“A new four-lane highway cutting through tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest is being built for the COP30 climate summit,” reports the BBC, “in the Brazilian city of Belém.”

The highway will ease traffic into the city, which will host over 50,000 people at the conference this November: The state government touts the highway’s “sustainable” credentials, but some locals and conservationists are outraged at the environmental impact… Along the partially built road, lush rainforest towers on either side — a reminder of what was once there. Logs are piled high in the cleared land which stretches more than 13km (8 miles) through the rainforest into Belém.

Diggers and machines carve through the forest floor, paving over wetland to surface the road which will cut through a protected area… The road leaves two disconnected areas of protected forest. Scientists are concerned it will fragment the ecosystem and disrupt the movement of wildlife…

The state government of Pará had touted the idea of this highway, known as Avenida Liberdade, as early as 2012, but it had repeatedly been shelved because of environmental concerns. Now a host of infrastructure projects have been resurrected or approved to prepare the city for the COP summit.

But on the bright side, Adler Silveira, the state government’s infrastructure secretary, said the highway would have wildlife crossings for animals to pass over, as well as climate-friendly bike lanes and solar-powered lighting…

  • Lemmist@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    I see no unfixable problem here. You need a road? Ok, build it. Just plant some trees instead of those cut down. What IS the problem exactly?

    • Naich@lemmings.world
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      1 day ago

      The type of tree for one. Replacing ancient forest will not keep the diversity. The effectiveness for two; round here they planted hundreds of thousands of trees to offset a new bypass, but it was the wrong time of year and they pretty much all died. Thirdly, why do it in the first place, when there must be hundreds of existing suitable venues? Fourthly, optics - it looks terrible and undermines any message they might come up with.

      • Lemmist@lemm.ee
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        1 day ago

        These are just excuses:

        1. Plant DIVERSE plants
        2. Plant them AT THE CORRECT TIME OF THE YEAR
        3. roads are useful.
        4. This isn’t even a counterargument.
        • Naich@lemmings.world
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          24 hours ago
          1. They don’t.
          2. They don’t. I’ve seen thousands of dead tree saplings with my own eyes in two different places.
          3. ? What?
          4. Yes it is.