Why the Amazon Matters

Nikolas Kozloff, author of three books on Latin America including his latest, No Rain in the Amazon: How South America’s Climate Change Affects the Entire Planet, makes the case for paying closer attention to the region’s environmental issues, particularly the rainforest. “It’s not just an abstract environmental issue anymore – it’s of primary concern to us all,” he said. In fact, he noted, the landscape in the Amazon is changing so much that “you could swear as you’re going down this road that you’re in the middle of Iowa. You don’t see the rainforest. You don’t see wildlife. All you see is a John Deere tractor.” Below, Kozloff explains what’s happening in the Amazon and why it should matter to Americans.

Q. When we talk about climate change we often focus on cars or ice caps. What’s going on in the rainforest?

A. The Amazon rainforest is of concern because it locks up a great amount of carbon dioxide. In the best of times, the Amazon rain forest acts as a great insurance policy for the global climate because it absorbs carbon dioxide. Unfortunately, the Amazon can also be a carbon curse. When you have deforestation, the carbon dioxide locked in the vegetation and the trees gets released.

I think when people think about global warming they think about, maybe, the transportation sector, airplanes, cars. But deforestation is really climbing up the list of priorities at, for instance, the intergovernmental panel on climate change, which now says tropical deforestation is the second greatest cause of carbon emissions after the transportation sector. While some estimates put tropical deforestation somewhat lower than 20 percent of our total carbon emissions, it’s a big driver of our greenhouse gases. We’re talking about vast regions. It’s the size of the 48 contiguous United States, making up 40 percent of the land mass of South America, and touching on many countries. In the book I focus primarily on Brazil and Peru, which are the largest Amazonian countries.

No Rain in the Amazon, by Nikolas KozloffSo when you talk about tropical deforestation, the Amazon accounts for half of the emissions from deforestation. You do have deforestation in Indonesia, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but the Amazon is the largest driver. If we’re serious about addressing climate change, we have to start with the Amazon, and have in my view a massive reorganization of the Amazon from a social and environmental standpoint. I’m very encouraged that a Hollywood director like James Cameron is now setting his sights on the region – he went down there and is putting a spotlight on the issue, and I think that’s what it’s going to take. Unfortunately the media doesn’t really pay attention to the Amazon without high-profile people getting involved.

Q. Has deforestation been growing, and what can we do to stop that process?

A. Deforestation may go up or down, depending on the price of commodities on the global level. Overall, however, it is growing over time. That’s been recognized by the ICC. I think that what’s required is a huge collaboration between the global North – primarily the U.S. and Europe and china too, although I’m not too optimistic about China’s involvement. China is important because it’s been importing a lot of soymeal from Brazil. They have a growing middle class of people who see meat consumption as a status symbol – they look toward the U.S., where everyone eats meat, and they want to emulate that lifestyle. So China has to import soymeal to feed all its livestock, and soymeal production leads to deforestation.

Primarily, though, I think the U.S. has to exert better leadership. So people ask, what’s the connection between the U.S. and Brazil or the Amazon? It may seem like an abstract issue, and yet you have big U.S. companies like Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland, which are agribusiness companies, in Brazil. You have international financial organizations that take their cues from the U.S., funding environmental boondoggles in Brazil and elsewhere. And Americans consume tropical commodities, including Amazonian beef, which has made its way to Burger King, and also Amazonian leather in upholstery and cars. The Amazon is not an abstract issue.

What we need is a massive bailout of the tropical countries by the U.S. and Europe. We’re talking tens of billions of dollars per year. That might sound ambitious, but if we’re going to get a handle on the emissions problem, we have to start investing a lot more money. It’s not as if the money doesn’t exist – it’s a question of political priorities. We fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to the tune of tens of billions if not more, so the money exists for those foreign exploits but not for more constructive ends. Americans need to start pressing Washington.

And in addition to a bailout, I think we have to recognize that there are deep social inequalities in Brazil that need to be addressed to solve the environmental problems. There are a lot of landless farmers who will have to be resettled. The way economies are run inside of the Amazon will also have to be reoriented – moving away from cattle ranching and soybean production and concentrating on more sustainable agriculture like Brazil nuts, local handicraft, sustainable ecotourism, medicinal plants from the Amazon, and other such activities. We have to move away from agribusiness. That of course poses big political problems. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, even though he’s from the Workers’ Party and has a leftist political orientation, he is close to agribusiness. Brazil likes to project an image of modernity to the rest of the world, and it is an economic powerhouse, but from a labor and environmental perspective Brazil is a disaster. There are all sorts of human rights abuses in the Amazon. This is a paradox because Brazil is hosting the Olympic Games and is promoting its image abroad.

These are thorny problems, and it’s not going to be easy. But the alternative is this downward spiral, which is already happening.

