The Stream

Brazil: Is Bolsonaro a death sentence for the rainforest?

Environmentalists worry government is opening up too much of the Amazon to business interests.

In Brazil, the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest has increased rapidly under President Jair Bolsonaro. The far-right leader says environmental protections have held back Brazil’s economy, and since taking office this year, he has scaled back regulations while giving support to logging, mining and other development projects.

Environmentalists worry that too much deforestation in the Amazon could create irreversible ecological damage and worsen the global state of climate change. In this episode, we’ll discuss how opening up the Amazon to business interests could impact the world’s largest rainforest.

On this episode of The Stream, we speak with:

Paulo Artaxo, @unifesp
Professor of environmental physics, University of Sao Paulo
usp.br

 

Mia Alberti, @mialberti
Freelance journalist
miaalberti.com
 

Felipe Milanez, @felipedjeguaka
Political ecologist and professor of humanities, Federal University of Bahia
ufba.br

 

Read more:
The price of ‘progress’ in the Amazon – Washington Post
Bolsonaro fires head of agency tracking Amazon deforestation in Brazil – New York Times
Deathwatch for the Amazon – The Economist

 

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