Brazil may end up attaining economic development at the cost of the environment. A team of scientists who analysed the implications of a proposed us $40 billion project called 'Advance Brazil' -- that includes building highways, railroads, pipelines, ranching, mining, oil exploration and hydroelectric projects in the Amazon rainforest -- say the Amazon will be seriously affected. The study was conducted by a team of scientists from the Panama-based Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, usa -based Michigan State University and Oregon State University and the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project in Brazil. The researchers used satellite data to assess the impact of past developmental activities and did forecasts of what will happen in the next 20 years. They predict that the project will devastate the rainforest, which will mean more forest fires, less wildlife and the release of greenhouse gases that lead to global warming.
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