href="#ulink_207bb10d-12f7-5d1a-b534-aa8587108519">2014) state that “In Amazonia, there are 5.5 million square kilometers occupied by native forests, with approximately 400 billion trees of the most varied sizes.” “We did the count, which was also independently verified, and emerged the incredible number of 20 billion tons (or 20 trillion liters) of water that are produced every day by the trees in the Amazonian basin.”
Therefore, there are the “flying rivers” in the Amazonian atmosphere, a complex hydrographical basin on its solid surface, and large hydrological reservoirs in its subsoil, not yet properly dimensioned. Understanding nature’s engineering operation here presents a great challenge for future generations. The connections between these natural water courses and the energy transport processes in Amazonia involve several worldwide ongoing interdisciplinary research programs.
The energy moves the splendor of animal and plant life in the Amazonian basin. The intensity of solar energy in this region is 400 calories per square centimeter per second. One calorie is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius. It is estimated that 80–90% of this energy is used in the forest evapotranspiration process and 10–20% for air heating (sensible heat). There are days in which the temperature increases by up to 30 degrees for heights 10 km above the ground. In the forest on dry land, the steam originates from transpiration (70%) and from rain’s evaporation intercepted by the forest canopy (30%). The Amazonia and Congo basins and the area around Borneo are typically tropical, important to earth’s ecological stability and efficient in the absorption of solar energy and its redistribution via atmosphere (Crutzen and Andrae, 1990). Recent studies project that the humidity conversion process (via rain) in Amazonia’s atmosphere liberates heat equivalent to approximately 400 million megawatts. This energy is essential to Amazonia’s maintenance and to the thermodynamic stability of global atmospheric processes. These surveys are ongoing.
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Amazonia’s energy and waters are the physical “fuels” of its biological and cultural diversity. Interventions in its environments by Amazonian traditional populations have increased its biological diversity over time. After the arrival of man in this region thousands of years ago, three factors have emerged and contributed to the multiplication of its heterogeneity. First, the hunting or selective fishing of large animals, birds, and fish; second, fire, which has resulted in the opening of small clearings; and the introduction of exotic species such as dogs, oxen, cultivated plants, and the domestication of native species (Brown Júnior and Freitas, 2002). The habits, relationships, and movements of its fauna and flora in its biomes as well as its physical interactions with external environments also amplified its biological diversity. Finally, the continuous renewal of its cycles of nature and the circulation of its peoples in its natural gardens also contributed to the construction of its rainforests and rivers. Therefore, the sustainable development of Amazonia is also a commitment and a civic debt of the national state to its original populations that have bequeathed us this fantastic physical and cultural heritage.
The break with important international scientific and technological collaborations associated with several Brazilian research programs towards better understanding of Amazonian ecosystems functioning and use is another of the Brazilian government’s mistakes. The destructive impact of this political action will affect several national institutions and generations of young Brazilians. Once again, political barbarism has triumphed over wisdom. Concentrated and long-term research, sophisticated studies, important social and economic projects applied to region, specialized technical training programs, and collaborations of a universal nature, among others, are in the process of extinction. A particular example is the destruction of the Amazon Fund Program, as presented in Chapter 7. Brazil still does not have enough science and technology for the full development of Amazonia in sustainable patterns. The integration and sustainable development of Pan-American Amazonia require alliances with traditional populations and international collaboration in knowledge from various fields.
The scientific and technological education of the 163 indigenous peoples from Brazilian Amazonia is another challenge. The organization of their academic curriculum requires the following innovations: reaffirmation of the education of indigenous teachers committed to science education integrated to the complexity of the region; an interdisciplinary pedagogical project emphasizing the indigenous teachers’ participation in teaching the subjects of this program; incorporation of themes touching on philosophy, the natural sciences, and the social sciences; inclusion of approaches and technical innovations that enable an interface of Western science and traditional knowledge; formation of networks promoting their scientific inclusion; formation of vocational technology platforms; and the access of the ←10 | 11→students to contemporary educational issues, strengthening their cultural formation and confrontation with predatory capitalism.
Teacher training programs for the indigenous peoples with a view to making Amazonia sustainable should be guided by the following thematic axes: mathematization and geometrization of nature’s processes; history and philosophy of science and indigenous education; research methodology in science education for indigenous teachers; psychopedagogical models applied to science education for indigenous teachers; instrumentalization for the training of indigenous teachers in science education; training of indigenous teachers in the models of sustainable development; indigenous education, communication, and contemporaneity; and engineering for the rainforest, health technicians, among other less important topics (Freitas and Pires, 2012). The Indigenous University of Amazonia is still a distant reality. This institution would generate many innovations in public policies and sustainable development of the region and the world. Its implementation is also a challenge to the region’s leaders.
How to develop Amazonia? This is a key issue both regionally and nationally. The sustainable development of Amazonia requires a set of operational initiatives among which we highlight: the building of a national political consensus; heavy investments in research, innovation, and development; increased support of the regional research and technology institutions; guide the basic science and tropical technological innovations to regional public policies; induce new tropical technologies; development of new differentiated industrial and fiscal policies; appropriate infrastructure and logistics; new regulatory framework for sustainable ecological and economic zoning; participant planning including all social and economic actors; and consolidation of national and international scientific partnerships. Sustainable development inserts new elements into Amazonia’s future.
In contrast, the federal government’s incentive of the possession and illegal use of indigenous lands by prospectors and loggers, and its threat to revise consolidated indigenous rights are another perverse legacy from the new president of Brazil. The growing expansion of agribusiness in Amazonia and the recent authorization by the Brazilian government of 51 different types of highly toxic pesticides also constitute threats to its indigenous peoples. Agribusiness continues to advance through Amazonia, creating poverty for its populations, deforesting and contaminating its biomes.
Without exception, all of the major projects that have been proposed for Amazonia are guided by predatory capitalist development. Proposals for a new territorial division and environmental cartography, economic de-structuring, exacerbated privatization, frequent illegal occupation of extensive territories, and unrestricted access to the large economic groups that use or collect nature’s resources ←11 | 12→on a large scale, among others, has generated a lot of tension and will contribute to the growth of poverty among their populations and the irreversible destruction of its ecosystems. Amazonia’s social poverty and environmental destruction are historical and political monuments to this type of capitalism, as shown in Chapter 6.
The use of organized and accumulated knowledge about Amazonia and the humid tropics
