Brazil is in flames. Fires have spread throughout most of the country, especially in the Amazon region. Normally the region’s fire season occurs between June and October, but now farmers, miners and land grabbers are cutting down the forest and preparing to burn it all year round.
By Jeferson Choma – PSTU (Brazil)
According to data from the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), the Amazon registered 65,667 fires between January and September 1 of this year. This figure represents an increase of 104% compared to the same period last year, when the Institute counted 32,145 wildfires. In fact, more than 38 wildfires were recorded in August alone, according to the Inpe.
The fires in the Amazon have been occurring in regions on the agricultural frontier, such as on the margins of highways,like BR-230 (Trans-Amazon highway), particularly in the municipality of Apuí (Amazonas State) and BR-163, between Itaituba (Pará State) and Novo Progresso (Pará).
The smoke plumes coming out of the Amazon have traveled thousands of kilometers towards the center-south of Brazil. They were transported by the same winds that form the so-called “atmospheric rivers”. But instead of moisture, they have carried the soot produced by the burns at the advancing agricultural frontier. Particularly in the last few days, rivers of smoke have reached cities such as Porto Alegre (in Rio Grande do Sul), São Paulo (São Paulo), Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro), Brasilia (Federal District) and Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais).
Flames in the Pantanal and the Cerrado
This year, the Pantanal[1] and the Cerrado[2] also registered a record number of fires. Since last year, the Cerrado was already registering high deforestation rates; but, since the beginning of this year, 40,496 fires have been registered in total. This marks an increase of 70% compared to the same period in 2023.
The flat land of the Cerrado favors mechanized agriculture. For this reason, more than half of the biome has already been destroyed to make way for the production of soybeans, corn, cotton, or the planting of eucalyptus.
The Pantanal, on the other hand, is suffering the consequences of leasing land to cattle ranchers to expand cattle farming. Those who lease the land seek to make as much profit as possible, even if this means the unlimited exploitation of natural resources and replacing vegetation with crops or pastures.
More than 95% of the biome’s land is private and only 4.4% of the Pantanal is protected by public lands. In addition, the Pantanal also suffers from the territorial expansion of large soybean crops in its surroundings.
An apocalyptic scenario in São Paulo
In the last week of August, the interior of São Paulo was engulfed by large fires, which threatened cities, condominiums, roads and rural properties. It was an apocalyptic scenario of smoke and fire that bore the signs of a coordinated action, very similar to the “day of fire”, when, on August 10 and 11, 2020, farmers and land grabbers set fire to the Amazon, inflamed by Bolsonaro’s speeches.
The images show that the fires started in large territorial areas; and that they started practically at the same time and in large numbers. And further, that they have gotten totally out of control. This burning pattern is very common in the burning of sugarcane straw, an archaic practice that is partially banned in the state, but is insistently used by mill owners.
Satellite images also show that the large fires originated in areas where sugarcane monoculture predominates. São Paulo’s legislation on sugarcane burning is totally lax. And it has one objective: to allow the large sugar mills to continue burning the cane fields. Burning reduces the cost of production. This is more profitable for the mill owners.
The “new normal” of climate change
From north to south, Brazilians are already living under the effects of extreme weather phenomena (such as torrential rains, droughts and more intense heat waves) that are the result of global warming. The effects are so noticeable that 91% of the population has already noticed the changes, according to a survey by the National Confederation of Industry (CNI).
In May, a catastrophic flood hit Rio Grande do Sul, causing the biggest climate disaster in the state. This was a tragedy that had been forseen for some time. Meteorologists and environmentalists warned about the risks of extreme rainfall in the state, but they were ignored, while municipal and state governments tore down laws to protect the environment, all to favor agribusiness, big capitalists, and real estate speculation.
Governments at all levels are agents or accomplices in the catastrophe
The situation was greatly aggravated by the privatization and fiscal adjustment policies implemented by governments at all levels. The entire flood prevention system in the capital, Porto Alegre, was dismantled. The levees broke and the water pumps did not work.
The Lula government also bears responsibility. Besides investing a pittance in the prevention of natural disasters, it has also applied measures that favor of big agribusiness, as we will see below.
Now, according to the National Center for Natural Disaster Monitoring (Cemaden), the country is being hit by what may be the worst drought in recent history. The drought is even worse in the northern region. In the Amazon, more than 300,000 people are suffering from drought. Rivers have dried up, making navigation impossible and isolating entire cities.
Global warming is caused by capitalism
This situation shows that climate change is here to stay. Last year was the hottest year on record in 125,000 years. Ocean temperatures also continue to rise and have already surpassed all previous records. In addition, levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, the main greenhouse gas (GHG), are the highest ever recorded in 800,000 years.
Global warming is caused by the burning of fossil fuels (oil, gas and coal), which release tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. All this is caused by capitalist industry and its voracious consumption of oil. More than 75% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from industry, transportation and buildings.
And it will get even worse
Global warming intensifies extreme weather events, such as the El Niño of 2023-2024, which was the most intense it has been since 1940. This triggered a series of other extreme phenomena, such as the rains in Rio Grande do Sul in May and the current drought. And what’s worse is that the situation is deteriorating even further. The future will be marked by new catastrophes caused by extreme phenomena that is more intense and more frequent.
