{"id":29958,"date":"2016-06-26T11:44:25","date_gmt":"2016-06-26T14:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=29958"},"modified":"2016-07-04T04:06:28","modified_gmt":"2016-07-04T07:06:28","slug":"environmentalists-discuss-guanabara-bay-pollution-at-book-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=29958","title":{"rendered":"Environmentalists Discuss Guanabara Bay Pollution at Book Launch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

On Thursday, June 23, environmental journalist Emanuel Alencar released his book Ba\u00eda de Guanabara\u2013Descaso e Resist\u00eancia<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(Guanabara Bay\u2013Neglect and Resistance) at a public launch event<\/a>\u00a0at the Brazilian Institute of Architects in Flamengo in the South Zone<\/a> of Rio de Janeiro. Alencar was joined by environmentalist S\u00e9rgio Ricardo, and together they held a public discussion about the pollution<\/a> of Guanabara Bay<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Book<\/a>Alencar synthesized 30 publications, scientific papers, and official reports, and included interviews with researchers, fishermen, civil servants, and other environmental activists for his book. The discussion at the launch event was moderated by O Globo<\/em> journalist Fl\u00e1via Oliveira and hosted by the Heinrich\u00a0B\u00f6ll Foundation<\/a> in Brazil’s president Dawid Bartlet, whose organization co-published Alencar\u2019s book with M\u00f3rula Editorial. Bartlet\u2019s introduction provided the professional background of each panelist\u00a0and explained the importance of responding to the pollution in Guanabara Bay.<\/p>\n

The state of the bay has been an official part of political agendas in the city since Rio\u2019s 1992 Earth Summit and around R$2.5 billion have already been invested in managing the pollution. Studies have shown that up to R$15 billion will be the minimum cost for completely preventing the flow of sewage from all neighboring municipalities. In the past, public statements made by politicians about cleaning the bay have been revealed to be empty promises over time, because frequently there have been guarantees that the bay will be clean without any use of existing scientific studies to support claims about the cost or length of time necessary.<\/p>\n

\"Panel<\/a><\/p>\n

The failure of the city government and the need for transparency were major components of Alencar\u2019s argument. And yet even if productive\u00a0laws get approved, another equally important part is improving public awareness about environmental issues. \u201cThere is still a long way to go,\u201d he says, \u201cto be able to apply the law in a comprehensive way. But furthermore, you still have the whole North Zone<\/a>\u00a0region, which is one of the poorest regions, and they struggle just to build the infrastructure for proper disposal. There is still a long way to go with regard to the participation<\/a> of the population.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another major concern is the Olympics<\/a> sailing events, and the possibility of floating waste obstructing the sailboats during a race. 15 of an expected 17 eco-barriers have been built around the bay, which have so far been able to eliminate 280 tons of waste from entering the bay per month. But the bay isn\u2019t threatened by just the raw sewage\u2014the majority of trash\u00a0in the street throughout the city\u00a0eventually gets washed into the bay as well<\/a>. Solving this issue, Alencar explained, is much easier when confronting the source of pollution, which means changing the actions of citizens. The revitalization of Guanabara Bay will require not only improvements to sewerage<\/a>\u00a0systems, but broader education<\/a> campaigns that can teach the importance of individual environmental responsibility.<\/p>\n

The other panelist, environmentalist S\u00e9rgio Ricardo, is a leader of the Ba\u00eda Viva<\/a>\u00a0(Living Bay) movement, which is dedicated to fighting against the degradation of Guanabara Bay. He claimed that\u00a090 tons of trash<\/a>\u00a0flows into the bay every single day and argued passionately against the current situation.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

One of Ricardo\u2019s biggest concerns was the impact the pollution is having on local fisherman. \u201cFundamental areas for the survival of fishing are completely decimated,\u201d he noted, describing the long hours and hard work fishermen put in every day. \u201cThere are so many tough fishermen out there. I want to acknowledge all the fishermen,\u201d he said, which prompted some of the loudest applause of the night.<\/p>\n

A slideshow in the background showed pictures of the devastating\u00a0environmental damage already done to Guanabara Bay. One of the most memorable images was a protester standing on a beach surrounded by garbage, wearing a shirt saying \u201cI don\u2019t want just a postcard.\u201d The panel concluded arguing that\u00a0slow but permanent progress will be better than temporary superficial changes designed to create a “postcard image” of Rio for Olympic tourists and visitors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas On Thursday, June 23, environmental journalist Emanuel Alencar released his book Ba\u00eda de Guanabara\u2013Descaso e Resist\u00eancia\u00a0(Guanabara Bay\u2013Neglect and Resistance) at a public launch event\u00a0at the Brazilian Institute of Architects in Flamengo […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":25345,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1736,1333,1329],"tags":[852,474,385,182,531,755,678,37,5,530,535,373],"writer":[2103],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-29958","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-1736","8":"category-event-reports","9":"category-by-international-observers","10":"tag-book","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-environmental-education","13":"tag-government-neglect","14":"tag-guanabara-bay","15":"tag-infrastructure","16":"tag-launch-event","17":"tag-north-zone","18":"tag-olympics","19":"tag-pollution","20":"tag-sanitation","21":"tag-sewerage","22":"writer-christopher-peel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29958"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=29958"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=29958"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=29958"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=29958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}