According to a report by the New York Post, “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 United Nations COP30 climate summit in Brazil.”
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| Image Credit: PABLO PORCIUNCULA / Contributor / Getty |
Ironically named “Avenida Liberdade,” or Avenue of Liberty, the massive road is set to pave the way for an estimated 50,000 attendees of the event to make their way to Belém, Brazil.
Several prominent world leaders will be at the 30th edition of the summit this November.
Local resident Claudio Verequet, who lives near the construction site told NYP, “Everything was destroyed. Our harvest has already been cut down. We no longer have that income to support our family.”
The citizens living nearby are now worried the highway may bring more construction projects to the area.
“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?” Verequet asked. “We were born and raised here in the community. Where are we going to go?”
The road will also be blocking wildlife from traveling to the other side of the highway, causing a disturbance in the region’s ecosystem.
“Land animals will no longer be able to cross to the other side too, reducing the areas where they can live and breed,” wildlife vet Silvia Sardinhatold the BBC.
The story highlights the fact that the world’s elite who fly around in C02-emitting private jets to attend climate events do not really care about saving the environment and are part of a scheme to make the average Westerner feel responsible for harming Mother Nature while major corporations and entire nations are free to pollute en masse.