"The Battle of Belo Monte"

"In the Brazilian state of Pará, an army of 25,000 workers is building the world’s third largest hydroelectric plant, a controversial construction project –because of the dam’s low efficiency, its environmental impact and its effects."

"The 6:00 a.m. explosion blasts a nine-meter-thick layer off a block of migmatite in a 750-square-meter area where century-old trees had thrived in this patch of Amazon rainforest near the cities of Altamira and Vitória do Xingu (state of Pará, Brazil). When the dust clears, all that’s left of this hard, granite-like rock is a huge mound of rubble. By midnight, not even a boulder will be among the remains."

Marcelo Leite, Dimmi Amora, Morris Kachani, Lalo de Almeida, and Rodrigo Machado report for Folha de Sao Paulo December 16, 2013, with English by Michael Kepp.