During the bi-lateral experience, we were able to learn a lot about the issue of the pipeline in Canada because of the well-organized presentation of White Rock Elementary School’s students. We got to learn that there is a governmental project of constructing Trans Mountain pipelines for oil and oil derivates transportation and also that this can have lots of impacts on nature and people’s lives. The concretization of the Kinder Morgan Pipeline in British Columbia will generate lots of jobs, but will also generate lots of negative impacts, like the increase of greenhouse effect gases and the invasion of indigenous lands.  

For similarities, both With Rock Elementary School’s and Colégio Magno’s case are related to large companies from the USA: Kinder Morgan is an American infrastructure company, while the second case is related to the Harvard’s Endowment Fund, which buys lots of Brazilian lands, specifically in the region of Cerrado, for plantation and is also from the USA. Apart from that, both cases directly affect the lives of indigenous people and communities that live in the region, who would have their health badly affected in both cases. In Brazil’s case, people will suffer the consequences of the aggressive use of pesticides on the monocultures as it contaminates the soil and the water supply, which also causes diseases and other health issues like vomiting and diarrhea, which causes dehydration and can lead to death. 

 Not only that, but both cases also affect the environment: while the Kinder Morgan Pipeline will be constructed in the lands of protected forests near British Columbia’s mountains, the Harvard Endowment Fund is a direct cause for huge deforestation in Cerrado, the region’s biome. Moreover, natural water sources are threatened in both cases: in the Pipeline, the oil may poison the water table; and in the other case, water sources are being poisoned by pesticides. 

For the last similarity, it is important to say that, in both cases, the main agents engaged in fighting against the Pipeline and the Harvard Endowment Fund are locals, people directly affected by the occasions, and those protesting to protect themselves and nature. 

For differences in the cases, we can list some. Firstly, while the quilombola communities are also affected negatively in Brazil, in British Columbia another factor that is negatively affected is the tourism of the region, which is based on their nature. Additionally, in the Kinder Morgan Pipeline case, people in the region may have some positive results in the economy due to the jobs generated by the pipeline construction. Unfortunately, in Harvard Endowment Fund’s case, locals are only negatively affected: they have their lands contained and controlled, they are contaminated by the pesticide, they have their water sources contaminated and some of them have their fishing production affected because the fishes die due to the water contamination. And, finally, the causes of the natural problems are divergent: in British Columbia, it is oil’s extraction and transportation; while in Cerrado it is deforestation for agricultural expansion. 

The challenges faced in British Columbia and Cerrado are pretty similar because in both cases, the government does not support the locals who are fighting against the problems - and actually, both Canadian and Brazilian governments are more focused on economic results than the natural and social problems. By construction of the Kinder Morgan Pipeline, jobs will be generated, and the transportation of oil will have positive effects on the economy. In Brazil, on the other hand, a huge part of the Brazilian economy is from agrobusiness, so it is very unlikely that the government will take any action against agriculture funds. Even so, there is a main difference between the cases: in British Columbia, the pipeline is still not constructed yet, so the challenges face especially future problems; while in Cerrado the Harvard Endowment Fund already has a lot of lands are agrobusiness that has been - for some years, actually - affecting the regional nature and communities. 

Right now, the main challenge in both cases is how to protests and fight those problems with the restrictions for COVID.

---

Post comment

You must write a comment to post it!