Protecting the Amazon

From The Economist:

Brazilian businesses rarely preach greenery. Yet last July, 20 months after Jair Bolsonaro was elected president, rampant deforestation in the Amazon roused 38 CEOs to speak up. Foreign investment was falling and trade talks were stalled.

This negative perception has an enormous potential for harm,” they wrote in a letter to the government, urging Mr. Bolsonaro to do something. He ignored them. 

The pace of deforestation, as reported in November, was 1o% faster in 2020 than in 2019. Yet the president merrily slashed the budget for environmental enforcement for the third year in a row.

Now those Brazilian bosses are placing their hope in another president-one who lacks Mr. Bolsonaro’s populist disregard for science. Joe Biden has signaled that both his foreign and domestic policies will aim to arrest climate change. More than 6o% of the remaining tree cover in the Amazon is in Brazil. Not only is the rainforest brimming with irreplaceable biodiversity; it is also a carbon sink. Burning or chopping it down turns it into a source of carbon emissions instead.

American diplomacy under Mr. Biden will seek to persuade Mr. Bolsonaro not to let that happen. This is perhaps the first time that a major bilateral relationship has focused on trees.

Given that Bolsonaro has shown zero willingness to back down suggests that there are only two ways of making progress here before it’s too late:

• Getting the entire world to cease trading with Brazil until they capitulate, or, better,

• Deposing Bolsonaro and replacing him with someone who cares about the fate of human civilization.

Interestingly, the second of these options is looking quite realistic.  Bolsonaro does whatever he wants, regardless of how blatantly illegal, which has pushed the country’s democracy to the breaking point, and a great number of prominent Brazilians are extremely unhappy about this.

From this article:

The president and several family members could soon be heading to jail for entirely different reasons. The scope of the President’s alleged misdeeds are breathtaking. Bolsonaro is facing no fewer than 35 depositions for his impeachment and is being investigated by the supreme court, the electoral commission and Congress for over 20 separate alleged crimes. 

The entire world needs to hope that Brazilian democracy is restored.  Once the will of the people actually means something again, it’s certain that the Amazon will enjoy a significant level of protection.