The Brazilian government is planning to build what would be the world´s third largest dam on the Xingu River in the Brazilian Amazon. The Xingu River in northeast Brazil is a tributary of the Amazon River. The Belo Monte Dam, meant principally to fuel the expansion of aluminum foundries and other industrial plants in the Amazon, would require diverting nearly the entire flow of the Xingu, drying up the %u201CBig Bend%u201D of the Xingu and its tributary, the Bacajá, home to hundreds of indigenous people. Native people upstream would also be affected by the dam´s impacts on fish stocks, their principal food source.
In May, one thousand indigenous people, in addition to social movements and environmentalists gathered in the town of Altamira, on the Xingu River, to protest the plans for Belo Monte and other dams on the Xingu. In the %u201CXingu Forever Alive%u201D letter, they stated %u201CWe will not accept the construction of dams, large or small, on the Xingu and its tributaries%u201D. The Amazon basin with its intact rainforests and rivers is a critical ecosystem that must remain intact for the Planet to remain inhabitable. Please tell Brazil´s President Lula and other decision makers in the Brazilian government that you support the position of indigenous peoples of the rainforest - that Brazil has better ways of providing its future energy needs than destroying the mighty Xingu River.
Let the Brazil%u2019s President know the wild and free Xingu River is critical to maintaining intact the Amazon, its peoples and the Earth we share.
