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Judi Lynn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-05 11:16 AM
Original message
Wetlands defender kills self in protest
Wetlands defender kills self in protest

Monday, November 14, 2005; Posted: 10:07 a.m. EST (15:07 GMT)

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -- A crusading defender of Brazil's Pantanal wetlands set himself on fire and died of burns to protest a proposed sugar-cane alcohol plant in the environmentally fragile region, hospital officials said Monday.

Francisco Anselmo de Barros, 65, wrapped himself in an alcohol-soaked blanket and set it on fire during a protest Saturday in Campo Grande, 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) northwest of Rio de Janeiro, according to officials at the Santa Casa hospital.

Fellow protesters smothered the fire with blankets and sprayed it with a fire extinguisher. Barros was taken to Santa Casa with burns over 90 percent of his body. He died Sunday, the hospital said.

The Mato Grosso do Sul state assembly is debating a project to build alcohol plants on the upper Paraguay River, which runs through the Pantanal, the world's largest wetlands.

Ecologists say the environmental balance of the Pantanal and the western Amazon are threatened by the expansion of cane plantations that produce sugar and alcohol -- widely used for automobile fuel in Brazil.
(snip/...)

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/11/14/brazil.environment.ap/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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glitch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-05 11:25 AM
Response to Original message
1. It is not necessary to convert wetlands to agriculture, just cheaper.
Once again greed skews the equation. This makes me sick.
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mike_c Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-05 11:27 AM
Response to Reply #1
3. this is the way it will always be....
Garrett Hardin was right all along, I'm afraid.
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xchrom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-05 11:26 AM
Response to Original message
2. sad
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NNadir Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-05 11:33 AM
Response to Original message
4. So much for the notion that biofuels are without environmental cost.
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Mizmoon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-05 11:36 AM
Response to Original message
5. The protester was very foolish to do that
I never understood this protest method. I'll leave it at that out of respect for the dead.
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Mend Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-05 12:41 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. We all die eventually. Perhaps he wanted his death to have a
larger meaning than the usual myocardial infarction or prostate cancer. I don't think he was foolish, just braver than most. Hopefully he will be put on the "greeting commitee" at the pearly gates when the exxon people try to come through.
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blindpig Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-05 05:56 PM
Response to Reply #7
14. I agree.
Were the Buddists monks who immolated themselves so long ago foolish?
We can never know this man's mind, we can only honor his sacrifice by doing what we can to see that it was not in vain. I believe that is what he might have wanted.
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Judi Lynn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-05 06:06 PM
Response to Reply #7
16. If nothing else, it might momentarily raise some materialists from their
stupors, as they wonder if there might be something in life more important than their life-long pursuit of greater wealth.
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Megahurtz Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-05 12:49 PM
Response to Reply #5
8. I agree. n/t
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Rich Hunt Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-05 04:10 PM
Response to Reply #5
9. well...
Edited on Mon Nov-14-05 04:12 PM by Rich Hunt
We're not in his shoes.

I must say I can identify a bit with someone who feels there is no way out. When you beat your head against the wall about something, and there is no sign of acknowledgement or change or concern...some people feel there is no choice.

It's sad, yes. But perhaps if more powerful, moneyed people had taken it seriously, they wouldn't have to deal with such a spectacle. Instead, they behave like cops and abusive parents and tell entire nations and peoples that 'it's all in their heads'. That leaves some people with feeling they have no choice but to go to any length to demonstrate the strength of their convictions. The very rich are engaging in psychological warfare against the rest of us - who can blame anyone for taking an extreme stance in protest?
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pitohui Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-05 06:35 PM
Response to Reply #5
19. he was 65 yrs old
he was going to die sometime

i don't support this method of protest in general but there are worse ways to go out, it's quicker than chemotherapy or years in a nursing home for alzheimer's
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The Stranger Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-05 07:01 PM
Response to Reply #5
21. Try to focus on the cause that this person to which this person was
devoted. You seem to be horribly missing the point.
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XemaSab Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Nov-15-05 01:50 AM
Response to Reply #5
27. Hey,
thousands of DU'ers and others are now aware of the issue.

I sure wasn't before this.
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lakeguy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-05 11:46 AM
Response to Original message
6. wetlands now have one less defender, so sad:(
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PittPoliSci Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-05 05:12 PM
Response to Original message
10. way to go.
you accomplished nothing. violence, even if it's inflicted towards oneself will not accomplish anything in this sort of a battle.
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Judi Lynn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-05 05:19 PM
Response to Original message
11. It wasn't that long ago a Brazillian rancher hired 3 men to murder
Ohio born and raised,, naturalized Brazillian citizen, Sister Dorothy Stang, who spend many years working to save the rainforests, who had been begging and begging the government for help, after receiving death threats.





Vitalmiro Moura, Carlos Batista

rancher, murderer
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wordpix Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-05 05:31 PM
Response to Reply #11
12. may they rot in prison in a 4x6 cellhole
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0007 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-05 07:04 PM
Response to Reply #11
23. Great job & wonderful photos, Judi Lynn. n/t
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ZigSteenine Donating Member (45 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-05 05:51 PM
Response to Original message
13. What a dumbass. n/t
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GoddessOfGuinness Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-05 06:03 PM
Response to Original message
15. Corporate ecothugs are cheering the world over
Because there's one less person alive to fight for what's right.

