The Brazilian Environment on Trial

The Brazilian Environment on Trial

Since the beginning of the Bolsonaro administration, Brazil has experienced numerous environmental disasters, including the rupture of a tailings dam in Minas Gerais, wide-reaching oil spills on the northeastern coast, and a sharp increase in wildfires throughout the Amazon rainforest and the Pantanal wetlands.  International perceptions of Brazil's environmental performance have also...
Indigenous Peoples: From Sins of Omission to Commission

Indigenous Peoples: From Sins of Omission to Commission

September was marked by significant protests by indigenous peoples in Brasilia.  In late August, more than six thousand native people descended on the city to accompany a long-awaited decision by the high court, the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), regarding the demarcation of native lands. On September 10, five thousand indigenous women...
Reshaping the meaning of politics

Reshaping the meaning of politics

Brazil’s political turbulence remains difficult to fully comprehend, in part because of the enormous concussive shock with which the seemingly golden years of pre-salt oil and commodity-driven prosperity suddenly met a grim sequence of protest, impeachment, and scandal. Scholarship has been challenged by the historical contingency of the unprecedented, fluid...
Don’t Count on the Amazon

Don’t Count on the Amazon

Can the international community rely on carbon sequestration in the Amazon as a strategy for halting global warming? Don’t count on it, even after Jair Bolsonaro’s grudging green conversion this past week.  Convincing Bolsonaro to change his tune must have been no small task, judging by the ratcheting up of...