Amazon Deforestation in Brazil Rose Sharply (LA)

Brazil

Between August 2018 to July 2019, Amazon has lost much of its vegetation and President Jair Bolsonaro isn’t putting his priorities on fixing the issue or implementing any remedies for the restoration of the Amazon.  For years, Amazon has been considered to be the largest tropical rainforest in the world and its famous for its biodiversity. Almost 60% of the Amazon is located in Brazil, which becomes the responsibility of President Bolsonaro. In this article, many environmentalists have been concerned with Bolsonaro’s lack of response towards Amazon’s deforestation and his lack of effort against illegal mining, logging, and ranching. Previous governments had implemented efforts and strategy’s in order to preserve the rainforest but now Brazil is possibly making it worse.

(Jair Bolsonaro, right, with environment minister.)

Two trends have been happening that are concerning to researchers; the increase in deforestation and the increased reluctance to confront illegal activity that causes the deforestation of the Amazon. Once Bolsonaro took office, “his administration cut main environmental

agency’s budget by 24 percent”. His explanation was that “Brazil’s vast protected lands were an obstacle to economic growth and promised to open them up to commercial exploitation.” (Casado and Londoño 2019) While campaigning for president, it had become clear that Bolsonaro believed the Amazon was an obstacle for Brazil to make profits and flourish. One thing I found interesting in articles related to the Amazon, is that lack of incentive for amazon and its victims. The indigenous people of Brazil, forest residents, and environmental agents are being targeted by loggers who see them as obstacles to their efforts to dismantle the Amazon. (Phillips 2019) President Bolsonaro doesn’t seem concerned with his people and its responsibility to the rainforest.

This is similar to some of the themes presented in class. Although this is not like the revolutions of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua; there is a rebellion from the government against the Amazon, that could potentially affect global warming. Germany’s minister has described the consequences of deforestation saying, “protecting the Amazon is a global imperative, especially given the rain forest’s vital role in absorbing and storing carbon dioxide, essential to the effort to slow global warming.”(Casado and Londoño 2019) Through DeFronco’s theory, this kind of revolutions is by reform, there is a mass frustration concerning Bolsonaro’s lack of effort, there has been international intervention by neighboring countries as well as the US and Europe. It also relates to the abuse and neglect many indigenous people receive. There is a necessity to be more inclusive of how the government treats people. He is letting his people down and allies. Bolsonaro has to reevaluate his priorities concerning deforestation and its negative effect on global warming as well as looking into the victims affecting by illegal activity.

 

Links to Articles:

  1. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/brazil-amazon-deforestation-soars-11-year-high-bolsonaro-191118140604466.html
  2. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/28/world/americas/brazil-deforestation-amazon-bolsonaro.html?action=click&module=inline&pgtype=Article
    1. (Main Article)
  3. Hehttps://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/16/amazon-deforestation-brazil-crime-report-human-rights-watch

 

 

Class Notes 11/13/2019

After announcements, Elle Dykstra presented on their Latin America in the News which concerned Evo Morales stepping down from the presidency in Bolivia. We spent most of the class discussing different perspectives/opinions about how Bolivia’s elections had resulted in voter fraud. It’s debatable whether or not Morales’ election/protest would be considered a coup. Jeanine Anez, the acting president of Bolivia, is currently in the process of making a new election.

  • We continued to discuss about coups and what makes a coup?
    • Military Intervention
    • Outside of the Legal/constit process.

Great Discussions on the LA in the news topic!!

Moved on briefly on the “Maps” we looked at for our HAP. Mapping Militant Groups = how can digital visualizations give a better understanding of these complicated political organizations? (we will talk more about this more in the next class, briefly at the beginning)

We got into our HAP groups and discussed how the “maps” were a bit unclear and confusing, which made us struggle with the research question section of the HAP.

Peer Review Reflection

From the feedback I received, I seem to be going in the right direction towards creating a more concise and effective article. The article lacks information on the individual’s personal life and goals, which are one of the things I will be improving. The suggestions I received were very helpful.

Celia Sanchez-LA

This topic is closely represented by the Cuban Revolution and Cuba’s government post-revolution. When looking at websites that talk about Celia Sanchez, it seemed to be biased and opinionated since there were many speculations about Celia and Castro being lovers since they were really close friends. But scholarly articles seemed to have a more in-depth explanation of her life before, during and after the revolution, which is helpful in making the article be unbiased. Some of the sources some from one book and a couple of websites but checking out the websites they seemed biased and less factual about her. I might improve the article by using more scholarly articles and emphasizing her contributions to the revolution.

Celia Sanchez Wikipedia

Based on the readings done in class, Celia Sanchez is a huge key player in the success of the Cuban Revolution and getting Fidel Castro into power. On Wikipedia, everything in the article seems to be relevant to the topic but it does not elaborate much on her role throughout the Cuban Revolution and Post-Revolution. It is very vague and feels like it discredits her from all the work she actually did. A distraction that caught me off guard was the statement of Fidel Castro’s physician, Renee Vallejo, being the other person besides Sanchez that was close to him. It seemed irrelevant to add that since it didn’t seem to have much of a connection to Sanchez only Castro. Most of the article is very factual and eliminates any biases against Sanchez, the Cuban Revolution or the Batista Regime. It shares facts about what she did (briefly). The information is enough to make any assumptions or think that Sanchez made an impact. It stayed pretty much neutral throughout. Much of the viewpoints are underrepresented. Her role throughout the Cuban Revolution needs to be emphasized more and elaborated.

The section about her Early Life, only states where is from, which is great to know about her but what would make the section stronger, would be to add what her life consisted of before she met Castro and got involved in the Revolution.

Some of the citations work, most are from books and the rest are from websites. It’s very limited the information they received from the references since it did not emphasize her role as it should have. Some of the WikiProjects that the article is involved in are WikiProjects Women, WikiProjects Carribean, WikiProjects Military History, WikiProjects Biography/Military/Politics and Government/ and WikiProjects Cuba. All are rated to be of low importance and start class. Which is very surprising since she handled a lot the underground work that carried the Revolution to what it became. But she was a role model many women who wanted to fight for a better future for themselves and their people.

Because of the lack of information on Sanchez, makes it seem that she was not an important key figure or role model. In the Talk section, one person made the assumption that Sanchez was Castro’s lover because of how close they were. Which is very different from what we talk about in class. In our readings, she is distinguished as someone willing to risk everything on the movement and how she worked alongside other women to make this happen. What is appreciated about this article about her is the Legacy section, which shows Castro’s gesture towards Sanchez after her death, to show how much work she put into making Cuba what is it today.