Politics & Government
Euclides de Oliveira (in red) listens as Antonia Melo explains how the proposed Belo Monte dam would flood the homes of riverside dwellers like his. Brazilian government officials say that what happens to the Amazon is up to Brazil and they say that Belo Monte and the other dams are necessary to switch on more living room lights and to power expanding companies in the world's ninth largest economy. (Tyler Bridges/MCT)
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Children wait outside while their parents attend a meeting to learn about how the proposed Belo Monte dam on the Xingu River (behind them) would flood their riverside dwellings, March 21, 2009. Brazilian government officials say that what happens to the Amazon is up to Brazil and they say that Belo Monte and the other dams are necessary to switch on more living room lights and to power expanding companies in the world's ninth largest economy. (Tyler Bridges/MCT)
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Children wait outside while their parents attend a meeting to learn about how the proposed Belo Monte dam on the Xingu River (behind them) would flood their riverside dwellings, March 21, 2009. Brazilian government officials say that what happens to the Amazon is up to Brazil and they say that Belo Monte and the other dams are necessary to switch on more living room lights and to power expanding companies in the world's ninth largest economy. (Tyler Bridges/MCT)
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Riverside dwellers gathered at the home of Fernando Florencio deSousa on March 21, 2009 to hear how the proposed Belo Monte dam would flood their homes. De Sousa's home is in Volta Grande, or the Big Bend, on the Xingu River in Brazil. (Tyler Bridges/MCT)
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Bishop Erwin Kraulter, who resides in Altamira, is under 24-hour police protection because of death threats from his opposition to the dam and to powerful ranchers. (Tyler Bridges/MCT)
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"With the dam, we'd have more income to improve infrastructure," said Altamira's mayor, Odileida Sampaio. She hopes that the dam will produce money to pave 600 miles of the Transamazon highway and connect Altamira to the city of Maraba to the east. (Tyler Bridges/MCT)
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Fernando Florencio de Sousa grows cacao, coffee, rice, corn and yucca on 260 hectares that abut the Xingu River. He also has 50 chickens, 40 cows, 10 ducks, three horses and four dogs."They [electric company officials] promise us that we'll have a much better life," de Sousa said, "that we'll have electricity, running water and livein a nice house. I don't believe it." (Tyler Bridges/MCT)
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