Ecology Expert Pans Brazil for Building More Hydroelectrics

Washington Novaes, a Brazilian journalist who writes on environmental issues and has been a UN consultant on ecology impacts, says that the announcement by Brazil’s government that it intends to construct six new hydroelectric power plants should be the object of a broad discussion by all of society and the government.

Novaes said that Brazil’s energy problem is not a lack of energy, but the waste of energy. He pointed out that during the 2001 shortfall, people were made aware of the problem and electricity consumption dropped by 30%.

He went on to say that what happened then shows that a consistent program to reduce consumption could be very successful. "It costs a lot less to economize a kilowatt of energy than it does to generate a kilowatt of energy," said Novaes.

Meanwhile, a group known as "Victims of Dams" (Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens) (MAB) says it is "strongly opposed" to the construction of more dams.

"They have enormous impact on the environment and create social conflict by not respecting people’s rights," says Luiz Costa, the president of MAB.

ABr

Tags:

You May Also Like

Rio Hires New York’s Ex-Mayor to Make City Safer for Olympics

Former-mayor of New York, Rudolph Giuliani, said Thursday, December 3, in Brazil, that the ...

G8 Has No Reason to Exist, Brazil’s Lula Tells “Le Monde”

Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of France, and visiting Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da ...

Heavy Debtor Brazil Pardons Mozambique Debt

During the meeting yesterday between the presidents of Mozambique, Joaquim Alberto Chissano, and Brazil, ...

Brazil Is Not Afraid of Inflation and Plans to Further Cut Interest Rates

The Brazilian government set its inflation target for 2011 at 4.5%, seeing no evidence ...

The Old Way

The idea of a parliamentary inquiry of corruption in the government resulted from an ...

Most of Brazil’s 3,400 Refugees are from Angola and Live in Sí£o Paulo

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees reports that there are 3,400 refugees in Brazil ...

Brazil’s President-Elect Hints She’ll Do Whatever Is Needed to Strengthen Dollar

Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s president-elect, admitted her administration would take all the necessary measures possible ...

Unable to Maintain Roads Brazil Puts Another 2600 Kms for Bid

The Brazilian government plans to place the administration of another 2600 kilometers of federal ...

Brazil Ready to Eliminate Tariffs for Poorest Countries

One of the topics on the agenda of the 6th Ministerial Conference of the ...

World Crisis Putting a Brake on Brazil’s Cattle Industry

The plans in Brazil are to increase the number of cattle in feedlots by ...