Belo Monte Dam to Severely Damage Xingu River Fish Habitat

[LordRaiden]

Hello.

There is a very large dam scheduled to be built over the Xingu river in Brazil. It is the third largest in the world.

It's construction has been delayed for years due to the extreme environmental impacts it will cause, but the questionable activities of certain branches of the Brazilian government have allowed this monstrosity past most political solutions.

It's called the Belo Monte dam. If it is constructed, many popular aquarium fish, including iconic species of catfish and cichlids, will forever lose a vast swath of critical habitat and spawning grounds. In addition, this dam will flood many hectares of rainforest, destroying habitat for all manner of sensitive bird, reptile, invertebrate, amphibian, and mammal species. Finally, it will submerge the homes of thousands of indigenous tribespeople that have lived there for centuries.

Brazil is building the dam because they are on the verge of an energy crisis. However, despite research proving that the dam will not fix the crisis and lose the majority of the energy that it will gather will be lost, and despite the availability of energy saving technology that would be less expensive to invest in, they insist on building it. If you would like to see the proof of my statements for yourself, the article at wikipedia has all the proof cited in the sources section:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belo_Monte_Dam#References

I am merely a college student trying to get a degree and pay my way through school. I am not a world leader or political figure of any sort, and I imagine the rest of you aren't either. Unfortunately, that means that there isn't much we can do about this directly.

An organization called Amazonwatch has an online petition form that they are trying to get out to people to sign to try and stop this horrible dam from being built. I've signed it myself and spread it to three of my facebook accounts, so that I can make a difference, even if it is only a small one. If you could sign it too and spread it as far as you can, that would really help.

This is the form for the petition: http://amazonwatch.org/take-action/s...te-monster-dam

I also plan on spreading this to other fishkeeping sites, because I think that the tropical fish community has a unique angle on this issue that no other niche or community can lay claim to, and that may prove to be powerful.

I am also going to tip off my local newspapers to this, just in case it could help somehow. If any of those who read this post could think of a similar method of helping, it could very well go a longer way than you think and is worth pursuing.

I am not affiliated with amazonwatch or any other organization involved with this in any way. I'm just a passionate biology student who feels repsponsible for making sure that the species I love so much at home have a home of their own for generations to come in the Xingu river. I know I'm not much on my own, but I feel that the best way I can help is to try and give this issue as much exposure and press as possible.

If there is a website manager or other such moderator watching this topic, please, please, please consider putting an article about it on this site, or motioning to do so. The more people that know about this, the better, and if we can get the fishkeeping industry on this problem, we might stand a chance at stopping that dam from going in.

Again, the links to amazonwatch and the wikipedia sources for the data and facts in the related article are posted below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belo_Monte_Dam#References

http://amazonwatch.org/take-action/s...te-monster-dam
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[LordRaiden]

Wow.

62 views and no replies.

I posted this here because I thought that the most passionate fishkeepers on the web would take notice, and do something, anything, or at least sign the petition.

I guess I was wrong. How scathingly disappointing.

Well, when you all scratch your heads when the prices of certain fish species fly through the roof, maybe you'll remember this thread.

 

[barracuda123]

i signed the petition I hope it stops!

 

[Gill Blue]

How scathingly disappointing.

more disappointing than the fact that we've already screwed up the planet too far for us to be able to fix it? you have priority issues.
and since you're so great, did you manage to stop the Three Gorges Dam? save any of the dolphins?
no?
hmmm.
our own government (at least mine, no idea how it is in your dream land of New Neotropolis) ignores the will of the people in favor of the will of the money, why would you even begin to think a foreign government would care more for another countries citizens than the profits of its own?

 

[JC_P]

Signed it, and posted the link on my facebook wall. This can't be allowed to happen! Thank you "LordRaiden" for sharing this information, and letting us hobbyist know about this catastrophic issue. I hope everyone else here is as supporting. Try to remember that our "pets" were wild before being shoved in a glass box, support the cause!

 

[aclockworkorange]

I wrote several papers on the Belo Monte this last quarter. I don't think a petition will do anything.

 

[JC_P]

more disappointing than the fact that we've already screwed up the planet too far for us to be able to fix it? you have priority issues.
and since you're so great, did you manage to stop the Three Gorges Dam? save any of the dolphins?
no?
hmmm.
our own government (at least mine, no idea how it is in your dream land of New Neotropolis) ignores the will of the people in favor of the will of the money, why would you even begin to think a foreign government would care more for another countries citizens than the profits of its own?

You may be right, but it doesn't mean you shouldn't try. Are you really going to simply comply with what the government wants?! My government practices democracy. If they aren't even going to listen to what us citizens have to say about their actions; just so they can do what they feel is best to keep their quota, then they might as well call it a dictatorship.

 

[LordRaiden]

more disappointing than the fact that we've already screwed up the planet too far for us to be able to fix it? you have priority issues.
and since you're so great, did you manage to stop the Three Gorges Dam? save any of the dolphins?
no?
hmmm.
our own government (at least mine, no idea how it is in your dream land of New Neotropolis) ignores the will of the people in favor of the will of the money, why would you even begin to think a foreign government would care more for another countries citizens than the profits of its own?

How depressing.

No, actually, we haven't screwed up the world. That's the way that people who build these dams want you to think, so that they have no opposition.

And really, you should be ashamed of yourself. If you really like fish enough to join a forum about them, I'd expect you to care enough to at least sign the petition. It may not be much, but I've given you the opportunity to do something. So far, it sounds like you've done nothing but grouse and complain, so you have no room to berate me.

And New Neotropolis is a play on words. Neo is Latin for "new", so "New Neotropolis" is a redundant name I made up because I liked it. I actually live in Oregon.

 

[Gill Blue]

How depressing.

No, actually, we haven't screwed up the world. That's the way that people who build these dams want you to think, so that they have no opposition.

And really, you should be ashamed of yourself. If you really like fish enough to join a forum about them, I'd expect you to care enough to at least sign the petition. It may not be much, but I've given you the opportunity to do something. So far, it sounds like you've done nothing but grouse and complain, so you have no room to berate me.

And New Neotropolis is a play on words. Neo is Latin for "new", so "New Neotropolis" is a redundant name I made up because I liked it. I actually live in Oregon.

it is depressing.
it's depressing you told me how disappointing I was AFTER I signed the pointless petition.
it is depressing that you believe the crap spewed by people who want you to believe that the environment is still salvageable so they can get away with political BS, saying jobs are more important than air and water quality.
it is depressing you feel I should be ashamed of myself for not being willing to do something when I gave up the woman I loved because I would only adopt, not procreate, based on my belief that there are already too many people on this planet.
it is depressing, that based on three sentences, you say all I've done is complain when I've always voted, but never won-because environmental parties don't win. that I only plant native species for wildlife, that I've been driving the most fuel efficient car I could afford for the last 20 some years. That I mostly bicycled to work for 10 years until I was transferred too far away to continue.
it is depressing that with 7 billion people on this planet governments offer incentive to have more children
until the population growth gets controlled, nothing will be enough. we have a growth based economy, there's only one place for us to grow... figure it out.

 

[CAaddict]

okii ... lets just think about it now.. as the guy who made this thread said.. its gunna effect lovly fish, birds, mammals and who ever else lives there. yeah at the end of the day the petition may not even be looked at who it was made for , but the fact that signing it means you care about sumthink other than your self and yours. also if they do look at it and think DAMN theres other stuff we can do about the matter with killing helpless animals amd ppl.