Final Paper
Final Paper
Final Paper
Philip Breeden
IR 303
May 15, 2019
Environmental Blackout
Amid all the vibrant fauna and flora found in the Amazon Rainforest, there are
indigenous tribes completely isolated from the rest of society. Without contact with any
Brazilian community, the people claimed to be tall, with long hair but no clothing, body
adornments, or weapons are threatened at every second by an enemy different than the one
seen during the current Pandemic. It is not the virus that is vanishing the isolated indigenous
tribes in the region of Ituna-Itatá in the state of Pará, but invaders who orchestrated plans to
The pandemic has become a smokescreen for the advance of deforestation in the
Amazon rainforest. While countries are busy trying to survive the fast-spreading of a virus
that has affected over 4,408,366 people and taken away at least 296,736 lives worldwide 1,
the world’s lungs, also known as the Amazon Rainforest, are being destroyed as well. From
the immense quantity of trees, which according to the science society American Association
for the Advancement of Science — AAAS gets to 390 billion individual trees 2. The blatant
amount of biodiversity located in the Amazon Rainforest represents the richness of nature on
Planet Earth, it is responsible for the equilibrium of the current ecosystem, and without such
a full-of-life site, the world would not be the same. But as at the moment the world is
2 @realDonaldTrump. (2019, August, 27). “I have gotten to know President @jairbolsonaro well in our
dealings with Brazil. He is working very hard on the Amazon fires and in all respects doing a great job for the
people of Brazil - Not easy. He and his country have the full and complete support of the USA [Tweet].
Retrieved from https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1166357258726498304
witnessing such a difficult and tragic time, preserving the rainforest is not as a big priority as
Nature crimes that destroy the Amazon rainforest happen mostly in Brazil's territory.
The location of the jungle gives space for the opening of a collective-goods debate: is the
deforestation happening in the Amazon jungle a responsibility that lies in the hands of the
countries who locate it or because it represents the biodiversity from the planet, all countries
It seems like it depends on how bad the problems in other countries are. When
fighting a pandemic the commotion driven to the fires in the Amazon is smaller while last
year, it reached the voices of many celebrities, and the countries that form the G7 agreed to
raise an emergency fund to protect the world's lungs. The decision that was taken by the
Group of Seven displays how the foreign policies required to get involved in protecting the
major rainforest on Earth is still a grey area. Not all leaders attended the summit. The
American president Donald Trump didn’t show up to discuss what step to take about the
endangerment of the Amazon, demonstrating differences in how important this climate issue
can be from country to country. While the host of the meeting, Emmanuel Macron, declared
an emergency aid totalizing $22 million aiming to help stop the deforestation in the Amazon
The reasoning behind Bolsonaro's actions is the fear that the fund could compromise
disapproval, the American president Donald Trump made sure to show his support to
Bolsonaro on social media, tweeting “I have gotten to know President @jairbolsonaro well
in our dealings with Brazil. He is working very hard on the Amazon fires and in all respects
doing a great job for the people of Brazil - Not easy. He and his country have the full and
The support given by the president of the United States symbolizes similarities
between Trump and Bolsonaro. Both are considered to be populist leaders and count with
the support of many nationalists who enjoy the leader’s prejudiced comments on the internet.
Once the resemblance in their train of thought was recognized, giving the Brazilian president
nicknames like “The Donald Trump of South America” and “Trump of the tropics”. Trump
celebrated the solid connection and announced that Brazil and the United States would grow
to be closer business partners. According to the New York Times, Trump said: “I think
Brazil’s relationship with the United States, because of our friendship, is probably better
The pandemic has exposed even more similarities between the two world leaders,
who are responsible for the two largest economies in America. Both Trump and Bolsonaro
challenged the political establishment by speaking directly to their supporters and leading
their popular base against governors and congressional leaders, accused by the two
presidents of making politics instead of fulfilling the needs of the population. Their speeches
are encouraging the population to protest against quarantine policies, as they claim that the
wheel of economy should keep on spinning and that this is their priority during the
coronavirus crisis.
The clamant difference is that in Brazil, lives are not just being taken away because
of the virus. The indigenous lands are also being taken away. The Brazilian government
