Scorched Earth Policy

Jon: It was one of those clueless pieces of TV journalism that make me cringe. As the videographer/producer/reporter on this trip, I thought we should do a stand-up on the reality of deforestation in the Amazon. Claes and our local translator/producer/fixer/photographer-all-around great guy Thiago Diniz took us to a stretch of land that was so recently deforested that it was still smoking. Some how I had come to believe - like most Americans, I suspect - that when you clear a stretch of the rain forest, one day you have hundred foot tall trees and clinging vines and the next day you have flat, grassland. Well, of course, that view is totally wrong. The land has to go through a brutal and chaotic transition when the majority of the greenery has been torn down, but there still exists massive tree trunks, burning brush, and a huge mound of branches, smoking wood, and torched landscape. So I set out to do a stand up saying something about how 'the big industrial companies tear down the forests to make more money and to exploit the environment - blah, blah, blah.' When we finished the short stand-up, a small crowd of squatters who were making this hellish landscape their home walked over to us to investigate. As Claes began to communicate with them, it became clear that these people had nothing to do with big corporations. In fact, this property had been cleared by a loose collective of families who were doing their best to scratch out a better life for themselves and their families. In our conversations with the mixed group of three families, they claimed that the construction of the massive Belo Monte dam forced them from their old homes.

Deforestation, Alta Mira Brazil - Thiago Diniz Photo

There was no way for us to verify this of course. It could be just as likely that they are opportunistic speculators trying to make some money off this land. In that scenario, the actual "owners" of the property demand that the squatters leave. In turn, the squatters stand their ground and say they won't leave until they are paid. In other words, it could be a big shake-down. Nonetheless, these people did not appear to be evil speculators. They looked like a blended family trying to make something for themselves under very meager circumstances. Which was why we re-shot the stand up, with Thiago on camera, and Claes doing his usual intense and flawless audio recording. In explaining this little tale, I can't emphasize enough the scorched, no-man's land feeling of the place. It was positively apocalytic. The 100 or so acres looke like a bomb had exploded, except that scattered throughout this burning field, there were shanty's, huts and lean-tos that were serving as the house and homes of the people living here. Another irony is that the edge of this burned out field was right up against a military post, with manicured lawns, gates, flowers and an immaculate landscape. It only added to the dark and terrifying landscape we walked into, just across the Xingu river from the Brazilian city of Alta Mira.