US and Brazil agree to Amazon development

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: BBC

The US and Brazil have agreed to promote private-sector development in the Amazon, during a meeting in Washington on Friday.

They also pledged a $100m (£80m) biodiversity conservation fund for the Amazon led by the private sector.

Brazil's foreign minister said opening the rainforest to economic development was the only way to protect it.
...
Environmentalists will say this scheme is a ruse to open up the Amazon for mining, logging and farming.

Read more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-49694516

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Yeah, I mean, what's suspicious about a fascist government inviting a kleptocratic one to promote private-sector "development" of the world's largest rain forest? What could possibly go wrong for the forest?

[Beartracks]

1. "They took all the trees and put 'em in a tree museum..."

There! Saved! Now let's pave paradise and get on with making money... I mean developing... I mean conserving, yeah, conserving the rain forest!!1!

<-- if needed

=======

[BigmanPigman]

2. How stupid do they think people are

to not see the obvious corruption?

[OldBaldy1701E]

3. It's not really that at all...

It is how brazen they are. They know we all see it, but they also know there is no one willing to do anything about it. So, they keep on doing whatever they want. This will continue until the American public either realizes that drastic actions are in the wind, or the experiment crumbles, as plenty of societies in history have done. It will all come down to us. Not governments, not higher powers, just us. We will have to fix it. And, based on what I am seeing, we don't want to...

[erlewyne]

6. Brazil is burning down the rain forests to create soy bean.

All Trump needs to do is raise the tariffs on China.
Of course Donald will not profit from this.

[MBS]

8. YES, it's the brazenness.

Beyond horrific.

[Evolve Dammit]

14. Nailed it. Thanks Old Baldy

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Biodiversity: 100 million hectare industrial park and a cactus

Tap me some aloe vera, will you?

[Efilroft Sul]

5. "To save the rainforest, we have to destroy it."

Brazil's foreign minister might as well have spoken those words.

[Cryptoad]

7. The Age of MAGA,,,,,,

[paleotn]

9. The myth

that the private sector will eventually do the right thing and doesn’t need government interference to ensure it does. That’s the greatest lie of conservatism since Reagan. Scandal after scandal, the housing collapse, the S&L meltdown, Enron, deep water horizon disaster, the opioid scandal and on and on. And yet many in this country still believe the unfettered capitalism bullshit.

[NickB79]

10. Why is Trump supporting BRAZILIAN farmers, but pissing on AMERICAN farmers?

The more beef and soy they make, the less market share US farmers have.

WTF?

[Lock him up.]

18. So big corporations can buy the bankrupt farmers' land for...

pennies on the dollar.

It's a big club, and farmers are not in it.

[NickB79]

19. I'll have to run this by my 5 uncles

All Trump-voting, dairy/corn/soy farmers who absolutely loved him during the last election.

They've been oddly quiet the past 6 months.

[Lock him up.]

20. Tell them they've been conned by the biggest conman in History.

Tell them if they want the next Prez, House & Senate to try to save them from losing their farms, they must vote Democratic all the way down ballot, and pray it won't be too late 18 months from now.

[Bayard]

11. So now tRump can claim he's the, "environmental" president

"conservation fund for the Amazon led by the private sector". How much will he make off this deal?

[karynnj]

12. At the beginning of this month, my husband and I saw the NY Botanical Garden exhibit

that included a part that explained the importance of the Amazon and how they are still finding new plants there never categorized before. The main exhibit was on the work of Roberto Burle Marx, but a side exhibit covered the work done by botanists associated with the NYBT in Brazil.

The importance of that rain forest goes beyond its critical role in fighting climate change. Many not yet known species might have significant purposes. It was astonishing to see statistics on the number of plants that exist nowhere else than one of the regions in Brazil highlighted by the conservation exhibit.

The main exhibit was stunning, but the side exhibit more thought provoking.

NYT write up - https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/20/arts/design/roberto-burle-marx-botanical-garden.html

[bronxiteforever]

13. IT45 hates the natural world with a pathological vigor.

He is a stupid Saruman.

[Takket]

15. We have no money for toothpaste for kids but can do this?

Give me a Damn break.

[rockfordfile]

16. Brazil has a dictator. I want to hear candidates talk about the criminal leader in Brazil

[Judi Lynn]

17. Trump is as guilty as Bolsonaro in the destruction of the "world's lungs." Pure evil. n/t

[Jedi Guy]

21. The Amazon is not "the lungs of the world." That's a myth.

The net flux of oxygen to the atmosphere from the Amazon rainforest is pretty much zero. That' s not to say that it's not worthwhile to protect the Amazon; it absolutely is. But the oft-repeated "lungs of the earth" thing is not factual. One expert on the Amazon even went so far as to say that it's "bullshit."