Category: South America

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Lula wins!

Time will tell how good Lula is, but the world has had a reprieve!

WE MUST KEEP OUR EYE ON THIS SITUATION, BUT FOR NOW WE CAN RELAX

Lula, the new president of Brazil – it would be hard to be worse than Bolsonaro

So what has Brazil turned its back on?

Jair Bolsonaro time in office was characterized by attacks on:

  • Democratic institutions (from human rights institutions to deforestation watch, many more)
  • The Media
  • The Left (given Bolsonaro was far right, this means virtually every opponent politician)
  • The Amazon rainforest

So what did Lula run on?

  • Social Justice
  • Environmental protection
  • Defending democracy
  • Reunifying the country

Will there be a peaceful handover of power? No one knows. Jair Bolsonaro, like Donald Trump before him has stated many times over the last few months, that he cannot loose a fair election. As an outsider, it is hard to see how he would ever win a fair election but there we are.

He has the support of much of the army (a former soldier himself) and there is much concern that he could throw the country into chaos, and would have a far greater chance of actually overthrowing the government than Trump did in the USA.

He only won with a margin of 2%, and as of yet Bolsonaro is still yet to comment on the results. If Lula is allowed to retake the presidency, then it will mark the end of an incredible comeback,

Lula was president from 2003-2010. After this, he spent time in prison for corruption convictions – later annulled.

Pro – Bolsonaro Truckers have blocked highways across Brazil in protest, but nothing worse has yet occurred.

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Finale of the Brazilian election! Who will will, will the earth get a reprieve?

The worlds rainforests are concentrated in a small number of countries. As a result, there are a handful of countries where, they have the potential on their own to make climate change far worse.

What is going to happen in Brazil? Will the world get a reprieve or will Bolsonaro (right) get a second term – likely guaranteeing much of the rainforest collapse

These countries include many of those in the Congo basin in Africa, and the countries of south east Asia.

Perhaps the biggest, is Brazil: and unfortunately we have had to watch as the current president Jair Bolsonaro has done everything as badly as possible. Could it have been worse for the world? Perhaps, but it would have been hard.

What is frustrating, is that he is terrible for Brazil. He has the bizarre support of the evangelical Christians, and he has made sure that the middle class has benefitted from his time in office, never-the-less, he has destroyed much of the institutional blocks to serious damage in his first term, so may be able to do more damage in his second.

What is his worst record? 688,000 deaths from Covid, having declared what should he do and having minimized it as the little flu. This is the second most deaths in the world after the USA (largely as a result of Donald Trump minimizing the issue -see a pattern?) despite being 5th in the number of cases. The illness hit indigenous people hardest (possibly intentionally? Certainly it helps Bolsonaros many aims). For the world, though, Bolsonaro will be remembered as someone who vastly increased the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, and there is a great deal of fear that the rainforest is getting close to collapse as a result of his behaviour. Not only will this cause huge problems around the world, by releasing billions of tonnes of carbon, but it will also change rain patterns, leading to crop failures in Brazil as well as countries around.

Currently Lulu has a 4%-8% lead in the polls, however, unfortunately 4 years ago the polls underestimated Bolsonaro support so this may mean little. In a similar way to Trump, there is a certain proportion of the population who are embarrassed by their support for the leader, so are unlikely to be honest in polls.

In a debate Bolsonaro spent his time just attacking his opponent and does not seem to have any ideas for the future of the country.

In the first round, Jair Bolsonaro got 43.2% while Lula got 48.4% so he is comfortably ahead, but what happens now is still on a knife edge.

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Is it possible to buy beef from South America, and be sure your not supporting deforestation? A new study suggests not

It would appear that no matter what supermarkets are saying, South American beef is still encouraging deforestation. According to a new study 1.1 million cattle with boot directly from protected areas within in the rainforest, with a further 2.2 million cattle found to have spent at least some of their lives grazing in protected areas or on indigenous land.

It should be noted that this study largely stops taking you data in 2018. This is not because they got bored, but because at the beginning of 2019 Jair Bolsonaro olsonaro was elected and change the rules so they could not do the work they were doing.

