Tens of thousands of trees in the Amazon rainforest have been wiped out to prepare for a global summit on saving the environment, the latest in seeming climate-change hypocrisy.
In northern Brazil, near the city of Belém, a strip of rainforest about eight miles long was cleared to build a four-lane highway in advance of the COP30 climate summit that began on Monday. The highway, dubbed Avenida Liberdade, is intended to handle the surge of delegates and dignitaries expected for the gathering, but has drawn sharp rebuke from climate activists and fueled perceptions of hypocrisy about climate change concerns.
“But It’s Sustainable,” Say Defenders
Defenders of the project say it includes “sustainable” features like solar-powered lighting, bike lanes, and wildlife crossings that will provide a climate-friendly example for future projects. However, critics are pointing out the blatant irony of cutting down a protected rainforest for a climate conference that is itself aimed, among other things, at halting deforestation.
“They ripped the hell out of the Rainforest of Brazil to build a four-lane highway for Environmentalists to travel. It’s become a big scandal!” U.S. President Donald Trump, who has long been a critic of climate change activism, posted to Truth Social on Sunday.
Unlike his predecessor, Trump’s administration is not sending an official delegation to the United Nations-backed conference. White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told the Daily Mail that the president would “not jeopardize our country’s economic and national security to pursue vague climate goals that are killing other countries.”
The clearing of the forest has raised the ire of both climate change activists and skeptics alike.
Eight Miles of Rainforest Chopped Away
“We’re looking at eight miles of a virgin tropical Amazon rainforest were clear cut there, so that they could put in this highway to allow the private jets and to allow all the SUVs and limousines of all the world leaders and celebrities that are pumping in here the next two weeks, they could have a freer time getting around the city,” Marc Morano, Director of Communications for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, told the Just the News, No Noise TV show.
CFACT promotes a “positive, alternative voice” on the environment and advocates for market forces and technological innovation to overcome environmental challenges. “So they had to cut, in other words, they had to cut the forest down so they could bring more people to show…you can’t make these kinds of absurdities up,” he added.
Even those on the other side of the climate debate spectrum slammed the move. A Canadian climate activist who advocates for a Green New Deal pointed out that “A new four-lane highway that cuts through tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest was cut for the COP30 climate summit in the Brazilian city of Belém,” Mike Hudema posted to X. “You can’t be a climate leader if you’re cutting down one of the world’s greatest climate solutions to do it.”
“Do as I Say, Not as I Do”
This is not the first time that climate leaders have drawn criticism for failing to live up to their own standards. For example, former Biden administration climate czar, failed presidential candidate, and former Secretary of State John Kerry, has frequently come under fire for his family’s heavy use of a fuel-guzzling private jet while he attended climate conferences aimed at reducing carbon emissions.
A Fox News investigation found that Kerry’s family jet had released more than 300 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere just a year into the Biden administration. President Biden had appointed Kerry as his administration’s climate czar shortly after he took office in January 2021.
At the same time, Kerry called the “climate crisis” an “urgent national security threat” and proposed shutting down power plants and implementing a carbon credit system to limit emissions.
Most famously, former Vice President Al Gore, who made millions on global warming hysteria, like Kerry and so many liberal media figures, doesn’t practice what he preaches. The National Center for Public Policy Research, a 501(c)3, nonpartisan, independent conservative think tank, reported that “Al Gore’s Nashville home consumed 20 times more electricity than the average American household” and that “Gore guzzles more electricity in one year than the average American family uses in 21 years.”
Locals Left Without Compensation for Losses
Local residents say the damage is immediate. One acai berry harvester, Claudio Verequete, told the BBC that trees he relied on for income “have already been cut down” and he has “no compensation.”
Conservationists also warn about the “fish-bone effect” of the road: once the main corridor is carved through the forest, new access routes follow, fragmenting the ecosystem and increasing deforestation risks, the BBC reported.
The Brazilian state government of Pará, where the conference is being held, has floated such a highway since at least 2012. However, prior attempts were shelved primarily due to environmental concerns.
The infrastructure project only overcame the backlog after Belém was chosen as the site of the climate conference. In addition to the new highway, the government is expanding airport capacity and building a new city park.
Steven Richards joined Just the News in August 2023 after previously working as a Research Analyst for the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) in Tallahassee, Florida.
Reprinted with Permission from Just The News – By Steven Richards
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
This is beyond twisted, it screams so loudly, one can only stare with jaw dropped speechless.
After they fly in on their private jets, a nice new road awaits them.Climate change is a natural occurance. Why is that so hard to understand ?
See the Green Scam & NO EV chargers planned in Brazil
This just screams unbeleivable hypocrisy and ludicrous stupidity.
Cut down the rainforest to make room for a 4 lane highway from the airport where their jet will land, to wherever they’re having a meeting, whose subject is: Preserving The Earth’s Environment And Climate!
Typical of what democraps, Al Gore and John Kerry have done while professing to stop an existential threat to the Earth’s climate!
Democrats, Not only in the United States of America now.
You cannot make this stuff up! The hypocrisy of the left is Non-Stop! Then they will fly in and their carbon spewing private jets to sit around and talk about how everybody house that has to give something up to solve a non-existent crisis. This isn’t science it’s a religion. It’s about bigger government higher taxes and more regulation and making very few people extremely wealthy. There’s a special ring in hell for the people that are involved in this conspiracy
follow the money and u will see there intent,SAD
Absolutely unbelievable! I don’t want to hear another word about their stupid climate change agenda. The climate U.S. always changing. What do they say about the ice age? Were there cars emitting fumes melting all the ice? Speaking of ICE, good job’
So, who gives a darn about the precious wildlife what will be up ended and/or killed. This nonsense has to STOP – NOW.
Anyone who believes this climate change garbage obviously doesn’t believe in the God of the Bible.
It is appointed unto man but once to die, and after that the judgement. They will eventually be in the “Real No Spin Zone”, kneeling before the Throne of God Amighty.
hypocrites, all of them. “do what I say, not what I do-ism”
Brazil knows when the trees are all gone, the USA will give the country MORE $$$$, re-plant all the trees, apologize like the dickens, and launch ‘studies’ to figure out WTF actually happened. Check back in about 50 years. IF our country survives socialism and our younger generations….
It is that way in all Governments, CITY, COUNTY, STATE AND FEDERAL. Do AS I SAY, BUT YOU CANNOT DO AS I DO. Something about getting into office says to them that they have arrived and can do as they Damn well PLEASE, and us low life out here paying the bulk of the taxes, have no say. THIS IS HOW DICTATOR’S ARE CULTIVATED. Please don’t misunderstand, I am a CAPITALIST, I believe in CAPITALISM, I JUST CARE NOTHING FOR GREEDY CAPITALIST PIG’S.
You just can’t make this crazy s**t up.
All the people going to Brazil for this climate crap should do the world a favor (remember Jonestown) step-up and drink the KOOL-AID!!
They destroyed eight miles of protected Rain Forest for nothing. Only two countries showed up to this debacle of a conference. Morons, all of hem are Morons.
Incredible how much supposedly educated people waste on this cultish nonsense.
Expect more of this tripe! Just today I read a report that Chinese and American scientists are now expecting a new Ice Age but it will pretty much be centered on Europe only! How can we “trust the science” in a day and age we can’t trust the scientist?