If he was willing to die for the environment, he could have at least done it in front of a bulldozer that threatened destruction.
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manic expression Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-05 06:34 PM
Response to Reply #15
18. What more could he have done?
He would've been shot in front of a bulldozer, and no one would ever have known. This is perhaps the most powerful action he could have done, short of taking up armed resistance.
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GoddessOfGuinness Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Nov-15-05 12:35 AM
Response to Reply #18
25. It'd be better for him to have been martyred by those
who have no respect for the Earth than for him to kill himself. This sort of activism isn't unlike that of suicide bombers (except that fewer people were affected by this act of violence). It's the kind of act that frightens fence-sitter lawmakers away.

We have one less eco-conscious friend in our ranks. I appreciate his passion for the wetlands; but I wish he'd used that passion to create something rather than destroy himself.
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LeftCoast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-05 06:21 PM
Response to Original message
17. That is really tragic! Wetlands are vital to our ecosystem!
I raise carnivorous plants as a hobby. These plants live in some wetland areas and because they are sensitive to polutants, they act as a canary in coal mine, so to speak. It's sad to see this person take his own life, but I can understand how pasionate he must've felt. :(
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callady Donating Member (554 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-05 06:47 PM
Response to Original message
20. So deeply tragic
No doubt felt despair,rage and pain witnessing Our Natural Beauty being decimated. Damn.
R.I.P.
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superconnected Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-05 07:04 PM
Response to Original message
22. He died for a good cause but I think he would have been better
Edited on Mon Nov-14-05 07:04 PM by superconnected
off alive.

since I don't walk in his shoes, I can't understand it.
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Straight Shooter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-05 08:25 PM
Response to Original message
24. I am very sad that Francisco reached this level of frustration and despair
May he rest in peace. His work on Earth is done.
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Judi Lynn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Nov-15-05 12:50 AM
Response to Original message
26. I used the tortured computer translation.Here are some of his creds:
Edited on Tue Nov-15-05 12:52 AM by Judi Lynn
President of the Foundation for Conservation of the Nature of Mato Grosso of the South - Fuconams. Third older ambientalista entity of Brazil.

Articulador of the creation and council member of the A.M.E. Association Mato-Grossense de Ecologia. First ambientalista entity of the State of Mato Grosso.

Charter member of the CONAMA - National Council member of Environment and the CECA - State Advice of ambient Control.

Council member of the CMMA - City council of Ambient Control.

Consultant in the installation of the WWF Brazil.

Member of the Direction of the Net Kills Atlantic.

Member of the Net Ambientalista Greenpeace, in the campaign of the Transgênicos.

Filiado to the Brazilian Fórum of ONGs, the Brazilian Association of ONGs and participant of the Net Rivers Livings creature, Pantanal Net, Net Watery wine of Ambient Education, Closed Net, Socioambiental Institute, W.W.F., Conservation Atlantic International and SOS Mata.

Coordinator of the Fórum of Environment and Development of Mato Grosso of the South and Fórum de Defesa of the Pantanal.
(snip/)

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=pt&u=http://www.ihgms.com.br/membro.asp%3FIDMCad%3D20&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522Francisco%2BAnselmo%2Bde%2BBarros%2522%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG

IF SOMEONE READS PORTUGUESE, WOULD YOU CARE TO TELL US ANYTHING WE MISSED in the translation? Thank you.



FRANCISCO ANSELMO DE BARROS



Jornalista e Ambientalista.

Membro da Abrajet – Associação Brasileira dos Jornalistas de Turismo e membro da ADESG – Associação dos Diplomados da Escola Superior de Guerra.

Diretor Executivo da Editora SABER Ltda. – Diretor Executivo da Associação de Fomento e apoio às Artes e a Cultura em Geral.

Presidente da Fundação para Conservação da Natureza de Mato Grosso do Sul – Fuconams. Terceira entidade ambientalista mais antiga do Brasil.

Articulador da criação e conselheiro da A.M.E. Associação Mato-Grossense de Ecologia. Primeira entidade ambientalista do Estado de Mato Grosso.

Membro fundador do CONAMA – Conselheiro Nacional de Meio ambiente e do CECA – Conselho Estadual de Controle ambiental.

Conselheiro do CMMA – Conselho Municipal de Controle Ambiental.

Consultor na instalação da WWF Brasil.

Membro da Diretoria da Rede Mata Atlântica.

Membro da Rede Ambientalista Greenpeace, na campanha dos Transgênicos.

Filiado ao Fórum Brasileiro de ONGs, a Associação Brasileira de ONGs e participante da Rede Rios Vivos, Rede Pantanal, Rede Aguapé de Educação Ambiental, Rede Cerrado, Instituto Socioambiental, W.W.F., Conservation International e SOS Mata Atlântica.

Coordenador do Fórum de Meio Ambiente e Desenvolvimento de Mato Grosso do Sul e de Fórum de Defesa do Pantanal.
(snip/)http://www.ihgms.com.br/membro.asp?IDMCad=20

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


It would appear he had more than adequate credentials.
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MarsThe Cat Donating Member (978 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Nov-15-05 02:28 AM
Response to Original message
28. well, that'll show'em...!
:eyes:
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