Monday, January 14, 2019

To Dread: Environmental Issue (Brazil): A new harbour in Torres (RS)?! Who benefits? What is the logic behind it?













Praia Paraiso/Fev 2019 (Torres is a municipality constituted by several small beaches; this is exactly the place where they intend to build the harbour);
Praia Paraiso/ Sept 2015 (the south of Brazil has a very unstable weather; in Torres there is even the recent record of a massive hurricane-like cylone);
Potlatch Invitation & The Colorfool Politicians + Late Classic Maya Clown (Mary Miller & Karl Taube, The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya);
The taste for change: the ecological transition as a way to happiness (Carlo Petrini & Gaël Giraud/Youtube);
Eating Our Way to Extinction (Otto & Ludo Brockway 2021/Youtube); 
Viaje a los pueblos fumigados (Fernando Solanas 2018/Youtube);  
Les paysans, les pesticides et l'extinction de l'humanité (Blast/Youtube 2024); 
Agriculteurs: les solutions sont là, mais Macron n'en veut pas (Blast/ Youtube 2023); 
Sortir de l’agriculture intensive avec Noémie, éleveuse de porcs dans le sud de la France (France 24/Youtube,2023);
La ferme du Bec Hellouin, un modèle au niveau mondial (Meteo à la carte/Youtube 2017); 
Chaos économique, blanchiment bancaire? (Gaël Giraud/Thinkerview 2020);  
Choc économique: Perspectives alternatives? (Isabelle Delannoy/Thinkerview 2020); 
Vincent Mignerot: Anticiper l'effondrement? (Thinkerview/Youtube 2017);
 
#ActForTheAmazon
#ExtinctionRebellion
#InstinctualRebellion
#FuckTheAlgorith
#GretaThunberg
#GreenNewDeal
#Plagued&Pestered
#AeraFixed
#DameNature
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On the so-called New Conservation Science (NCS): 


"In recent years, some conservation biologists and conservation organizations have sought to refocus the field of conservation biology by deemphasizing the goal of protecting nature for its own sake in favor of protecting the environment for its benefits to humans... many specific examples and points of evidence offered to bolster NCS positions are poorly supported or misleading... Conservation’s concern for biodiversity has always been accompanied by concern for human well-being and ecosystem services; these human-centered goals form one pillar of a diverse mix of motivations and strategies dating back at least a century to Gifford Pinchot and his predecessors... The NCS position, however, restricts the focus of conservation to the advancement of human well-being, which it frequently conflates with narrow definitions of economic development, and thereby marginalizes efforts to preserve diverse and natural ecosystems or to protect nature for esthetic or other non-economic benefits to humans..." 
"The NCS argument caricatures the views of conservationists about pristine nature, while making the scientifically unsupportable claim that natural systems are almost infinitely resilient... conservation scientists have focused at least as much on nature’s resilience as its fragility. Although many environmental harms can indeed be ameliorated or reversed, others are virtually irreversible (e.g., extinction, climate change, mountaintop removal)... there is little basis for the assertion that a more narrow, anthropocentric conservation strategy would deliver better results, especially given the track record of poor management of natural resources in the past, including management of the parts of nature we economically value the most..." 
"The stance that conservation progress should be driven by transient economic preferences rather than enduring values also hampers recognition of the possibility or even the need for structural and institutional changes to achieve and sustain conservation objectives. Finally, the assumption, and hence reinforcement, of only economic motivations for conservation ignores and may thus diminish the importance of political, scientific, philosophical, and religious motivations for conservation found across different nations and cultures... Recent polling in the USA also shows evidence that the public’s concern for nature is not weakening nor is support limited to the wealthy, white population... Hispanics, women, and young voters are currently among those most concerned with various conservation goals... Conservation has long been concerned both with sustaining human resource needs and with conserving nature’s intrinsic value – the right of species and other aspects of nature to exist for their own sake..." 
"We do not believe that it is quixotic, misanthropic, or short-sighted to protect nature based on its own value. Moreover, we acknowledge that this position is a statement of values and hope that, as the NCS debate continues, all parties will be clear about where the science of their arguments stops and starts. There are now unprecedented demands on natural resources across the globe, and there will never be a shortage of advocates for human use of these resources. The question is whether conservation scientists and practitioners should make promoting economic prosperity their primary mission as well. As conservationists are already acutely aware, the effects of human industry are felt throughout the world, and we must plan conservation strategies that address coupled human and ecological dynamics."
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[para português, veja aqui]
[we have a page on Facebook, please do follow us]
[Public Petition: Não ao Porto No Litoral Norte do RS (Greenpeace)]

