The Election That Matters for Planet Earth
by Sonam VelaniLate last night, many in the global climate community took a huge sigh of relief as Brazilians elected Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as their next President. Brazil is the largest nation in South America, the ninth largest economy in the world, and most importantly, home to the iconic Amazon rainforest. Few political issues have higher global stakes than the conservation of the Amazon, and Lula’s victory is a huge win for Planet Earth.
NYTimes Opinion piece on the Brazilian Presidential Election and its implications across the globe. Source: NYTimes
But first, a history lesson.
Brazil was once a poster child for conservation. Starting in the early 2000s, the government protected Indigenous communities, monitored forest loss, and imposed huge fines for illegal logging and deforestation. The Forest Code worked. When Lula first took office in 2003, the Amazon was losing 7 million acres per year - by the time he left office in 2011, that number was down to 1.1 million acres per year according to Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research. This number remained relatively consistent until far-right President Jair Bolsonaro came into power in 2019.
Bolsonaro fired environmental experts, gutted Lula’s enforcement mechanisms, and significantly cut spending for science and environmental agencies that were tasked with monitoring and protecting the Amazon. This was all in support of the agribusiness industry that brought him to power. Much of the rainforest that has been cut down has been used as land for cattle grazing, increasing Brazil’s beef exports and agricultural production. At the same time, Indigenous defenders of these prized lands have been vilified and killed. During Bolsonaro’s first three years in office, the Amazon lost 8.4 million acres of natural forests.
Lula brought deforestation of the Amazon down to its lowest levels, and those gains were reversed under Bolsonaro. Source: Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research / Vox.
The Amazon is about 10 times the size of France. In sum, about 17% of the Amazon rainforest has been gutted – if this number reaches 20-25%, the tropical ecosystem will be decimated, threatening millions of people and animals who depend on it. The Amazon is the world’s most biodiverse habitat and includes 14% of the world’s birds and 18% of its vascular plants. The tree count is 390 billion - twice as many as that of the United States. Approximately 20% of all of the world’s freshwater is in the Amazon - our farms in California’s central valley or New York’s upstate regions are irrigated by - you guessed it - The Amazon. This piece of land produces the world’s oxygen, stores its carbon, and holds untold public health benefits.
Now that Lula has defeated Bolsonaro to take over once again, the Amazon will also receive a second chance at life. “Instead of being world leaders in deforestation, we want to be world champions in facing up to the climate crisis and in socio-environmental development,” Lula said. “That way we will have healthy food on our plates, clean air to breathe and water to drink and lots of quality jobs with green investment.”
Bringing all this back home - elections - whether local or global - matter. This is your weekly PSA to get up, get involved, and get to the polls. Election Day here in the US is on November 8, and early voting across New York has already begun. Whether it’s the local ballot measure for the $4.2 billion Clean Air, Clean Water and Green Jobs Bond Act or the race for our state’s governor and legislature, your voice matters. Exercise it!
by Sonam Velani