With the Brazilian election to occur during October, and Jair Bolsonaro widely seen as a failure in many ways – as well as having favoured specific groups at the detriment of the rest of the population, it is considered highly unlikely that Jair Bolsonaro will get a second term.
This is good news for the rest of the world as it should lead to a great reduction in the rate of Amazon deforestation. Now, I like I am sure many of you, feel that we need to be reforesting, any deforestation is a problem.
Unfortunately, one problem at a time.
However, with the expected return to trying to protect the rainforest, many people are busy destroying what they can before the free for all is over.
An area of the Amazon, larger than Taiwan (36,000 square km or 13,000 square miles) has been lost in the last 4 years.
The frontrunner to replace him served as president 2003-2010, and Lula de Silva has promised to prioritize conservation of Brazils wilderness areas. Thankfully currently he is ahead in the polls with Silva on 43% and Bolsonaro trailing on 35%. There are at least 2 other candidates, but with under 10% of the population supporting them (combined), even if both dropped out recommended that their supporters vote for Bolsonaro, it is still unlikely that this would be enough to put him over the edge.
While some might argue that the Brazilian people have more pressing issues to have their president fight for, this is not entirely true. Brazil is thought to be likely to be amongst the 3 most impacted countries in the world as a result of global warming. Not only can Brazil make this far less likely by saving and allowing their own rainforest to recover, but also rainforests can have a cooling effect, and therefore by allowing their rainforest to recover, they could keep Brazilian temperature increases at levels that the population can cope with.
Could Jair Bolsonaro steal the election? Certainly, in a move highly reminiscent of Trump he has been busily claiming that he cannot loose without fraud (a stupid claim), and so I am sure that he will try to continue regardless. Never-the-less he is no longer the outsider, and he is forever tainted by many failures and greed. Furthermore, Silva is also not an outsider and is likely to be able to count on some of the establishment support.
For the most part, it seems that the “establishment” is fed up of Bolsonaro incompetence and therefore will not help him steal the election.
Time will tell, but if he loses it will be one less threat to the Amazon. It would not mean the threat was over, but one step at a time
