Damming the Amazon

Abstract

The Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River, at the heart of the Amazon tropical forest, is not the first in the area. But it is going to be the largest. The third largest hydroelectric plant on the planet. It will dry out miles and miles of a river that sustains more than a dozen surviving indigenous tribes. More than 20,000 people will be displaced from their ancient lands, many forcibly moved into the new slums of little towns servicing the new dam. The ecological damage of flooding a tropical forest as large as a small country is undisputed by natural scientists. And this is just the beginning of greater encroachment into the Amazon forest and its people. For the Belo Monte Dam to be operational all year around, it will need 4 or 5 smaller dams upstream. Indigenous people live there too. And the government has plans for 40 more dams all over the Amazon for the rest of this century. Indigenous and allies have put up a strong and organized resistance. But Belo Monte marches forward backed up by the new national economic pride. Energy over people. It is an old story happening again, in a massive ecological scale, in our times. Here I grapple with the competing narratives of justification and try to imagine a narrative that firmly puts people over energy.