ITAIPU

Recognized by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the "Seven Wonders of the Modern World", the Itaipu Dam is one of the largest hydroelectric power plants in the world. Located at the upper region of the Parana River where the borders of Brazil and Paraguay meet, the dam is a joint venture of both governments.

Having more power than 10 nuclear power stations it supplies the second largest city on the planet with zero-emission electricity since 1984. In 2008, the Itaipu Dam broke it's generating record by producing 94.68 billion kilowatts of power. An amount that supplied Brazil with almost 20 percent of the country's energy and around 90 percent of the energy used in Paraguay.

The water intake of one single 75 TWh of electricity and avoids 67.5 million tons of carbon-dioxide emissions - compared to coal power plants.

The final cost of the ITAIPU amounts to US $20 billion, 50% of this value are direct investments and balance financial charges.

Since 1991, over nine million visitors have traveled from 162 countries around the world to visit the Itaipu Dam.

Brazil may break US patents on films, music, drugs

Brazil says it may let local companies break U.S. patents on products including movies, music, pharmaceutical products and chemicals.
The World Trade Organization says Brazil can take punitive action because the United States has failed to get rid of illegal subsidies provided to American cotton farmers.
The list of products targeted for patent breaks was released Monday in the Brazil's official gazette.

Brazil last week announced $591 million in possible sanctions against other U.S. products through higher tariffs. The WTO authorized Brazil a total of $829 million in sanctions.
Brazilian and U.S. officials say they will try to negotiate a deal so the sanctions are not imposed.

Deforestation problem in Brazil

In many tropical countries, the majority of deforestation results from the actions of poor subsistence cultivators. However, in Brazil only about one-third of recent deforestation can be linked to "shifted" cultivators. Historically a large portion of deforestation in Brazil can be attributed to land clearing for pastureland by commercial and speculative interest, misguided government policies, inappropriate World Bank projects, and commercial exploitation of forest resources.



The Brazilian deforestation is strongly correlated to the economic health of the country: the decline in deforestation from 1988-1991 nicely matched the economic slowdown during the same period, while the rocketing rate of deforestation from 1993-1998 paralleled Brazil's period of rapid economic growth. During lean times, ranchers and developers do not have the cash to rapidly expand their pastureland and operations, while the government lacks funds to sponsor highways and colonization programs and grant tax breaks and subsidies to forest exploiters.



Sometimes, especially during periods of high inflation, land is simply cleared for investment purposes. When pastureland prices exceed forest land prices, forest clearing is a good hedge against inflation.


Such favorable taxation policies, combined with government subsidized agriculture and colonization programs, encourage the destruction of the Amazon. The practice of low taxes on income derived from agriculture and tax rates that favor pasture over forest overvalues agriculture and pastureland and makes it profitable to convert natural forest for these purposes when it normally would not be so.