According to a report published last January 9 (2019), in the newspaper Zero Hora the idea was proposed by the civil engineer Fernando Carrion and senator Luis Carlos Heinze, of the political party PP (not to be confused with PT).
Who is senator Heinze?
According, for instance, to another report recently published in Yahoo News (October 23, 2018), here are the senator's credentials:
'Linked to the rural sector of Rio Grande do Sul (a state that stands out for its agricultural production) [actually, Rio Grande do Sul is nowadays an indebted state having problems to pay even its civil servants and only a very long time ago did it stand out for its agricultural production], Heinze works on renegotiating [big] farmers' debt and is [as much as Jair Bolsonaro] critical of the demarcation of new indigenous areas. In 2014, during a public hearing in Vicente Dutra [a small town of Rio Grande do Sul], Heinze declared that quilombolas [in Brazilian hinterland, traditional communities of African people founded originally by escaped slaves during the shameful period of Brazilian legal slavery], homosexuals and Indians were "people of the worst kind, worth of nothing," and suggested the recruitment of private security by the rural producers to maintain the possession of their lands. He later told the press that his statements (videotaped on social networks) were made in the middle of a heated debate concerning the conflicts between indigenous people and farmers... Also in 2014, Heinze voted against a Constitutional Amendment that stipulated the expropriation of lands from landowners who were caught submitting their workers to a regime analogous to slavery...'
Heize was born in 1950, the engineer Fernando Carrion in 1942 (according to information on a website of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation).
Although Heinze usually presents himself as defending perspectives opposed to the previous PT (Worker's Party) governments—especially that of Dilma Rousseff, to the impeachment of whom he contributed—the affinity between the logic behind the harbour's project and the logic behind the macroeconomic actions of the previous governments is conspicuous.
The growth of the country is thought, above all, in terms of megalomaniac projects, very much dependent on strategies totally indifferent (if not deleterious) to the natural environment, and within a completely outdated 19th-century matrix of economical development based almost exclusively in large-scale extractive production and the exportation of commodities. 

***According to a report in the Jornal Nacional (April 24, 2018), Luis Carlos Heinze's party (the PP) "is one of the most investigated parties in Car-Wash scandal." Another politician of PP directly involved in the project for the construction of the harbour is Ovídio Deitos, a businessman of the building sector who is also the president of the PP party in the city of Caxias do Sul. Other businessmen of this city seem also to be involved. One should note that Caxias do Sul was indeed a very important industrial city, with big metalworking factors that are now in decline. Those businessmen didn't adapt well to the new globalized economy. The harbour might represent to them a supposedly survival alternative at the expense of the local population and the environment. The propaganda associated with the project alone is enough to attract all kinds of shady speculation.
The proposal for the "new" harbour (which in fact remounts to the 19th century) looks pretty much like the old disguised as the new, which will, as always, benefit mostly if not only a lazy, backward state bureaucracy and half a dozen oligarchs from the private sector. Foreign investment would come from where? China, Napolis?!
The sea coast of Torres is important, for instance, to seals, sea lions and right whales. There are THREE protected areas that could be endangered: Parque Estadual de Itapeva, Refúgio da Vida Silvestre Ilha dos Lobos, and Parque Tupancy.

***As specialists know, the coast of Rio Grande do Sul lacks the granitic shores and protected bays of the coast of Santa Catarina (the next Brazilian state up to the North). This implies a series of risks, such as erosion, in the construction of this type of port in Rio Grande do Sul.
Moreover, as it is well-known, in Brazil, the maintenance of already existing and basic infrastructure, such as roads, has a huge deficit. In the midst of this scenario, what could be the point of building an entire new port from scratch?! And this in a country that was incapable of preventing the occurrence of a disaster in the scale and magnitude of the one occasioned by mining companies in Mariana?! And within only three years, also the tragedy of Brumadinho (see below), occasioned by the same companies, and killing hundreds of people?
The state of Rio Grande do Sul in particular doesn't stand out anymore for its agricultural production. Since a long time, it has lost ground to other regions. This is a state plagued by chronic economic problems.

