The cost of Brazil

‘There was a time when European economists looked at Latin America with horror. Weighed down by debt, plagued by hyperinflation, and ravaged by unemployment, the region was a financial disaster zone.’

However, has Brazil’s economic growth been too damaging on the Amazon rain-forest?

It is one of the rising economic powers - otherwise known as BRICS nations - together with Russia, India, China and South Africa. Over the past few years it has made major strides in its efforts to raise millions out of poverty. The discovery of major offshore oil reserves could propel the country into the top league of oil-exporting nations. The exploitation of the Amazon rain-forest  much of which is in Brazil, has been a major international worry, since the wilderness is a vital regulator of the climate. It is also an important reservoir of plant and animal life.

A drive to move settlers to the Amazon region during military rule in the 1970's caused considerable damage to vast areas of rain forest  Deforestation by loggers and cattle ranchers remains controversial, but government-sponsored migration programmes have been halted. In 2005 the government reported that one fifth of the Amazon forests had been cleared by deforestation. Deforestation has been slowed down by extra policing and pressure from environmental and consumer groups.

The government has fined illegal cattle ranchers and loggers, while the food industries have banned products from illegally deforested areas, such as soya beans and beef. Officials estimate that deforestation in 2010 fell to 5,000 square km for the year, down from 7,000 square km the year before and a peak of 27,000 square km in 2004. Brazil's natural resources, particularly iron ore, are highly prized by major manufacturing nations, including China. Thanks to the development of offshore fields, the nation has become self-sufficient in oil, ending decades of dependence on foreign producers.

One of the major concerns arising from deforestation in Brazil is the global effect it produces on climate change. The rain-forests are of vital importance in the carbon dioxide exchange process, and are second only to oceans as the most important sink on the planet to absorb increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide resulting from industry.

The most recent survey on deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions reports that deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is responsible for as much as 10% of current greenhouse gas emissions due to the removal of forest which would have otherwise absorbed the emissions having a clear effect on global warming. The problem is made worse by the method of removing the forest where many trees are burned to the ground emitting vast amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, not only affecting air quality in areas of Brazil but affecting the carbon dioxide levels globally as a result.

Though the fires are only intended to burn limited areas of forest to make way for allocated agricultural plots, they frequently burn much more extensive areas of land than intended. The burning of the forest has terrible consequences anyway, but this suggests that Brazil have been taking deforestation too far? Well yes, the statistics show that the cost on the environment in the long run is terrible and sooner or later the world will go into overshoot  (which occurs when a population exceeds the long term carrying capacity of its environment. The consequence of overshoot is called a crash or die-off)