3 FieldMuseum. (2013, October 17). Field Museum scientists estimate 16,000 tree species in the Amazon.
Retrieved May 13, 2020, from https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/fm-fms101413.php
4 Shear, M. D., & Haberman, M. (2019, March 19). For Trump, Brazil's President Is Like Looking in the
Mirror. Retrieved May 13, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/19/us/politics/bolsonaro-trump.html
keeps on neglecting the protection of native tribes, as well as protection of the local fauna
and flora. Wildfires and the stealing of indigenous tribes’ lands are facilitated because as
soon as Jair Bolsonaro got elected, he rolled back several environmental protection laws,
aiming to invest in agriculture and boost the economy regardless of effects such as the
facilitation of crimes committed by the environmental offenders. But the economy started to
Despite how similar the mentality of the two presidents is and their decisions on
foreign policies, there is an alarming difference: The United States is a first-world country,
and Brazil is still developing. A simple factor that can show this difference is the amount of
money each country can offer to its citizens during the Pandemic: Brazil is only able to offer
aid of R$600 (worth of approximately $103 US dollars) while the United States has offered
$1200 checks to its citizens. The blatant difference between the strength of the two
economies also represents how Brazil doesn’t have the wealth to avoid the immense
consequences of a financial crisis. Therefore, Brazil doesn't have the money (or the interest)
to save the Amazon by itself. Especially at the moment. While the policies chosen by Jair
Bolsonaro are continued to be applauded, significant parts of the rainforest are going to
The number of coronavirus cases is growing each day, especially in the state of
Amazonas, named after the Amazon River and it's huge territorial significance to the
rainforest. What led the number of people infected by COVID 19 to explode in the state of
Amazonas is the poor structure of the health system in the region, a failure to maintain social
distances, a sudden change in the weather and, on top of it all, the neglect of the government
reasonably concentrate its energy on stopping the pandemic, it also means a massive
distraction for this urgent environmental issue. Brazilian land-thieves are taking advantage
of the lack of attention in wildfires to get space to steal more land and burn the forest again
and again. The strategy chosen by the farmers is to burn the invaded land to quickly clear
trees for cattle pastures and soy farms, exploiting a territory that was never theirs, to begin
with. To what extent should citizens from the whole world move their eyes to an issue
happening in a land that is located in their own country, and help an environment that
Protecting the Amazon is a strong strategy to battle climate change. The rainforest is
a key area of concern, it absorbs massive amounts of carbon each year, releases oxygen, it is
the origin of a huge amount of food items people enjoy every single day and is home to an
extensive number of different kinds of living creatures. The consequences for climate
change are going to be seen not just in Brazil, but worldwide, turning the extinction of the
The dilemma exists because, on one side, the Amazon rainforest can be considered a
natural patrimony that belongs to all living on Planet Earth. If the rainforest keeps being
mistreated, the negative effects may surge in territories extremely distant from South
America. David Wolking, Senior Manager of the One Health Institute at the University of
California, explained to Greenpeace how the destruction of the Amazon rainforest could lead
to another pandemic in the future: “Where you have a huge biodiverse zone, the Amazon,
and then you have an encroaching human footprint, through urbanization, road networks,
deforestation, extractive industries like logging and mining, you have all of the ingredients
But, in a more technical side, the Amazon belongs to the countries it is located
(Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guiana, Suriname, and the French
Guiana) and pointing out how those countries should respond in their land could mean a lack
of sovereignty. This is the point of view that the Brazilian president made explicit as he
rejected the G7 fund, claiming that Brazil is not to be "colonized" and that he would much
rather join forces with the other countries that share the Amazon, and by that guaranteeing
that their sovereignty remains intact and the natural wealth and resources are still theirs —
A year after the decision to reject the aid coming from the Group of Seven indicates
that the situation in the Amazon rainforest has only gotten worse, but this time, the
commotion is not the same. Deforestation has increased while the index of supervision in
those areas has decreased during a period that is not even the one in which dryness occurs
and leads to the increase of wildfires that happen naturally every single year.
To prevent the situation from getting even worse and encourage the reforestation of
the Amazon, the international community can seek solutions by a dominance approach. This
principle has been used before by countries ke Norway and Germany, for example, who
froze the money that they used to donate to the Amazon Fund to pressure Brazil to slow
NPR (National Public Radio), " it's a response to the rhetoric that the administration of Jair
Bolsonaro has been putting out. Bolsonaro has basically said to the people in the country that
5 Jordan, L., & Howard, E. (2020, April 24). Breaking down the Amazon: How deforestation could drive a
pandemic. Retrieved May 14, 2020, from https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2020/04/24/deforestation-amazon-
next-pandemic-covid-coronavirus/
deforestation is OK, development at all costs is OK. And a lot of scientists fear that that
message is starting to take hold, that landowners in the hinterlands in the Amazon are
starting to listen, and now they're burning their fields and they're taking advantage of this".
Although Norway and Germany freezing the millions of dollars that would be invested in
helping the Amazon didn't stop the fires from increasing in 2020, it serves as a message of
repudiation towards the policies chosen by the Brazilian government. Other steps that can be
if other powerful countries hindered the trade policies if wildfires and deforestation don't
decrease.
The other direction to solve this problem is to incentive education so that the
population can understand how deforestation works, the facts, and consequences. The
awareness of global citizens can prevent more nature-crimes from being facilitated. This
range of consciousness and sensibility can reach people that want to support indigenous
communities, if their country’s government won’t do it themselves. Science can also be used
are increasing again. The economic field could use experts to find ways to replace the
economic importance of the Amazon rainforest to a portion of Brazilians and turn the
Both directions should include an intensive care on the human rights of the
indigenous people who have lands like Ituna-Itatá, as their one and only home. International
organizations that preserve human rights should keep their attention on injustices like those
who remove tribes from their rightful homes, even at the most chaotic times, like the one we
from reaching an end, but there is still time for the international community to develop
the Amazon rainforest and deciding who carries responsibility for preserving the Earth’s
lungs.
penalizing the lands where the Amazon is being burned or if the right pathway is simply
through support and education, there is always a tipping point along the path to something
being completely destroyed. There is still time for human beings all over the planet, from
regular citizens to world leaders, to get conscious about the alarming wildfires and