In a new report published in the newspaper Correio do Povo (January 31, 2019), Heinze seems to be completely assured that the harbour will be built, mainly to export chicken & [transgenic] soy beans! It seems that much before it became publicly known, the project was being plotted sneakily:

Recent News about Environmental Situation in Brazil (Bolsonaro's government):
- Burger King e outras 40 empresas assinam carta contra PL da grilagem (Folha de SP);
- Em meio à pandemia, Bolsonaro acelera medidas para beneficiar desmatador (El País); 
- « Il n’y a plus de limite ! » : au Brésil, la déforestation augmente (Le Monde);
- Brazilians call for boycotts of major companies that support Bolsonaro (The Guardian);
- 'Project of Death': alarm at Bolsonaro's plan for Amazon Expanding Bridge (The Guardian);
- EU-Mercosur Deal Hinges on Germany's Reaction to Bolsonaro (Americas Quarterly);
- World's biggest meat company linked to 'brutal massacre' in Amazon (The Guardian);
- 'Like a bomb going off': why Brazil's largest reserve is facing destruction (The Guardian);
- "Comunidades estão sendo envenenadas no Brasil", denuncia relator da ONU (UOL);
- Brazil Amazon Deforestation Climbs More Than 100% in November (The New York Times);
- Indigenous boy, 15, murdered on Brazil's Amazon Border (The Guardian);
- Indict Jair Bolsonaro over indigenous rights, international court is urged (The Guardian);
- Brazilians rally to clean beaches amid outrage at Bolsonaro's oil spill inaction (The Guardian);
- Vazamento de Óleo Avança, Plano de Controle Patina (Folha de São Paulo/Piauí);
- Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest surges through September (Reuters);
- Imagine Jair Bolsonaro Standing Trial for Ecocide at The Hague (The New York Times); 
- Bolsonaro Presents a Surreal Defense of His Amazon Policies (The New Yorker);
- Bees Are Dropping Dead in Brazil and Sending a Message to Humans (Bloomberg); 
- Norway to stop €30 million Amazon protection subsidy (France 24); 
- Deathwatch for the Amazon (The Economist);
- Miners Kill Indigenous Leader in Brazil during Invasion of Protected Land (The New York Times);
- Amazon deforestation accelerating towards unrecoverable 'tipping point' (The Guardian); 
- Video appears to show rare Brazilian tribe threatened by loggers (CBS News);
- Brazil's Bolsonaro restricts drugs policy council, legalizes agritoxins (Deutsche Welle);
- Deforestation in Brazil has rocketed since Bolsonaro became president (New Scientist);
- Bolsonaro declares 'the Amazon is ours' and calls deforestation data 'lies' (The Guardian);
- Brazil deforestation soars in July, threatening EU trade deal (Reuters);
- Major donor Norway frets over Brazil deforestation (Reuters);
- Amazon rainforest indigenous people in fight for survival (BBC);
- Football pitch of Amazon Forest lost every minute (BBC);
- Bolsonaro plans threaten Amazon, says experts (BBC)
- Câmara muda Código Florestal e garante desmate a grandes produtores rurais (Uol);
- Com Bolsonaro, liberação de agrotóxicos cresceu 42%... (Uol);
- Como Ricardo Salles tem desmontado a agenda verde (Época); 
- A governança socioambiental do Brasil está sendo desmontada (Globonews); 
- Ex-ministers blast Bolsonaro for dismantling Brazil's environment protections (Reuters);
- Ministro cancela ‘roadshow’ pela Europa após críticas (Gazeta do Povo);
- ‘Governo está promovendo um desmonte total no Meio Ambiente’ (Estadão); 
- Servidores escrevem carta acusando Salles (Estadão);
- Bolsonaro says Brazil rainforest reserve may be opened (Reuters); 
- A natural-history museum is under fire for hosting Brazil's new president (The Atlantic); 
- US natural history museum gala to honor Brazil's far-right president (The Guardian);
- Ibama exonera servidor que multou Bolsonaro por pesca irregular (Folha de São Paulo);
- O Projeto de Mefistóteles (Deutsche Welle);
- Bispos se opõem a políticos em evento (Estadão);
- Brazil environment minister stirs outrage (The Guardian);
- ‘It smells dirty’: scandals loom over Bolsonaro  (The Guardian);
- Brazil reveals plans to privatize key stretches of Amazon highways (The Guardian);
- Jair Bolsonaro alarms climate activists with pro-business speech (The Guardian);
- Brazil environment chief accused of 'war on NGOs' (The Guardian);
- Gisele Bündchen is a 'bad Brazilian', says Bolsonaro's agriculture minister (The Guardian);
- Jair Bolsonaro launches assault on Amazon rainforest protections (The Guardian);
- BHP Billiton facing £5bn lawsuit from Brazilian victims of dam disaster (The Guardian);
- It was a disaster on an almost inconceivable scale (The Guardian);

