Ferroviária através da Amazon

China’s grand plans to build a railway through the Amazon has sparked controversy

• by: MATTHEW DUNN
• This beautiful landscape could soon be a thing of the past. Source: Supplied

CHINA has plans for a megastructure that will drastically affect one of the world’s most biodiverse environments.

On a visit to South America this week, Chinese premier Li Keqiang unveiled plans for a proposed railway track that would span South America from coast to coast.
The 5,300km train line would run from Brazil’s Atlantic coast to Peru’s Pacific coast and would be responsible for the destruction of dense forest, swamps and either desert or mountains in Peru.
China believes the track can be validated because it would greatly reduce the cost of transport for a number of Brazil’s exports such as of soy and iron ore, but conservationists think the ends don’t justify the means.
Christian Poirier, spokesman for advocacy group Amazon Watch, said the project would be the cause of long-lasting environmental and social damage
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