Book contents
- Hydropower in Authoritarian Brazil
- Studies in Environment and History
- Hydropower in Authoritarian Brazil
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Notes on the Text
- Introduction
- 1 Setting the Scene
- 2 Building “the Big Dam”
- 3 Pharaonic Environmentalism
- 4 Negotiating with Floodwaters
- 5 Environmental Transformations
- 6 The Notorious Balbina Dam
- 7 Aftermath
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- Series page
5 - Environmental Transformations
Impacts on National Parks, Fish, and Malaria, 1970s–1990s
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 July 2024
- Hydropower in Authoritarian Brazil
- Studies in Environment and History
- Hydropower in Authoritarian Brazil
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Notes on the Text
- Introduction
- 1 Setting the Scene
- 2 Building “the Big Dam”
- 3 Pharaonic Environmentalism
- 4 Negotiating with Floodwaters
- 5 Environmental Transformations
- 6 The Notorious Balbina Dam
- 7 Aftermath
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- Series page
Summary
Chapter 5 builds on the argument that the Brazilian military government largely ignored the social and environmental costs of its big dams because it was under pressure to build them quickly and cheaply and because it believed that its pharaonic environmentalism would satisfy its critics. It covers the twenty-year period from the late 1970s to the late 1990s, when reservoir floodwaters submerged cherished land and waterscapes that had been protected as national parks, engendered profound transformations to local fisheries, and set in motion ecological changes that led to devastating mosquito-related torments among communities living along the margins of reservoirs. To be sure, not all changes spelled disaster. Fisheries boomed in the decades following the formation of reservoirs, and malaria outbreaks were mild by historic standards. But in many places, disregard for the environment led to a series of local disasters that drew attention to the high environmental costs of big dams.
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- Hydropower in Authoritarian BrazilAn Environmental History of Low-Carbon Energy, 1960s–90s, pp. 164 - 202Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024