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Brazil: 'Gringos' Must Pay to Keep Rainforests

Industrialized nations have done most damage to Amazon

By the Associated Press

Posted Nov 26, 2009 8:00 PM CST

(AP) – Brazil's president says "gringos" should pay Amazon nations to prevent deforestation, insisting rich Western nations have caused much more past environmental destruction than the loggers and farmers who cut and burn trees in the world's largest tropical rain forest.

"I don't want any gringo asking us to let an Amazon resident die of hunger under a tree," Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said ahead of an Amazon summit. "We want to preserve, but they will have to pay the price for this preservation because we never destroyed our forest like they mowed theirs down a century ago." In Brazil, the word "gringo" does not only mean American, but generally refers to anyone from the northern hemisphere.

Some of the greenery gringos should pay to save.
Some of the greenery "gringos" should pay to save.   (Wikimedia Commons)
A scene from the Amazon rainforest.
A scene from the Amazon rainforest.   (Wikimedia Commons)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 29 comments
poopfart
Feb 9, 2010 5:40 AM CST
Have any of you guys been to the rain forest?
Face-Of-RNC
Dec 1, 2009 9:15 AM CST
And fck all racists!
Face-Of-RNC
Dec 1, 2009 9:13 AM CST
No, it's the capitalism you think is so wonderful.

Copyright 2012 Newser, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. AP contributed to this report.

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