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They want to clear-cut the Amazon. That is their ambition.
https://www.salon.com/2018/11/03/bolsonaro-of-brazil-slayer-of-the-amazon_partner/. . . In August, Bolsonaro said that he would join the United States in exiting the Paris Climate Agreement. When pushed on this a week before the second round of the presidential election, Bolsonaro said, “Brazil stays in the Paris Agreement.” But then, upon his election, Bolsonaro said, “We will liberate Brazil and the Foreign Ministry from the ideology of its international relations that it has subjected Brazil to in recent years.” What he refers to is the Foreign Ministry’s consensus position on multilateralism — to build global frameworks, such as the Paris Agreement, that will help to mitigate global problems. Bolsonaro is against all that. He wants to push an agenda of economic growth that will include policies that will certainly imperil the Amazon rainforest and Brazil’s other ecological treasures.
The destination for the world’s largest mining firms is the Amazon. Last year, Bolsonaro carried two pieces of metal to Brasilia from the Amazon — graphene (for solar cells) and niobium (for steel). He wanted to use this stunt to promote mining. Giant mining firms already have their grip on Brazil. These firms are from Australia (Mirabela Nickel, BHP), Canada (Belo Sun, Kinross Gold, Yamana Gold), Switzerland (Glencore), the United Kingdom (Anglo-American, Rio Tinto) and the United States (Alcoa). They either already have operations in Brazil or are eager to develop operations. What they have long wanted is to cut regulations that protect the environment and indigenous communities. All this is irrelevant to these firms. They want to clear-cut the Amazon. That is their ambition.
Ecological fragility is irrelevant. So too are scientific studies to assess damage. All that is important is the profits that will accrue not to the Brazilian people but to monopoly mining firms based in such distant shores as Canada and Switzerland. When people like Bolsonaro talk of sovereignty, they do not mean the sovereignty of their fellow citizens. They mean the sovereignty of the monopoly corporations.
Not one centimeter
During his campaign, Bolsonaro announced that “not one centimeter of land will be demarcated for indigenous reserves or quilombolas (descendants of those people who freed themselves from slavery).” Even more harshly, Bolsonaro said, “Let’s make Brazil for the majorities. Minorities have to bow to the majorities. Minorities will fit in or just disappear.” This is the language of genocide. He gives Brazil’s indigenous people — about a million people out of 210 million — an impossible choice: either abandon your independence and culture (protected by Article 231 of Brazil’s 1988 Constitution) or die.
Violence has become commonplace in the Amazon. Last year, 110 indigenous people were murdered, while the year before the count was 118 (numbers from Conselho Indigenista Missionario). Activists believe that the numbers will now rise.
One agency of the Ministry of Environment is called the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio). The name Chico Mendes is essential here. Mendes, a trade union leader and environmentalist, was shot to death on December 22, 1988, by the son of a rancher. The conspiracy to kill Mendes included the Rural Democratic Union — the ranchers’ organization—and the local police. The ranchers wanted the land without regulations and the workers without a union. Bullets brought down Chico Mendes, but around him fire and chainsaws cut down his beloved Amazon. “At first I thought I was fighting to save rubber trees,” Chico Mendes said before he died, “then I thought that I was fighting to save the Amazon rainforest. Now I realize that I am fighting for humanity.”
The destination for the world’s largest mining firms is the Amazon. Last year, Bolsonaro carried two pieces of metal to Brasilia from the Amazon — graphene (for solar cells) and niobium (for steel). He wanted to use this stunt to promote mining. Giant mining firms already have their grip on Brazil. These firms are from Australia (Mirabela Nickel, BHP), Canada (Belo Sun, Kinross Gold, Yamana Gold), Switzerland (Glencore), the United Kingdom (Anglo-American, Rio Tinto) and the United States (Alcoa). They either already have operations in Brazil or are eager to develop operations. What they have long wanted is to cut regulations that protect the environment and indigenous communities. All this is irrelevant to these firms. They want to clear-cut the Amazon. That is their ambition.
Ecological fragility is irrelevant. So too are scientific studies to assess damage. All that is important is the profits that will accrue not to the Brazilian people but to monopoly mining firms based in such distant shores as Canada and Switzerland. When people like Bolsonaro talk of sovereignty, they do not mean the sovereignty of their fellow citizens. They mean the sovereignty of the monopoly corporations.
Not one centimeter
During his campaign, Bolsonaro announced that “not one centimeter of land will be demarcated for indigenous reserves or quilombolas (descendants of those people who freed themselves from slavery).” Even more harshly, Bolsonaro said, “Let’s make Brazil for the majorities. Minorities have to bow to the majorities. Minorities will fit in or just disappear.” This is the language of genocide. He gives Brazil’s indigenous people — about a million people out of 210 million — an impossible choice: either abandon your independence and culture (protected by Article 231 of Brazil’s 1988 Constitution) or die.
Violence has become commonplace in the Amazon. Last year, 110 indigenous people were murdered, while the year before the count was 118 (numbers from Conselho Indigenista Missionario). Activists believe that the numbers will now rise.
One agency of the Ministry of Environment is called the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio). The name Chico Mendes is essential here. Mendes, a trade union leader and environmentalist, was shot to death on December 22, 1988, by the son of a rancher. The conspiracy to kill Mendes included the Rural Democratic Union — the ranchers’ organization—and the local police. The ranchers wanted the land without regulations and the workers without a union. Bullets brought down Chico Mendes, but around him fire and chainsaws cut down his beloved Amazon. “At first I thought I was fighting to save rubber trees,” Chico Mendes said before he died, “then I thought that I was fighting to save the Amazon rainforest. Now I realize that I am fighting for humanity.”
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Earth will survive - in some form or another.
Humans are busily ensuring that they will NOT survive themselves.
Allegedly the "most intelligent" species on the damn planet - shits in its own bed, flies and maggots are gathering, the flesh is eating itself and still they persist.
D U M B.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/03/the-most-intellectual-creature-to-ever-walk-earth-is-destroying-its-only-home
