News Item: The Belo Monte Dam

Hi all, I am still without electricity at home, but will post as often as I can.

And speaking of electricity: James Cameron, director of the blockbuster Avatar, arrived in Brazil recently along with two stars of the film, Sigourney Weaver and Joel David Moore, to protest the planned construction of a huge hydroelectric dam complex in the Amazon rainforest. Cameron drew parallels between the plight of the Na’vi people in his movie and the real-life inhabitants of the rainforest.

The Belo Monte dam project in the northern state of Pará was approved some 20 years ago, but was tabled soon after due to protests. However, it was again given the green light in February of this year, and last week the Brazilian government accepted bids for the project, which has been projected to cost US$17 billion. The government maintains that the dam is needed to deliver Brazil’s future energy needs.

Cameron and others opposed to the dam cite its negative impact on the environment and local indigenous population. According to the London Times:

The £11 billion dam would be the third largest in the world, with a generating capacity of 11 Gigawatts; a contribution the government says is vital to meeting rising energy needs. But critics note it will flood 500 square kilometres of rainforest and divert the river’s flow away from tens of thousands of indigenous people who depend on it for their survival. An estimated 20,000 people will be displaced.

While few would maintain that interfering with the ecology of the Amazon rainforest and displacing a projected 20,000 inhabitants is desirable, the matter is not as simple as it might appear, and many Brazilians view it as the lesser of evils.

Brazil’s economy is growing rapidly, at roughly 5% annually, and this growth requires more energy. Already blackouts are not uncommon. I myself was here during the blackout in November which hit the southeast, the most heavily populated portion of Brazil.  This blackout may well have been the final impetus needed to relaunch the Belo Monte project. Brazil needs to increase its energy production if it is to avoid such blackouts in the future.

Cameron, Weaver, and Moore are probably well intentioned, and their protests do have validity. But one fact which weakens their message in the developing world, and which they seem to overlook, is that the US and other more developed countries have already built such dams – and nuclear power plants, and coal-fired plants, and oil-burning plants. Developed countries consume energy at a far, far, higher per capita rate than people in developing countries. (Wikipedia gives US per capita electrical energy consumption as more than 6 times that of Brazil.) Those in developing countries might well ask, “Why should we listen to Americans about energy matters?” Why indeed?

What many Brazilians (and, no doubt, Indians, Chinese, and others) think is: “Sure, you Americans have a great way of life – but you don’t want to allow us to have the same. You created global warning, and now we have to pay the price.”

Believe me, as someone who has been to about 25 countries, Americans overall do not have a great reputation abroad. True, some negativity toward Americans is due to envy, no question about it. But Americans can be very quick to intervene and interfere in foreign affairs despite being overall extremely ignorant of world affairs – and even domestic affairs. Americans have a pronounced tendency to pass judgment on others while neglecting to look at what they themselves are doing. Perhaps this traces back to our Puritan roots, but we tend to be much too concerned with what the other guy is doing, when we should be tending to our own business.

As one Brazilian I spoke with said, it is “hypocritical [of the US] to pose as the savior” when “the carbon dioxide the Amazon is absorbing came from the US.”

While there’s little telling where exactly a carbon dioxide molecule originated, her point is well made. Why are we not tending to our own garden?

It may surprise you to know that in many ways Brazil is more forward-looking than the US where energy is concerned. Virtually all taxis here run on clean-burning natural gas. And virtually all new cars are “flex” cars, which can use gasoline or ethanol, and often natural gas as well. The US has made some feeble attempt at introducing electric cars, and that’s about it.

Back to the matter at hand. Let me be clear that I’m not coming out in favor of the dam. I’m still trying to inform myself, and I do have concerns that the dam is projected to run well below capacity for many years, meaning Brazil will suffer the impacts without all of the benefits it might gain. Still, I have to believe that hydroelectric power is a better long-term plan than nuclear or coal-fired plants.

What I am saying is that Cameron might do better to stay home and promote energy conservation at home. Speaking of home, I wonder how big his home is anyway. Probably he has more than one. And maybe he has, I don’t know, a heated swimming pool? Do you see where I going with this? Perhaps Cameron is truly concerned about the Amazon and the world situation. If he is in fact sincere, it would be nice to learn what he, personally, is doing to conserve energy and to promote responsible energy policies back home.

But then, the photo ops are better here in Brazil.

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