Recent news about the tragedy of Brumadinho:
- Vale misled public on dangerous dams, prompting Brazil probe (Reuters); 
- Rompimento de barragens em Rondônia: o que se sabe até agora (Globonews);
- Ministério Público investiga rompimento de barragens em Rondônia (Folha de São Paulo);
- New Dam Collapse in Brazil (Rondonia) (Associated Press);
- A Brazilian tragedy is a Deepwater horizon moment (The Economist);
- E-mails indicam que Vale soube de problemas em sensores de Brumadinho(G1);
- Dam collapse: the desperate search at Brazil's 'ground zero' (The Guardian);
- 'The river is dying': the vast ecological cost of Brazil's mining disasters (The Guardian);
- Au Brésil, la colère et la crainte d’une nouvelle catastrophe (Le Monde);
- The city is weeping – the aftermath of environmental disaster in Brumadinho (Greenpeace);
- Brazil dam disaster death toll in nears 60, with hundreds still missing (CBS News);
- Brumadinho dam collapse: Hope fades for hundreds missing in Brazil (BBC);
- Brazil dam collapse: 10 bodies found and hundreds missing (The Guardian);
- Hundreds Missing Following Burst Brazil Dam (The New York Times);
- Brazil dam collapse: Bid to rescue hundreds missing (Independent);
- Barragem da Vale se rompe em Brumadinho, em Minas Gerais (Valor);
- Dam Bursts at Vale Mine in Brazil (The Wall Street Journal);

Posts related in this same blog:

Other related discussions: 
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Other Environmental Issues Around the World:

'For Isra, when it comes to discussing the environment, it’s crucial to talk about environmental racism – i.e., environmental and climate change issues that specifically affect black and brown communities. “There’s a pipeline being built in my state (Minnesota) and it’s going straight through indigenous treaty lands and sacred wild rice beds,” she explains. “This pipeline will destroy their water and their sacred wild rice and also just ruin their land. Some places are more privileged than others.” More than anything, we should make sure people “recognise their privilege in the movement”.'
'As far as US Youth Climate Strike is concerned, Isra says, “we try and avoid things like sit-ins or a lot of marches, only because we deal with so many minors – we don’t want any of them to get arrested – especially with youth of colour. We try and focus on really safe forms of activism so everybody can participate.”'
'Everybody gets there at their own pace. It took me some time – it probably takes everybody some time. And whether or not you get media coverage or you get a great response it doesn’t mean what you’re doing is wrong. You should know what’s best for you and what you believe in, and nobody should be able to tell you any different.”'
'“It is a lot to handle, and it’s a full-time job,” says Isra, who is a high school student, juggling her school work along with her activism. “You have to make sure you balance time and that you get your priorities right.” Self-care is a must. “There are so many things that need to be tackled, but also you come first – make sure that you are OK enough to partake in that activism,”' "How to fight for climate action, according to Isra Hirsi" (Niellah Arboine/Dazed, 05/13/2019);
'“We have shown that we are strong, we are determined,” she said. “I have never – I’ve been a police officer for 36 years – I have never known an operation, a single operation, in which over 700 people have been arrested.''Max Wedderburn, a 13-year-old from Milton Keynes, addressed crowds at the bridge and received cheers and applause. “We are getting bigger, we are getting stronger, we are gathering momentum. Together we can change the future,” he said.'
'Speaking afterwards, he said he became inspired to fight against climate change after learning about it from his mother. He explained: “My lifelong dream is to become a zoologist but I feel there is no point if half of the animals are all dead by the time I reach that goal.”'
'Around 20 activists, most of them aged under 17, had staged a brief demonstration on roads near Heathrow Airport on Friday morning and were arrested. “One thing that is unusual about this demonstration is the willingness of those participating to be arrested and also their lack of resistance to the arrests,” said a spokesperson,' "Extinction Rebellion: More than 750 protesters arrested as climate change activists block London roads for sixth day" (Independent, 04/21/2019);
'The political class, as anyone who has followed its progress over the past three years can surely now see, is chaotic, unwilling and, in isolation, strategically incapable of addressing even short-term crises, let alone a vast existential predicament.'
'Even when broadcasters cover these issues, they carefully avoid any mention of power, talking about environmental collapse as if it is driven by mysterious, passive forces, and proposing microscopic fixes for vast structural problems. The BBC’s Blue Planet Live series exemplified this tendency.'
'Our system – characterised by perpetual economic growth on a planet that is not growing – will inevitably implode.'
'... for a peaceful mass movement to succeed, a maximum of 3.5% of the population needs to mobilise.'
'When a committed and vocal 3.5% unites behind the demand for a new system, the social avalanche that follows becomes irresistible,' "Only rebellion will prevent an ecological apocalypse" (George Monbiot, The Guardian, 04/15/2019);
'[Balkan] rivers (dubbed the Blue Heart of Europe) are in grave danger of being destroyed by corporate banks wanting to turn them into 3,000 hydro dams across a space the size of Italy. The dams would produce hydro energy: one of the most damaging renewable energy sources on the planet which displaces communities, sends species into extinction, and contributes vastly to climate change. Politically, the move is seen as a form of exploitation, where big foreign banks are taking advantage of a politically unstable region...'
'However, if the recent actions of young activists across the Balkans are anything to go by, destroying the Balkans rivers will be a hard battle to win. It's with this resistance that the region welcomes the new age activism in the Balkans: one lensed by London-based photographer and filmmaker Lewis Khan. Released alongside a short film, Khan travelled to Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia to document those who's lives are intrinsically intertwinned with the rivers of their countries and those making a pledge to save the Blue Heart,' Photos of the Balkan youth fighting to save their environment (Dazed, 08/24/ 2018);