As much as 70% of the Amazon rainforest deforestation has been entirely down to creating space for cattle grazing. While virtually every meat producer has promised not to source their meat from these areas, information appears to be kept intentionally lacking so that these meat producers can get away with using resources they have promised not to.

Quite apart from the high carbon footprint of consuming South American beef in Europe, it is clear that we cannot do, and be sure we are not contributing to the loss of the Amazon rainforest.

I should mention (as I have in the past) that my family have largely seems to eat beef. We have not gone vegetarian, but have found that replacing beef mince with turkey mince not only greatly reduces our carbon footprint but is almost indistinguishable after it has been cooked. If you must eat beef (unless something changes dramatically this is likely to always have an unacceptably high carbon footprint) at least eat British beef- not only should it have much lower travel carbon footprint, but there are no rainforests in the UK to be lost.

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Did Jair Bolsonaro set up a new board to publish deforestation data in July to mislead?

So, Jair Bolsonaro and Luiz Lula de Silva have both made it through to the final round for the presidency.

However, the fact that this new deforestation data board was set up 3 months ago, in the run up to an election. This at a time when Jair Bolsonaro is being hit for his terrible record on deforestation during his first term. In other words, people are claiming that this is purely a political organisation to help him pull the wool over the countries eyes.

Brazilian deforestation is a problem for the world. Giving scientific responsibility for monitoring and reporting forest loss to a political body is mad – we will no longer know what’s happening, if Jair Bolsonaro wins re-election
Continue reading “Did Jair Bolsonaro set up a new board to publish deforestation data in July to mislead?”
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So, the Brazilian people first vote was not clear enough to avoid a run-off – will the Amazon rainforest get a reprieve?

Yesterday, the first round of the Brazilian election was not clear enough. While Lula (Jair Bolsonaro competitor) received 48.3% of the vote – however, the Brazil law requires a vote to be over 50%. As a result, the winner and the runner up – Bolsonaro, go to a run-off set for the 30th of October. Jair Bolsonaro received 43.3% of the vote.

Jair Bolsonaro
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Continue reading “So, the Brazilian people first vote was not clear enough to avoid a run-off – will the Amazon rainforest get a reprieve?”
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Amazon Rainforest tipping point approaching?

Rainforests are incredible places, with a huge amount of wildlife and plants all living closely together and fighting for survival.

Now the problem in many parts of the world, rainforests are being cut down for space to be given over to all sorts of other land uses. I have no problem with some of the rainforests being cut down for other land uses. Unfortunately though in the Amazon, there is a significant issue.

If a tipping point is reached, cut down rainforest is not likely to be useful for growing crops, it is likely to transform into a dry savannah, incapable of supporting crops, it may turn into full desert.
Continue reading “Amazon Rainforest tipping point approaching?”
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Jair Bolsonaro is trailing in the polls and is currently looking unlikely to win re-election – but undoing his damage might be difficult

In the run-up to the Brazilian election, we will be looking at what is happening in this country. While only the people of Brazil have a say, what they decide is likely to have a big effect on the rest of the world:

who will win? Will the Amazon and therefore the planet get a reprieve?

Re-election of Bolsonaro will likely mean the end of the Amazon functioning properly or they can go with a former politician – both have issues, but Lulu appears on the cusp of taking over, and if this happens it is predicted to have a fantastic impact on deforestation (though it would be hard for any change to not be dramatic).

Given the huge impact this election could have on the rest of the world, there seems to be little coverage, maybe this will change as the time draws near.

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Seeing the end of the Bolsonaro administration, destruction of the Amazon seems to have ramped up

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.

While no president of Brazil has managed to halt deforestation, Jair Bolsonaro has actively fought against any protection that it enjoyed
Continue reading “Seeing the end of the Bolsonaro administration, destruction of the Amazon seems to have ramped up”
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Bolsonaro is under investigation for how he and his family had enough cash to buy 51 different properties – and as he is trailing in the polls…

For those who have been reading this blog for years, you will remember that I have written repeatedly about Jair Bolsonaro.

Jair Bolsonaro is the current President of Brazil, is widely thought to be largely useless
Lula is a former president of Brazil who is looking to return as president for his third time.
Continue reading “Bolsonaro is under investigation for how he and his family had enough cash to buy 51 different properties – and as he is trailing in the polls…”
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