Brazilian Dam Controversy
On Tuesday, the Brazilian government announced that a union of nine Brazilian corporations has won the bid to build a hydroelectric dam in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil. The coalition, led by Companhia Hidro Eletrica do Sao Francisco, a state-controlled company, plans to construct a government-supported dam over the next years that will satisfy much of Brazil’s growing energy needs. The project will cost $11 billion and, when completed, will be the world’s third largest dam, behind China’s Three Gorges dam and the Itaipu dam that straddles the border of Brazil and Paraguay.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva strongly supports and spearheads the dam, saying it is a necessary development that will provide clean and renewable energy to Brazil and will genearte a net positive effect. However, many environmentalists, indigenous Brazilians, and activists claim that the dam will do irreparable harm to the natural environment of the Amazon, in addition to displacing large numbers of civilians, and killing off many forms of life.
The opponents of the dam recently have received the endorsement of director James Cameron, who visited Brazil last week to join the protest. Cameron claims that the controversy over the dam is a real life example of the themes of his recent film “Avatar”, which depicts native aliens fighting against extraction of its resources by humans. Cameron praised the protesters, who have been active in a number of cities across Brazil and who plan to physically block dam construction by building a village in front of the construction site.