How would one expect climate-change activists to treat a venue deep in the heart of the Amazon? Hint: It helps to recall that the same activists clear-cut a four-lane highway through “tens of thousands of acres of protected rainforest” to slightly reduce the transit time between the airport and the COP30 conference. No, really:
As the BBC reported in March, Brazil cut a gash in the rain forest for a highway that would “ease traffic” into Belém, the host city for COP30. The Lula da Silva government attempted to justify the destruction of the ecosystem by highligting the use of “solar lighting” and the presence of “cycle paths.” Organizers also declared that the summit would eventually result in “cleaner air,” even though (a) the construction project burned plenty of emissions, (b) the highway would support traffic emitting even more particulate pollution, while (c) destroying the trees that produce oxygen.
And as I pointed out at the time, Belém didn’t need the highway in the first place. Brazil built it for the comfort of the environmental activists who planned to show up last month to lecture the world about dispensing with their own comforts:
And here’s another question: why would Belém need a road through the Amazon at all? Belém isn’t some obscure town in Brazil; the capital of Pará has a population of 1.3 million people, and has highways already built that connect it to other parts of the country. It also has rail service as well as an international airport and a military air base. The civilian airport has been around for 50 years and serves over 3 million passengers a year, many of whom presumably can find their way back and forth from Belém already without clear-cutting a rainforest to find it.
Oh, but world leaders can’t be inconvenienced by [checks notes] using a workaround to save the rainforest. And Greta’s scowl might bring plagues!
The prologue is sadly necessary to explain the epilogue. The COP30 summit concluded a week ago. How did the climate activists improve the life and environment of Belém? Exactly how you’d expect 56,000 narcissists to perform:
Belém, one week after COP30. Private jets gone. Raw sewage still runs in the streets. The shiny new ‘Freedom Avenue’ is already a smugglers’ highway for illegal timber and cocaine. The 56,000 delegates partied on floating 5-star hotels, then vanished. The bill: $2 billion for a… pic.twitter.com/HanBW0RfBX
— Peter Clack (@PeterDClack) December 1, 2025
The bill: $2 billion for a ghost convention centre and a 13 km scar through the rainforest that’s already driven deforestation alerts up 15% (INPE).
They promised to triple adaptation finance ($120 bn/yr by 2035) and commit billions for the Tropical Forest Forever Facility: Great soundbites. But where’s the money for Vila da Barca families wading through shit? Where’s the soy moratorium 90 countries demanded? Where’s any binding end to deforestation?
Days before COP, Brazil approved oil drilling at the Amazon’s mouth. The hypocrisy is breathtaking.
Indigenous leaders storming the venue, kids burying fossil fuels in a mock funeral, banners screaming ‘Our forest is not for sale’ – it was beautiful. Yet the chainsaws are louder than ever and Belém remains forgotten.
Biggest COP30 failure for this city?
A) Empty promises
B) The highway scar
C) Elite green hypocrisy
Vote or scream, then tell me: what the hell do we DO with all this rage?
I have an idea for swag at COP31: I deforested the Amazon at COP30, and all I got was this lousy T-shirt (and a resort vacation on everyone else’s dime)!
The picture above has not been verified as specifically an outcome of COP30, but it does come from Belém, depicting the environmental problems it faces. It raises some interesting questions nonetheless: Did COP30 address the environmental issues of its host city? Did COP30 offer Belém any solutions, other than to add massively to the environmental destruction created in hosting the conference? What exactly did COP30 do about the waste generated by a conference of 56,000 activists flying in by private jet for 5-star resort experiences?
Shouldn’t enviros start with themselves before lecturing others? For as long as it has been in existence, the climate-change hysteria industry has followed the John Kerry/Al Gore example: Poverty for thee and not for we.
Given that we are now on Year 30 of the 12 Years Until It’s Too Late To Avoid the Climate Apocalypse cycle, perhaps the media should start asking these questions. The BBC came pretty close in March. Let’s see whether they offer a real follow-up on the impact of climate-hysteric locusts on the Amazon’s ecosystems, and whether any other Protection Racket Media outlet thinks to do so.
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