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Xlea321
Stranger
Registered: 02/25/01
Posts: 9,134
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Bush, the rainforest and his pals
#1762751 - 07/30/03 12:45 PM (20 years, 7 months ago) |
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Bush, the rainforest and a gas pipeline to enrich his friends
Plan would enrich Bush corporate campaign contributors By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles 30 July 2003
President George Bush is seeking funds for a controversial project to drive gas pipelines from pristine rainforests in the Peruvian Amazon to the coast.
The plan will enrich some of Mr Bush's closest corporate campaign contributors while risking the destruction of rainforest, threatening its indigenous peoples and endangering rare species on the coast.
Among the beneficiaries would be two Texas energy companies with close ties to the White House, Hunt Oil and Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), a subsidiary of Vice-President Dick Cheney's old company, Haliburton, which is rebuilding Iraq's oil infrastructure.
The pipeline slices through some of the most biologically diverse places on earth. Their remoteness has preserved an extraordinarily rich ecosystem in the coastal Paracas reserve, which is home to such rare species as Humboldt penguins, sea lions and green sea turtles.
The Camisea natural gas project - with reserves of 13,000 billion cubic feet of gas - has already scared off two big investors, Citigroup and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. According to an internal report by the US Export Import Bank, obtained by the lobby group Amazon Watch, proposals to mitigate the environmental impact of the project are "woefully inadequate" and will lead to mudslides, destroy habitats and spread diseases among indigenous peoples.
Friends of the Earth describes one threatened area as "one of the world's most pristine tropical rainforests", home to the Nahua, Kirineri, Nanti, Machiguenga and Yine indigenous groups. Past contact between indigenous peoples and loggers has proven disastrous - 42 per cent of the Nahua died from diseases contracted from outsiders in the 1980s.
Already, the project, which is 60 per cent complete, has run into difficulties, including the kidnapping of 60 pipeline workers last week. They were freed later by the Peruvian military.
Nevertheless, the Bush administration plans to approve financial support for the project, possibly as early as this week, via both the US Export Import Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The two institutions, which are due to make their own final decisions in the next couple of weeks, are expected to put up about $300m (?185m) in loans and guarantees, which would in turn pave the way for financing the rest of the $1.6bn project.
Ray Hunt, chairman of Hunt Oil, was a so-called "pioneer" who raised more than $100,000 for Mr Bush in 2000. He and his wife recently gave the maximum personal contribution to Mr Bush's re-election campaign.
Kellogg Brown & Root would not be involved in the pipeline but are well placed to build a $1bn natural gas plant on the Peruvian coast if it goes ahead. The ties linking KBR to Mr Cheney have prompted the same charges of favouritism that surrounded the choice of Haliburton to oversee Iraq's oil fields. The president of the Export Import Bank, Philip Merrill, is a close associate of Mr Cheney. And the chief US representative at the IDB, Jose Fourquet, is also a Bush "pioneer" who helped mobilise Hispanic support in 2000.
The Camisea project has raised eyebrows in Washington as well as among campaigners in the Amazon, not least because banks and governments usually consider environmental impacts very carefully before approving such ventures.
The US Agency for International Development is against the project and several senior congressional leaders have urged the US Treasury to delay a final decision until further reviews have taken place.
The Export Impact Bank's report conceded that key decisions were made for economic reasons, that massive erosion had already occurred on the pipeline route and that unique biodiversity faced "significant, long-term and largely irreversible" deterioration. Three lobby groups - Amazon Watch, Amazon Alliance and Environmental Defence - said last week that the project was causing food shortages and disease in the Urubamba valley.
The Bush administration is reticent about its plans but is keen to exploit new sources of energy to reduce dependence on Middle Eastern oil. Its ambition to open up the Alaskan reserve proved controversial, and has so far been blocked by the US Congress.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=428887
-------------------- Don't worry, B. Caapi
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wingnutx
Registered: 09/24/00
Posts: 2,287
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Re: Bush, the rainforest and his pals [Re: Xlea321]
#1762755 - 07/30/03 12:47 PM (20 years, 7 months ago) |
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Do you work for Getting Gay With Kids?