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Brazil's edible plants (from a paper by researches of the University of Leiden): 


"Piso indicated that roots [tubers] of S. tuberosa deserved special attention, because of the way they developed underground and their use as a refreshment [water reservoir] for feverish patients and exhausted travelers, as he experimented himself. He and Marcgrave also described how its fruits were valued as food... Currently S. tuberosa, known as Umbu or Umbuzeiro, is an important economic and subsistence food resource for rural communities in semiarid regions of northeast Brazil. Its specialized root system (xylopodia) bears tubers that store liquids, sugars and other nutrients and allow the survival of the tree during the dry seasons of the caatinga and central Brazilian savanna, where this species is endemic. The water or sweet juice of these xylopodia is still used as an emergency thirst quencher in extreme arid areas of the Brazilian sertão..."
"Several rainforest trees were highly valued for its edible fruits or seeds, such as Hymenaea courbaril L. or Lecythis pisonis L., of which the 'seeds (also called chestnuts) were eaten raw or roasted' and 'were considered aphrodisiacs.' The fruit of Macoubea guianensis Aubl. was 'appreciated for its sweetness by the indigenous peoples to eat during their travels, while Europeans used it to treat chest affections.' The fruit of Swartzia pickelii Killip ex Ducke was 'not eaten unless it was cooked, from which the inhabitants made a wholesome delicacy for the stomach called Manipoy.' The same applies to the tomato-like fruits of the African eggplant Solanum aethiopicum L., which were 'eaten cooked, after seasoning with oil and pepper; it has lemon taste'..."

Degradation of Brazilian's flora (from a paper by researches of the University of Leiden): 


"In the past centuries, the Atlantic Forest and savannah regions of northeast Brazil have been severely affected by habitat loss and degradation due to the expansion of urbanization, intensive agriculture, farming and logging. Several plant species that were abundant enough to be noted by European artists around 1640 are not common anymore today. According to the IUCN Red List, eight species in the Libri Picturati, seven in the Theatrum and one in the LP are currently experiencing population decline or are at risk of facing extinction. Several endemic plants from the northeast Atlantic rainforest and caatinga biomes appear in the illustrations. Four species in the Libri Picturati are currently CITES-listed and restricted to trade: the cacti Brasiliopuntia brasiliensis (Willd.) A. Berger, Cereus fernambucensis Lem., Epiphyllum phyllanthus (L.) Haw. and Melocactus violaceus subsp. margaritaceus N. P. Taylor. The latter is an endemic cactus of the coastal sand dunes’ ecoregion in the Atlantic rainforest known as restinga, which is severely threatened by agricultural expansion and urbanization."
"Some endemic species are classified as Least Concern by the IUCN or the CNC Flora (12 species), while others (13 species) have not been evaluated yet. The MC does not contain threatened species, but includes two endemic trees: Attalea compta Mart. and Eugenia cf. brasiliensis Lam., which are only found in the biodiversity hotspots of the Atlantic rainforest and the cerrado, both greatly affected by habitat loss. The mangrove vegetation along the Brazilian coast has been severely affected by urbanization, pollution by industrial and domestic waste and climate change, threatening the populations of the mangrove trees Avicennia schaueriana Stapf & Leechm. ex Moldenke and Laguncularia racemosa (L.) C. F. Gaertn. The occurrence of anthropogenic impacts and the lack of available data call for the implementation of more in-depth and continuous studies on the conservation status of these vulnerable populations."

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