Damn

As opposition to the proposed Belo Monte Dam on the Amazon’s Xingu River grows, Amazon Watch and International Rivers have created a 10-minute Google Earth 3-D tour and video, narrated by actress Sigourney Weaver. The production, entitled Defending the Rivers of the Amazon, supports Brazil’s Xingu River Forever Alive Movement.





The Belo Monte Dam would be the third-largest hydroelectric dam in the world. It would divert the flow of the Xingu River, a significant tributary of the Amazon, to produce electricity for industrial mining operations in the region.



Xingu Forever Alive



In the process, the dam’s reservoirs would flood 668 square kilometers and displace more than 20,000 people. Late last week, the Brazilian government signed the concession to build the $17 billion-dollar project, ignoring local, national, and international opposition.



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