Word: smeraldi
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...rise. And once again the government has announced a package of measures aimed at halting it. If you think you've heard this story before, you're not wrong. It's depressingly familiar. "This is only a surprise if you believe in Father Christmas," said Roberto Smeraldi, director of Friends of the Earth's Brazil office...
...Smeraldi put the rise down to a controversial government decision to license two hydro-electric dams on the Madeira river, the longest tributary of the Amazon. The dams could provide as much as 8% of Brazil's energy needs but they have been compared to China's Three Gorges project because of the potential ecological damage. Lula dismissed claims by his own environmental agency that the dams could cause serious harm to the environment and ordered a shakeup that resulted in the ousting of officials who opposed the project. The tender process went ahead last year, prompting a land grab...
Whatever the cause, Smeraldi and his colleagues in the environmental lobby are gearing up for more bad news when the annual figures are released later this year. Most of them swear they are optimistic by nature. But they know how this story goes. They've seen it before. And it rarely has a happy ending...
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