Environmental Impacts

Platform Dams

Rapids near site of proposed São Luiz Dam, Tapajós River
Rapids near site of proposed São Luiz Dam, Tapajós River Glenn Switkes, International Rivers I just got back from the Tapajós River, where Eletronorte says it will construct the São Luiz Dam in essentially the same way that offshore oil platforms are built and operated. The company says it will avoid having large work camps invade the Amazonia National Park by mounting a platform at the dam site to house a rotating crew, which will return to the nearest city, Itaituba, every three days for R & R.According to Luiz Fernando Rufato, Superintendent for Generation Expansion of Ele

Document of II Seminar on Hydroelectric Dams in the Tapajós River Basin

Communities Meet in Itaituba to Discuss Planned Tapajós River Dams
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Communities Meet in Itaituba to Discuss Planned Tapajós River Dams Glenn Switkes, International Rivers Document of the II Seminar Debating the Plans for Hydroelectric Dams in the Tapajós River Basin OPEN LETTER TO AUTHORITIES AND TO THE BRAZILIAN PUBLIC Facing the plans of the Brazilian government and others for destroying the peoples, environment, and the Tapajós River itself, we are not going to remain passive. Our government DOES NOT HAVE THE RIGHT to violate our dignity, building hydroelectric dams without prior discussion with those who would suffer their negative impacts

Three Gorges Dam – Still China’s Model for the World?

Three Gorges Dam construction
Three Gorges Dam construction Chris De Bode On his eight-day visit to China, Nepal’s Prime Minister Prachanda planned to visit the Three Gorges Dam this week. He would have followed in the footsteps of dignitaries from South Africa, Congo, Switzerland and many other countries. China is aggressively marketing the Three Gorges Project to the rest of the world. As it happened, Nepal’s Prime Minister resigned just before leaving for China. Yet the propaganda efforts around the Yangtze reservoir beg the question: Is the Three Gorges Dam still China’s model for the world? The dam on the Ya

HidroAysén: High Risk and High Cost

The Endangered Wilderness of the Pascua
The Endangered Wilderness of the Pascua The high risks and high costs of the proposal to exploit one of the worlds most treasured wild places for unnecessary energy development are coming clear. While the owners of the Patagonia Dam scheme known as HidroAysén busily attempt to convince investors, associated business partners, and the public at large that their primitive energy project is moving forth as planned, their own recent communications with the international press state that the project is being delayed by the volcanic nature of the Patagonia region. In an article published by Reut

Dam Home Depot, Save Patagonia's Rivers

The Endangered Wilderness of the Pascua
Read about International Rivers' Action at The Home Depot's Annual Shareholder Meeting: Press Release, Media Kit The Home Depot is the largest US buyer of timber products from the Matte Group, one of the companies planning to build five big dams on two pristine rivers in Patagonia, southern Chile. The dams and their associated transmission lines would ruin rivers, flood rare endangered forests and destroy livelihoods. Why The Home Depot? Every year The Home Depot purchases 50 million dollars worth of timber products from the Matte and Angelini groups – owners of wood products companies CMPC

Brazil's Balbina Dam: Environment Versus the Legacy of the Pharoahs in Amazonia

Saturday, July 1, 1989
Read article by Philip Fearnside of Brazil's National Institute for Amazon Research (INPA) on the impacts of Balbina Dam. The article was originally published in the journal Environmental Management.

Balbina - The Disaster Grows in Size

Balbina reservoir in satellite photo
Balbina reservoir in satellite photo I was caught by surprise when I stumbled upon an official database on hydroelectric dams and reservoirs in Brazil - the System for Georeferenced Information on the Electric Sector (SIGEL), administered by the electrical energy regulatory agency, Aneel, and found an astounding fact about the Amazon's most catastrophic dam, Balbina. Everyone knows that Balbina has been a disaster, flooding 2,360km2 of the rainforest including indigenous villages, while generating only 250 MW at full production. But, the SIGEL database confirms that Balbina's reservoir is a

Tensions Rise Over Licensing of Dams

Friday, February 27, 2009
Read the article from Recharge Magazine on the Madeira River dams.

Fool Me Once, Shame on You...

A wise old Chinese philosopher once said "Fool me once, shame on you...fool me twice, shame on me". Brazil´s granting of a construction license for Santo Antônio Dam, on the Madeira River, made it clear that responsibility must be shared for the shameful way in which environmental laws have been blatantly ignored in order to hasten the destruction of the Amazon´s major tributary. As it did before the issuance of a provisional license for the dams, the technical staff of Ibama, Brazil´s environmental protection agency issued a report, this time 146 pages long, recommending

The Great Carbon Offset Swindle: International Rivers Report Deconstructs the Scam

Monday, June 23, 2008
The Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism, the world's biggest carbon-offset program, is utterly failing to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions. The program’s failure is detailed in the International Rivers' report, "Bad Deal for the Planet: Why Carbon Offsets Aren't Working." The CDM is supposed to be a way for the industrialized nations to stabilize and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by funding emission-reduction programs and projects in the developing world. But the CDM is actually increasing such emissions in the guise of promoting sustainable development.The Clean Deve

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Environmental Impacts