Q. What are environmental politics like in Brazil?

A. There are many people in Brazil who want to preserve the rainforest. I profile a woman with a very moving story – Marina Silva. She was the Environmental Minister of Brazil, and was herself a rubber tapper. She had a very challenging life as a girl growing up in the Amazon. She made her way up and became a senator and then minister under Lula, though she recently resigned. So there are voices for reform, but they’re outflanked by agribusiness, and there are logistical problems because it’s such a big region. It’s a challenge for environmental authorities that have to monitor these huge swaths of rainforest. In addition you have these soy barons who have incredible political power. There’s one, Blairo Maggi, who was elected governor of a state in central Brazil – so you have incredible political and economic power concentrated in one person. It’s the soy barons who push landless farmers into the rainforest, sometimes indirectly, by dedicating a large area of land to soybean farming. And you see these big roads being constructed – you could swear as you’re going down this road that you’re in the middle of Iowa. You don’t see the rainforest. You don’t see wildlife. All you see is a John Deere tractor, and these boomtowns on the side of the roads. Just as we expanded to the American West, Brazil is now integrating the central region of the country into other regions, much as we did. This is creating a lot of repression and unrest – a few years ago an American nun named Dorothy Stang was shot and killed in the Amazon after helping to promote sustainable agriculture and fighting against cattle ranching.

Q. You mentioned soybeans as one destructive crop for the forest – are there others?

A. A key issue I touch upon in the book is coca production. As I said before, the two countries I focus on are Brazil and Peru, which have the largest swaths of Amazonian rainforest. Now in Peru you don’t have that same level of intense economic concentration and agribusiness and a multibillion dollar industry exporting Amazonian beef and soymeal all over the globe. But what you do have is deforestation from coca leaves, the raw produce of cocaine. What Americans often overlook when they think about the cocaine industry is that there are many poor farmers in the Andean region pushed into the coca trade. They don’t necessarily want to farm coca, but if you’re poor, and coffee doesn’t yield enough for you to support your family, you will turn to coca. This is a big problem. In the 1970s and 80s an area twice the size of Rhode Island was deforested directly or indirectly for coca production in Peru.

In my view we have a totally misplaced drug war strategy in the Andean region. Our solution is to send billions of dollars to Colombia and Peru to basically repress coca farmers, which hasn’t produced positive results and has probably just caused more violence. Until you resolve the underlying social problems, as in the case of Brazil, you’re not going to have any environmental protection. Even though the causes of deforestation in the two countries are somewhat different, both share a common factor of social inequality. We should be funding crop substation – farmers need an alternative. This may not be a panacea either – another crop could just start being farmed in the Amazon.

Q. What effects, if any, is climate change having in the rainforest today?

A. We’re already seeing droughts in the Amazon. Climate change is already occurring there. Some scientists believe that the El Niño effect, which effects California but also a wide area across the Pacific region – could be accelerating and becoming more intense. It’s a meteorological phenomenon associated with the ocean. It results in warming waters and, typically, droughts in South America. This is a naturally occurring phenomenon, but with global warming, scientists believe it could be accelerating and becoming more intense. Scientists believe with consecutive El Niños you could have a drying out of the Amazon and even more emissions. That would be a disaster.

Q. You mentioned that Americans don’t necessarily pay attention to the rainforest – is Europe the same way?

A. Somewhat better. They’re somewhat ahead of us, environmentally speaking. They’re probably going to demand tougher environmental standards from tropical commodities. And they’re also very concerned about ethanol, a whole other issue that I do take up in the book. Brazil makes ethanol from sugar cane instead of corn, like the U.S., which has resulted in less carbon emissions than fossil fuels. But there are other environmental and labor problems associated with sugar cane. So the Europeans, and for example the Swedes, who were importing Brazilian ethanol, made a huge outcry when it became clear that there was a downside to the biofuels. Brazil, which wants to export its ethanol, may not have such a welcome market in Europe as a result of some of the recent disclosures. Even though the ethanol industry in Brazil is in a region far from the Amazon, cattle get displaced into other areas of the country. You may solve one environmental problem, but you may cause a ripple effect, so whatever gains you get are offset by other losses.

Q. And back to James Cameron – how do you think he’ll impact U.S. policy in the Amazon, if at all?

A. In his blockbuster movie Avatar, James Cameron depicted an indigenous struggle against a mining corporation in a fictional world. I’m glad to see he’s not just concerned with the virtual, and has come down to the Amazon to criticize hydroelectric power – a key issue not just because it displaces people and floods large areas of the rainforest, but also because the hydropower results in methane emissions. When people think about global warming they tend to focus on carbon dioxide. It’s the most abundant greenhouse gas. So people often overlook methane, which is not as abundant but is much more potent. Cameron I think is right on the mark when he criticizes the Belo Monte dam, for instance, because hydropower will increase methane. So I’m glad to see he’s allying himself with the cause, and helping focus more attention on the issue.

*Photo courtesy izolan.


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