LAT: Tractors Crush Heart of a Nation (Brazil)

[DeepModem Mom]

Tractors Crush Heart of a Nation
Brazil's indigenous tribes are rapidly losing their once-plentiful hunting grounds and streams rich with fish to farmers and ranchers.

By Henry Chu, Times Staff Writer


....An agricultural explosion is underway in this mammoth country, transforming the world's ninth-largest economy into a farming, logging and ranching powerhouse able to compete with the U.S. and Europe in the production of everything from beef to orange juice.

But the rapid expansion is exacting an anthropological toll not unlike that of the American push west during the 19th century. Land is being cleared and cultivated at a galloping rate, especially for soy, Brazil's new blockbuster crop. As a result, native peoples have been squeezed onto tiny reservations where their customs and traditions are in danger of dying from obsolescence or environmental destruction....

***

In May, the plight of Brazil's Indians garnered worldwide attention when loggers encroached on a small, previously uncontacted tribe on the edge of the Amazon rain forest. The judge who had opened the area to loggers hastily reversed course following an outcry by Brazilian officials and international activists, who warned that the isolated community could face annihilation.

The tribe lives on the northern fringe of Mato Grosso state, which also happens to be the engine of Brazil's spectacular growth as an agribusiness giant over the last several years.

A vast and ecologically diverse area in the heart of the South American continent, Mato Grosso boasts rain forest to the north and the world's largest wetland, the Pantanal, in the south, home to hundreds of rare animal species. In between lies the fertile savanna coveted by farmers and ranchers....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-indigenous10jul10,0,6603402.story?coll=la-home-world

[Onlooker]

1. Let the old traditions die out

All the old traditions are coverups for xenophobia, racism, sexism, homophobia, ignorance, superstition, and other forms of abuse. If all the frickin' traditions would die out, we'd start to think more alike and world peace would prevail.

[sadiesworld]

2. And the new model appears to be a coverup

for greed and global corporate slavery.

[bribri16]

9. Just like the USA and American Indicans. n/t

[Zorra]

3. "When it rains, all the poison goes downstream to where we bathe."

And you know that neat stuff called oxygen that you breathe into your lungs that feels so good and keeps you alive?

All those trees and plants that they are killing produce it every day.

What good will all their money do them when they are dead, which may be very soon if they don't stop killing this planet.

[Gregorian]

4. It's not about human population, is it?

It appears to be useless to talk about the cause. Because it's too late. It's taboo. And to a few, it's not even the cause of the problem. So let the forests fall, and the animals disappear. Just don't talk about overpopulation. It's offensive. And wrong.

[mom cat]

5. Furthermore, it is true. One of the main phenomena that precedes the fall

of "civilizations" is a massive, unsustainable population boom. It is way past time to talk about it.I am sorry if this offends anyone, but no-one should have more than one offspring (except for multiple births). I know of one 22 year old crackhead who just fathered his fifth child!..all different mothers. That is wrong! I may be starting a flame war, but we have to get realistic. The planet cannot support the current population. We have two choices: get responsible about breeding or see massive population die offs accompanied by even more rapid irreversible planetary destruction.

[theHandpuppet]

6. No flames from this quarter...

But (human) population control is the one topic on DU that sends even many progressives into tizzy. I'm with you on this subject.

[mom cat]

7. I know all of the counter arguments, that population control is seen

as racism in some countries, etc, but the reality is that we have over-grazed our pasture and poisoned it until it is choking to death.If we do not immediately develop the will as individuals and collectively to become responsible citizens of planet earth, we will become the dinosaurs that we deserve to be...totally extinct. My only regret is for all of the other innocent species that we will take down with us!

[barb162]

13. I agree completely.

[mikita]

8. no flames here either...

but this is an issue was also raised in the early 70's, and I looked at it and decided not to have any children myself. So I'm weird anyway.

:hi:

[mom cat]

10. I stopped at one and my daughter told me when she was 13 that she

would never bring any children into such a terrible world. She has not changed her mind and I am selfishly glad. I don't have to worry about any grandkid of mine facing toe certain catatstrophe.I do worry for my daughter though. I do not see any resolution.
I too made my decision to only have one child back in the 70's. The pressure on me to have more was incredible, but i had recently gone to India and got to see overpopulation first hand. I knew that it was no faddish cause, but a glarinly real problem. We all should have listened then. I am afraid that it is too late now.

[Boomer]

11. If only more people were weird in that way

China has tried to limit population growth and it's taken draconian police state tactics to have any effect at all. Still falls short.

So despite your choice, or those of us who have no children at all, the problem seems intractable. One of my co-workers has SEVEN children, and I've given up counting the number of children and grand-children that my sister's offspring have brought onto the face of the planet.

[WhiteTara]

12. the earth and her people

just got a slight reprieve!