Illegal gold mining in Brazil – level 2

The Amazon is the largest forest in the world, and it is home to millions of animal and plants. Indigenous people also live there for whom it is more and more difficult to survive in the modern world.

The land beneath the Amazon contains special rocks called minerals, such as gold. Gold brings in miners. The gold mining business is illegal, and it causes serious damage. Miners destroy forests, poison rivers, and they bring diseases to indigenous people. Nature needs many years to return to a normal situation, and sometimes, it is not even possible.

The Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro wants to change a law, which will make mining in the Amazon legal. This is very bad news for the indigenous people. Currently, nearly 30% of Brazil´s gold comes from illegal business.

Difficult words: indigenous (something that exists in a place naturally), miner (a person whose job is to get minerals from the ground), mining (the industry which gets coal and other minerals from the ground), poison (to kill life by putting chemicals in water, air, or ground).

You can watch the original video in the Level 3 section.