By New York Post (World News) | Created at 2025-03-12 17:30:08 | Updated at 2025-03-12 21:49:42
4 hours ago
Somebody get Greta on the horn!
Tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest are being cleared and paved over to build a new four-lane highway for, of all things, the upcoming COP30 climate summit in Brazil.
The eight-mile stretch of new highway — dubbed Avenida Liberdade, or Avenue of Liberty — has gouged a deep gash through a large swath of Amazon rainforest just in time for world leaders to convene to discuss how much they care about the Amazon rainforest.
Photos published by the BBC show the bare corridors where heavy machinery ripped through the lush, unspoiled landscape now littered with log piles — the sounds of insect chirps and birdsongs replaced by a chorus of rumbling diesel engines and the whine of hydraulic excavators gutting the forest floor.
More than 50,000 people are expected for the 30th annual UN climate summit in Belém, in November, including a number of world leaders. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silv boasted that this year’s event will be “a COP in the Amazon, not a COP about the Amazon.”
The state government of Pará initially hatched the idea for the thoroughfare in 2012, but it was repeatedly put on hold after concerns were raised over its environmental impact.
The state government has repeatedly insisted the highway is “sustainable” — but that rings hollow to locals and conservationists who are condemning the project.
“Everything was destroyed,” said Claudio Verequete, who lives about a quarter-mile from the roadway in progress and used to make a living harvesting açaí berries from trees near his land which are no longer standing.
“Our harvest has already been cut down. We no longer have that income to support our family,” he told the outlet, noting he has not received any compensation from the government and is keeping his finances afloat by dipping into savings.
Even worse, Verequete said he’s afraid now that the once-unspoiled rainforest has been marred, future incursions further into the land could be imminent.
“Our fear is that one day someone will come here and say: ‘Here’s some money. We need this area to build a gas station, or to build a warehouse.’ And then we’ll have to leave.”
“We were born and raised here in the community. Where are we going to go?”
The highway will effectively bifurcate a large section of rainforest, raising concerns among scientists about the effects on wildlife in the area.
“From the moment of deforestation, there is a loss,” professor Silvia Sardinha, a wildlife vet and university animal hospital researcher told the outlet.
“We are going to lose an area to release these animals back into the wild, the natural environment of these species,” she said.
“Land animals will no longer be able to cross to the other side too, reducing the areas where they can live and breed.”
But Adler Silveria, Pará’s infrastructure secretary, told BBC the project was not only “sustainable,” but an “important mobility intervention” he claimed would include eco-friendly amenities like wildlife crossings, bike lanes and solar panels.
The 2025 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 30) will kick off in Belém Nov. 10-21.
