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AUTHORITARIANISM ENVIRONMENT NORTH EAST

Disaster: Brazilian government can’t find oil spill source

2 months into the largest spill in Brazilian history, after gutting environmental protection agencies and silencing scientific research institutes, the government can’t figure out where the oil is coming from. With 2100 km of beaches already poisoned, far right President Bolsonaro says, “the worst is yet to come.” First he blamed the communists. Why not? […]

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ENVIRONMENT NORTH EAST SCIENCE

Satellite imagery reveals 330km2 Oil Slick off Bahia coast

Scientist says slick appears to be from drilling accident. Bolsonaro administration ignores data, tries to blame Venezuela On October 30th, two days before Brazilian Federal police moved to investigate a Greek oil tanker for the oil spill which has poisoned over 2000 km of Brazilian coastline, researchers at the Federal University of Alagoas published satellite […]

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ENERGY ENVIRONMENT NORTH EAST

Save our Shores: The Oil Disaster in Brazil’s North East

By Nate Allen. “This is the biggest (marine) environmental disaster in the history of Brazil, if we consider the length of the coastline that has been affected”, said biologist Flavio Lima. Brazil’s Northeast 2,000 km shoreline has been splattered with oil, from large swathes to millions of tiny blobs that are the size of a […]

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AMAZON AUTHORITARIANISM ENVIRONMENT

Rondonia indigenous affairs post destroyed by loggers

A FUNAI inspection post built inside the Karipuna reservation in Rondonia was destroyed by loggers and land thieves. The building had equipment in it including an electrical generator, furniture  and a mechanics garage. The building hadn’t been used since the Dilma Rousseff presidency. An inspection post belonging to the National Indian Foundation (Fundação Nacional do […]

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AMAZON ENVIRONMENT

New Yorkers protest Cargill’s role in Amazon destruction

On Monday morning, October 7th, a group of twenty organizations protested against Cargill Corporation’s role in the out of control devastation of the Amazon rainforest and massacre of indigenous people currently underway in Brazil, due to far right President Jair Bolsonaro’s dismantlement of the environmental regulatory system and attempts to open indigenous reservations up to […]

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AMAZON AUTHORITARIANISM DEMOCRACY ENVIRONMENT FOREIGN POLICY

Bolsonaro met by protests in New York on eve of UN Assembly

Brazil’s far-right President was welcomed in New York on the eve of the opening of the UN General Assembly with demonstrations against his role in the burning of the Amazon rainforest. Monday 23 September 2019: President Jair Bolsonaro has already arrived in New York City (USA) to open work at the UN General Assembly General […]

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AMAZON AUTHORITARIANISM ENVIRONMENT

Demands for UN Secretary General to censure Bolsonaro over Amazon Fires and Human Rights

A broad coalition of civil society organizations demand that the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres censure Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at the General Assembly over the Amazon rainforest’s destruction and grave human rights concerns New York City – U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres should formally censure the extremist right-wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a broad coalition […]

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AMAZON AUTHORITARIANISM ENVIRONMENT

Rondonization: World Bank, Dictatorship and the Amazon

The development philosophy behind the fires in the Amazon is based on the World Bank funded, Dictatorship era Polonoroeste project, which killed thousands and devastated Rondonia’s rainforest. To Bolsonaro and his military aids, there was nothing wrong with it.  by Brian Mier During the 1980s a series of shocking images and films appeared of massive […]

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AMAZON ECONOMY ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL MEDIA MEDIA SOVEREIGNTY

How to navigate Anglo media’s Amazon doublespeak

By Brian Mier I spent last week in the Brazilian Amazon in Porto Velho, Rondonia, on the edge of what is called the arco do incendios. The “arc of fires” is a region stretching along the yet-to-be-paved highways 319 and 230, between the towns of Humaitá and Apui in Southern Amazonas, a state that still had 98% of […]

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ACADEMIC AMAZON ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE

Brazilian Academics: 2019 Amazon fires are not “normal”

A group of Brazilian academics based in Sweden debunk media and governmental claims that the 2019 Amazonian fires are a “normal” seasonal event. Brazil is currently facing worldwide attention due the fires in the Amazon rainforest. After an extremely polarized 2018’s electoral race which culminates in election of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazilian society is deeply divided […]