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Xlea321
Stranger
Registered: 02/25/01
Posts: 9,134
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Re: Bush, the rainforest and his pals [Re: wingnutx]
#1762759 - 07/30/03 12:48 PM (20 years, 7 months ago) |
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Do you work for Getting Gay With Kids?
What's this? You getting upset again?
-------------------- Don't worry, B. Caapi
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Anonymous
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Re: Bush, the rainforest and his pals [Re: wingnutx]
#1762760 - 07/30/03 12:48 PM (20 years, 7 months ago) |
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hahaha.
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luvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?
Registered: 11/29/01
Posts: 34,247
Loc: Lost In Space
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Re: Bush, the rainforest and his pals [Re: Xlea321]
#1762769 - 07/30/03 12:52 PM (20 years, 7 months ago) |
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It's a South Park reference.
Don't let those panties twist.
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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Xlea321
Stranger
Registered: 02/25/01
Posts: 9,134
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Re: Bush, the rainforest and his pals [Re: luvdemshrooms]
#1762776 - 07/30/03 12:53 PM (20 years, 7 months ago) |
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Not much chance of that luv Just trying to calm him down for his own good, he's already shot his bolt in the ratings. He's got no outlet for his emotions now
-------------------- Don't worry, B. Caapi
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Innvertigo
Vote Libertarian!!
Registered: 02/08/01
Posts: 16,296
Loc: Crackerville, Michigan U...
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Re: Bush, the rainforest and his pals [Re: Xlea321]
#1762833 - 07/30/03 01:13 PM (20 years, 7 months ago) |
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you Brits have a hard time with humor. He was making a joke NOT getting upset.
-------------------- America....FUCK YEAH!!! Words of Wisdom: Individual Rights BEFORE Collective Rights "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." -- Thomas Jefferson
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Azmodeus
Seeker
Registered: 11/27/02
Posts: 3,392
Loc: Lotus Land!! B.C.
Last seen: 19 years, 2 months
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Re: Bush, the rainforest and his pals [Re: Innvertigo]
#1763135 - 07/30/03 03:06 PM (20 years, 7 months ago) |
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The amazon is neat... I bet theres tons of psycoactive plants we've never researched....and just as many lethal...but hey!
-------------------- "Know your Body - Know your Mind - Know your Substance - Know your Source. Lest we forget. "
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Xlea321
Stranger
Registered: 02/25/01
Posts: 9,134
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Re: Bush, the rainforest and his pals [Re: Innvertigo]
#1764611 - 07/30/03 11:43 PM (20 years, 7 months ago) |
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Any chance of either of you making a post on-topic?
Just a thought.
-------------------- Don't worry, B. Caapi
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Zero7a1
Leaving YourWasteland
Registered: 10/23/02
Posts: 3,594
Loc: Passing Cloud
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Re: Bush, the rainforest and his pals [Re: Xlea321]
#1764852 - 07/31/03 01:30 AM (20 years, 7 months ago) |
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lets pump all the oil out of the earth.... who knows what that could do. then put it in the air... to kill us, the trees, and the atmosphere... not to mention everything else. No more trees to recycle the oxygen. That sounds great! well i just hope this shit doesnt go through. Mother earth better lay down her law. and fucking swallow bush and his assmasters....
-------------------- What?
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Baby_Hitler
Errorist
Registered: 03/06/02
Posts: 27,635
Loc: To the limit!
Last seen: 21 minutes, 41 seconds
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Re: Bush, the rainforest and his pals [Re: Zero7a1]
#1764857 - 07/31/03 01:32 AM (20 years, 7 months ago) |
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Smoking pot releases greenhouse gasses.
-------------------- "America: Fuck yeah!" -- Alexthegreat “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.” -- Thomas Jefferson The greatest sin of mankind is ignorance. The press takes [Trump] literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally. --Salena Zeto (9/23/16)
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Zero7a1
Leaving YourWasteland
Registered: 10/23/02
Posts: 3,594
Loc: Passing Cloud
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Re: Bush, the rainforest and his pals [Re: Baby_Hitler]
#1767342 - 07/31/03 08:05 PM (20 years, 7 months ago) |
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well so does farting... and i do that ALL the time . but i thought the key was moderation? not glutny. Or shit.... you know what i mean.
-------------------- What?
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