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bacasper · Joined: 26 Mar 2007

World Bank loan to Brazil `threatens Amazon`

Posted: 2008/10/14

As world demand for Brazilian beef increases, farmers need more land to rear cattle to supply industrial slaughterhouses in the region, so huge areas of forest are often cut down for cattle grazing.

by Gabriel Elizondo in Maraba, Brazil
(Aljazeera)

The expansion of Brazil's cattle industry is widely regarded as being one of the greatest single threats to the Amazon rainforest.

Now, environmentalists say deforestation in the fragile region, and consequently climate change, are set to worsen following the World Bank's sponsorship of a major loan to Brazil's second-largest beef processors.

The criticism comes after the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector lending arm of the World Bank Group, lent Bertin Ltda $90m last year to expand and modernise its beef processing and slaughterhouse operations.

The IFC's own pre-loan analysis called the loan "significant" because the effects could prove to be "irreversible and/or unprecedented".

As world demand for Brazilian beef increases, farmers need more land to rear cattle to supply industrial slaughterhouses in the region, so huge areas of forest are often cut down for cattle grazing.

"Each year Brazil is losing 1.8 million hectares of Amazon forest and the cattle industry is responsible for between 70 and 80 per cent of that I would say," said Mario Menezes, the adjunct director of the environmental group Sao Paulo-based Amigos da Terra and a co-author of an exhaustive study published earlier this year examining the cattle industry in the Amazon.

Brazil exports more beef than any other country in the world, but many international consumers are unaware that nearly 41 per cent of all of all cattle processed in Brazil comes from the Amazon region � one of the world's most important natural ecosystems.

more at link

ernie · Joined: 05 Aug 2006 Location: asdfghjk

thank god. i thought you were talking about Amazon.com, not THE Amazon. stupid bunch of trees.

Gopher · Joined: 04 Jun 2005

Where is Sting? This story is so 1990s.

bacasper · Joined: 26 Mar 2007

mises · Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Location: retired

Gopher · Joined: 04 Jun 2005

I thought I already made it clear: B. Obama will reforest the Amazon and Brazil's entire Atlantic coast, thank you very much. He will give Bolivians access to the sea, thus he will give them their pride back. B. Obama is going to make sharks man's new best friend. Say hello to the new Spot, Mises. And thank the Man for it while you are at it.

mises · Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Location: retired

Well, I am sure that an Obama administration won't torture people to death. And really, we can't ask for much more, anymore.

He isn't superman, but he will be an improvement. And he can hold a conversation like a fucking normal person.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/23589412/obamas_moment/print

Gopher · Joined: 04 Jun 2005

B. Obama's performance in the war on terror remains to be seen, Mises.

And in case you have missed my point entirely, and I think you have, I am not parodying B. Obama at all. He is not unacceptable to me as president and never has been. Who, then, do you think I am parodying? (It is very boring to have to explain everything.)

mises · Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Location: retired

Yeah, I get it.

There is quite a lot of hope around the man. I'm sure you understand why.

Gopher · Joined: 04 Jun 2005

mises · Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Location: retired

Well, that and he represents an America that is moving forward from a terrible history of exclusive white rule. An America that 40 years ago was sicking dogs on blacks. The last death by lynching was in '81. Obama represents an America that can become colour blind. That makes people feel good. It makes them excited.

And yes, the Republicans are the party with a base of white bigoted idiots. And all the videos and "kill him" chants will only make solid this assumption. If you thought that lefties were arrogant before.. Now they have video evidence.

Gopher · Joined: 04 Jun 2005

The White House does not rule America, Mises. Blacks -- and everyone else -- have been in govt since the late-1960s. Whites have not ruled America for as long as anyone here has been alive. Not according to the left, however. No doubt. America is a capitalist, fascist, racist, sexist state with, as you have apparently bought into, "a terrible history" (as opposed, I am sure, to "the rest of the world," which does not). Blah, blah, blah.

And human history changes, no doubt. The world unfolds. Only the most arrogant, forceful people presume to tell us that they have not only identified "progress" but that they stand on its cutting-edge. The Enlightenment and progress ended in the twentieth century, Mises. We are supposed to know better now.

You have also reduced Republicans to select partisans who attend political rallies and select moments of their behavior -- especially those who responded as hoped to those far-left activists who tracked them down and baited them. Congratulations.

mises · Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Location: retired

Always clarifications with you. Trying to make things more complicated than they are, radicalizing opposing positions, knowing that nobody really wants to read it all.

That said, A black president is exciting to many people. More exciting than a senator or dog catcher. You can whip our your thesaurus and bore me with another captain obvious rant but that is just the bottom line. It is, in my opinion, not a sufficient reason to vote for him, but it is a sufficient reason to feel excited. If my country had an Indian PM I'd be very excited. Race has clouded our society for a long time. It has made us hate us, and the sooner we get past it the better.

And yes. The republican base is a hyper-religious, all white mob living in a parallel universe. This has always been clear, but the extent of their lunacy was previously under the rug.

Anyhow, that's all I have to say on the subject.

Gopher · Joined: 04 Jun 2005

Raise your voice when you essentialize all you like. You are still essentializing. You are supposed to know better than that. I would say "just as E. Said," but then I realized that, especially as far as the Islamic Middle East goes, you have been in the habit of essentializing vast numbers of human beings for a long time. Why should conservative Americans fare any better with you?

In any case, let us get back to the hyperbole, please. Remember: the World Bank was poised to destroy the Amazon. But B. Obama was going to rise up, with "the people," and thwart them. Just like the Legion of Doom and the Superfriends. What will happen!?! Can hardly wait for this exciting episode's conclusion...

mises · Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Location: retired

Oh jesus. Obedient muslims can be essentialized because what they obey is so very simple to understand. Kill, convert or dhimnify the infidel. Check. Ok, no immigration for you. How terrible of me. Members of the German nazi party are prohibited from entering Canada, and obedient muslims should be too. Ideas matter.

I suppose you want to pull lefty identity politics on me but I really don't care. National Socialism was just an idea and so is islam. The only difference is that one posits an imaginary friend. Both have as a core hatred of Jews. Both cause nothing but death, hate and destruction. Being black, Arab, Asian or white has nothing to do with political, social, cultural or economic ideas. And that is the point. That is why Obama is such a victory for western society, even if he loses (which I'm literally betting he will).