“What is Amazonia’s role in the world? And what is the world’s role in Amazonia?” The second chapter presents the globalization of environmental issues and the uncertainties and controversies of the twenty-first century. The third is centered on the utopias of the twenty-first century. Contradictions in Western culture are analyzed. The scientific, economic, and political connections between sustainable development and the places, regions, and the world are shown. The relations between Amazonia and the new world contracts are presented, reaffirming again Amazonia’s importance to mankind. The fourth chapter analyzes the nexus between science, religion and the origins of universe and life within the context of sustainability. It articulates science and religion emphasizing the contradictions, ruptures, and links with sustainability and Amazonia. Scenarios that discuss Amazonia’s ecological, theological, and scientific importance to the current civilization framework are presented. It also presents the importance of sustainability to citizen education, mankind, and the planet’s future. Finally, it concludes with important considerations on the insertion of sustainability in social, economic, scientific, and religious processes. The fifth chapter reaffirms sustainability as the main invention of the twenty-first century. Exploratory studies are presented on the aspects of processes of Western civilization, which have contributed to sustainability as fundamental to the solution of postmodernity’s complex issues. It proposes to expand the significance of the concept of sustainability and its application to scenarios immersed in the nature-culture universe. The sixth chapter presents the predatory development of Amazonia dating from the beginning of the twentieth century. It shows that capitalism does not have the heuristic reach to economically exploit Amazonia while preserving its biomes. Proposals and uncertainties concerning Amazonia’s ecological issues are analyzed. Environmental and social impacts from large socioeconomic development projects implemented in the region are shown. Technical elements to clarify the sustainability concept and its correlation with the development of Amazonia and the world are presented and analyzed. In the seventh chapter , several actions taken by Brazil’s new president designed to destroy important sustainable programs from Amazonia and Brazil are presented. It shows politics in the service of non-sustainability. Environmental and social tragedies caused by large mining companies are also analyzed. The study reaffirms the incompatibility of predatory capitalist productive forces with the sustainability of places and people. It also shows the control that these productive forces have over the national state, turning it into a weapon against citizenship. Through macro-scenarios, the eighth chapter ←xii | xiii→shows from a humanist perspective, that the history of capitalist and communist expansion was a tragedy. To this day, capitalism continues destroying the environments and cultures of colonized peoples. Its wars and the unsustainable use of the planet are a growing threat to mankind’s future. In bloodthirsty actions, the use of weapons always surpasses diplomacy and sustainability. The Vietnam War remains as a singular example.
In a slower and camouflaged but no less predatory form, the repetition of this history is fully under way in Amazonia. The Brazilian state is its main protagonist. To illustrate this framework, several scientific and ethnological scenarios from Brazilian Amazonia are presented, and the importance of this region to contemporary world is emphasized. Finally, in the ninth chapter, our commitment to sustainability and the preservation of Amazonia are presented, along with the six main issues raised by the twenty-first century’s concern with sustainable development. All related to the accumulation, expansion, and circulation of capital.
As proposed by the authors, this book has broadened the meaning of the notion of sustainability and reaffirmed the importance of Amazonia for Brazil and mankind. In this complex panel, it presents new theoretical and empirical elements in order to understand Amazonia and its links with sustainability, culture, and nature. It also constitutes a complaint against the destruction of Amazonia and an instrument for environmental preservation and education for sustainability. Brazilian Amazonia is in jeopardy. This potential tragedy has accelerated this publication.
Manaus, October, 14, 2019
Marcílio de Freitas
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Amazonia is one of the planet’s last utopias. Before the New World was discovered, it already instigated the imaginary of people, travelers, and government. What is its future? The Future of Amazonia in Brazil: A Worldwide Tragedy is a study on the importance of protecting Amazonia and constructing its sustainable development.
According to Brazil’s new president, Jair Bolsonaro, “Environmental preservation should not be important for those who want to do business and produce.” At this juncture, at this time, Amazonia is a great border open to the predatory forces of capitalist production. Its continued existence is in danger. On the initiative of the UN, World Environment Day has been celebrated on 5 June since 1972. Its objective is to promote programs and actions that protect and preserve the environment, raise awareness on the need to protect life, the planet, and the future of mankind. The world environment has never been more threatened. This study approaches this subject of universal importance with Amazonia and worldwide processes as its central focus. It is organized on the basis of recent research and studies I have developed in collaboration with Marilene Corrêa da Silva Freitas since 2017. Its central axis is sustainable development in Amazonia and its articulations with worldwide socioeconomic processes. The authors integrate several themes that compose the theoretical and empirical substratum of sustainability, in the context of the development of Amazonia and worldwide processes, as illustrated in Figure 1. The destruction of Amazonia announced by the current Brazilian government has ←xv | xvi→accelerated the organization of this book. The threat to 68% of its protected areas and indigenous territories, this is equivalent to 390 million hectares (Barifouse, 2019), the state’s breaking with international import agreements on the ecological protection of Amazonia, and the complete opening up of the region to predatory capitalist development are the Brazilian government’s perverse political actions. It is a tragic picture, the return of the massive timber and mineral complexes, agroforestry companies, deforestation (cutting and burning) and the occupation for extensive agriculture and cattle breeding, the expansion of agribusiness, multiplication of huge hydroelectric plants, and infrastructure for highways, in addition to public policies on the research and exploration of fossil energy and natural gas, causing irreversible environmental destruction on Amazonia. Inadequate environmental protection from these initiatives will accelerate the irreversible ecological destruction of the region. These are the main threats to Amazonia, all of them legitimated by the current Brazilian government. In 2018, Brazil led the world in deforestation, with the disappearance of 1.3 million hectares of its primary forests (McGrath, 2019). In addition, the Report published by the UN registers the threat of extinction of 1 million species (UN News, 2019). Life has never been so threatened on the planet. The destructive interventions in Amazonia lead this civilizing ←xvi | xvii→barbarism that affects us all. Man’s relationships with nature need to change radically. Simultaneously, there is need for a radical break with predatory capitalism. At its limit, it is paramount to give new meaning to the foundations, the explanatory meanings, and the operative mechanisms of this type of capitalism. We can affirm that, in Amazonia, the growing poverty of its populations is proportionate to the degree of destruction of its cultures and biomes. These subjects are analyzed in this book. New proposals are made with a view to safeguarding life and nonpredatory development; for a better and sustainable world for us all, at this time and in the future.
Figure 1. Map of Amazonia with its two main cities, Manaus and Belem, and its main economic poles.
The second
