That is the prospect for the Amazon rainforest for at least the next four years if Flávio Bolsonaro holds on to the lead he established this week in the first round of Brazil’s presidential election.
asserted
he → hold → election
This appears to be of far more concern to the outside world than to voters in Latin America’s biggest, richest and most biodiverse nation.
asserted
This → appear → nation
The far-right son of the former president and jailed coup-monger Jair Bolsonaro won 47% of the vote, putting him in pole position before the 25 October runoff with the incumbent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was backed by 44.2%.
asserted
who → jail → %
Taken out of context, this appears to be a vote against the forest.
asserted
this → take → forest
The current administration of Lula (as the veteran Brazilian president is best known) has reduced deforestation in the Amazon by almost 50%.
asserted
president → know → %
But that success secured little noticeable electoral traction for either Lula or pro-forest candidates in other polls held the same day.
asserted
success → secure → polls
The former environment minister Marina Silva lost a bid for the Senate and Joenia Wapichana, a former head of Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency, Funai, failed to win a seat in Congress.
asserted
Wapichana → lose → Congress
Out of 57 Indigenous candidates, only two won.
asserted
two → win → candidates
Flávio Bolsonaro is the heir to the political legacy of his father, Jair Bolsonaro, a former army captain whose four years in power resulted in a 59.5% increase in Amazon deforestation, roughly equivalent to destroying 2bn trees.
asserted
years → result → trees
If he wins, Bolsonaro has promised to free his father, who was imprisoned for plotting a military coup and attempting to annihilate democracy in Brazil.
asserted
who → win → Brazil
He has said that his father could have any position he wants in his administration.
uncertain
he → say → administration
Flávio Bolsonaro has shown that he will be just as willing as his father to dismantle protections for climate and nature and allow illegal miners, loggers and land grabbers to invade Indigenous territories.
asserted
miners → show → territories
As a lawmaker, he backed a 2019 bill to eliminate requirements for landowners in the Amazon to conserve a proportion of native vegetation.
asserted
landowners → back → vegetation
In his manifesto, he completely ignored the climate crisis.
asserted
he → ignore → crisis
And he has courted support from some of the most predatory landowners in the rainforest.
asserted
he → court → rainforest
He is also part of a movement – Bolsonarism – that is geared towards maximising profits for extractive industries regardless of the environmental cost.
asserted
that → gear → cost
Take its victorious candidate for the Amazonian state of Pará, Daniel Santos, who was fined $275,000 (£208,000) for deforestating 280 hectares (692 acres) of his land without authorisation and is now promising to waive such penalties.
asserted
who → take → penalties
As a result of Sunday’s election, Bolsonarists now control seven of the nine states in the Brazilian Amazon, and could win an eighth in the runoffs.
uncertain
Bolsonarists → control → runoffs
Bolsonarist influence in the legislature, which is dominated by agribusiness interests, is also growing.
asserted
which → dominate → interests
Jair’s brother, Eduardo, and mother-in-law, Michelle, were elected to the Senate, while an uncle and brother won seats in the lower house of deputies.
asserted
uncle → elect → deputies
Even before the election, Congress had been pushing hard to weaken environmental protections.
asserted
Congress → push → protections
Now it will be almost impossible to stop, particularly given the current chaos in the supreme court, which has been a partial check on untrammelled expansion by miners, ranchers and monoculturalists.
asserted
which → stop → miners
Against these forces, Lula would struggle to govern even if he wins the runoff.
asserted
he → struggle → runoff
The question now is why voters paid so little heed to these concerns.
asserted
voters → pay → concerns
Many focus on the influence of social media, which has been used far more effectively by the far right.
asserted
which → focus → right
During the Bolsonaro administration, his sons were part of the “hate cabinet” that spread fear and disinformation via WhatsApp groups and other online channels – Bolsonaro’s second son, Carlos, was indicted by federal police for leading the group.
asserted
son → spread → group
Another factor is the expansion of US-style Pentecostalism, which is steadily supplanting Catholicism across Brazil, particularly in the Amazon.
asserted
which → supplant → Amazon
The political and environmental consequences of that religious shift can be seen by comparing the pro-nature treatise of the past two popes with the sermons of many evangelical preachers who encourage followers to seek wealth today as much as, if not more, than following moral creeds to ensure a good afterlife.
asserted
who → see → afterlife
Lula, 80, has been slow to adapt.
asserted
Lula → adapt → ?
Although he is arguably the most iconic and successful Latin American politician of the 21st century, his messaging seems less attuned to the people than it was in his heyday.
asserted
it → seem → heyday
The Workers party has struggled in an era of weaker unions and in some ways been the victim of its own success – with education and social policies that raised millions out of poverty and created greater expectations for consumption and entrepreneurism; and huge subsidies to farmers, who now support the right wing because they chaff at environmental limits.
asserted
they → struggle → limits
Tied into those explanations are the geopolitics of the climate and nature crisis, which is exacerbating great power rivalry between the US and China and amplifying extreme ideologies as much as extreme weather.
asserted
which → tie → weather
In this light, the Brazil election is just the latest in a broader pattern of the far right taking control to expand extractivism despite growing evidence that the capitalist economy is breaking planetary boundaries.
asserted
economy → take → boundaries
In the past two years, Donald Trump has ripped apart environmental regulations in the US and treated the rest of the Americas as his sphere of influence.
asserted
Trump → rip → influence
Venezuela has been invaded for its resources, while in Colombia, Peru and Chile there has been a sharp shift to the right.
asserted
Venezuela → invade → right
Will Brazil be the next domino to fall to Trumpism and its bonfire approach to nature?
asserted
Brazil → fall → nature
The Bolsonaro family certainly hope so.
asserted
family → hope → ?
Jair went so far as to salute the US flag.
asserted
Jair → go → flag
His son Eduardo urged the US to apply tariffs on Brazilian people to “punish” the government for imprisoning his father.
asserted
son → urge → father
The Brazilian intelligence agency has warned that the US was trying to interfere in the election.
asserted
US → warn → election
…and 6 more, not listed.
The Aporia