The poorest populations are the most frequent victims of extreme weather events. And it is important to add a key detail: they are the same populations who have least contributed to the problem.
Agribusiness is fire, death and destruction
In Brazil, the biggest contributors to GHG emissions are capitalist agriculture, cattle ranching and deforestation, which together are responsible for 75% of the country’s emissions. Pará and Mato Grosso are the states that lead the emissions ranking. They are precisely the states with the highest rates of deforestation and increases in cattle ranching and monoculture planting, such as soybean.
In the satellite images it is easy to identify the areas that are being burned with the expansion of the agribusiness agricultural frontier. In these regions, there is a predominance of vacant land, i.e. public land that has no government use and is subject to illegal private appropriation by farmers and land speculators.
Fire as a weapon, the “law” and governments as shields
Fire is an instrument for the theft of these lands. First comes deforestation and logging, followed by fires. Then come pastures, cattle or some monoculture, such as soybeans. Then comes the pardon to the landowners, granted by the governments of the day, through the regularization of lands in the stolen area.
This was carried out by the governments of FHC, Lula, Dilma, Temer and Bolsonaro. This only increased the appetite of land thieves, who were always rewarded for their crimes. Moreover, the governments of the day have deliberately maintained lax regulation of the land market, leaving “wastelands” out of public control, but also refusing to inspect whether or not rural properties have a “social function”, as established by the Constitution. Thus, stolen lands end up being self-declared as productive.
National Parks, Ecological or Extractive Reserves, as well as Indigenous Lands (all public lands) are also invaded by the advancing frontier of agribusiness, loggers and miners (garimpeiros). This problem has been facilitated by the lack of environmental inspection agents and the dismantling of agencies such as the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama), the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) and the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (Funai).
Environmental destruction is caused by capitalist agriculture
Environmental destruction in Brazil and GHG emissions are directly related to the current economic model, based on the export of primary, agricultural or mineral products.
Those who finance agribusiness are the governments, through the public coffers. Last year, the Lula government allocated R$ 360 billion to agribusiness, through the Safra Plan. This year, it announced another R$ 400 billion for the sector, beating all records. This financing guarantees the expansion of agribusiness on the ashes of the Amazon, the Cerrado and other biomes.
The government finances the expansion of this model of agriculture so that the sector produces a surplus in the trade balance; that is, the dollars that enter the country through exports, so that it can replenish the financial system with the payment of the public debt. This story began with the FHC (Fernando Henrique Cardoso) government, which began to invest public money in agribusiness after the 1998 currency crisis.
In other words, the expansion of the sector and the destruction of our biomes are totally connected to financial capital. The winners are the speculators, the big banks and some representatives of agribusiness.
In capitalist agriculture, profit flourishes along with destruction
Moreover, the territorial expansion of this model of agriculture cannot be stopped. This is because the reduction of the sector’s production prices depends on the permanent opening of new lands, even the least fertile, in order to obtain an ever-increasing rate of land rent.
For this reason, in Brazilian agriculture, the tendency of large landowners is to control more and more of the best lands and to acquire greater amounts of income. But, on the other hand, they also seek, through pressure on the State, the incorporation of new areas in production, the guarantee of lowering the general price of production, which translates into an increase in the income of the owners of the best lands.
For all these reasons, this model of capitalist agriculture has accelerated, on an unprecedented scale, the country’s environmental destruction. In a very short period, from 1985 to 2023, Brazil lost more than 110 million hectares of natural areas, according to MapBiomas data. This is almost half of what the country has lost between the year 1500 and today.
Measures to cope with the climate emergency
Agro is fire!
Agribusiness capitalists destroy the environment in the country, promote fires and are the largest emitters of greenhouse gases. Enough of permissiveness with agribusiness. Expropriation, without compensation, of agribusiness.
The confiscation of the sector’s lands should be used to restore degraded ecological systems and biomes. It is necessary to introduce a new model of agriculture, which is ecologically balanced (agroecology or syntropic agriculture, that is, considering integration with nature and its preservation) that, in fact, produces food for the population and not monocultures for export.
For an energy transition controlled by the workers!
For the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the end of fossil fuels!
The Earth’s climate is dangerously reaching the point of no return. The only way out is the transition to clean energy sources. We are for an emergency energy transition plan, designed and controlled by workers, and for the development of renewable energies. We want a plan that starts from the nationalization of energy resources and energy companies, such as Petrobras and Eletrobras, under workers control, and that receive public investments in technologies and processes that allow the transition to clean energy sources. We are against the opening of new oil frontiers and new thermoelectric plants, which will only aggravate global warming, compromising the Earth and humanity.
Strengthening of Civil Defense and Disaster Prevention Systems!
To face new catastrophes, it is necessary to create a public company, under workers’ control, for the construction of a disaster prevention infrastructure. We need a plan for facing extreme weather events, to be prepared and implemented by the population, organized in Popular Councils, in workplaces and homes, and with the necessary support of technicians and scientists.
Repeal of all points of environmental legislation flexibility!
It is also necessary to strengthen the country’s environmental control agencies, hold new public competitions for the admission of new agents, and intensify actions to prevent new fires with firefighters, together with indigenous populations, quilombolas and traditional peasants, who for centuries have used their ancestral knowledge to prevent the spread of fires.
Notes:
[1] “Pantanal” is the name given to the alluvial plain that extends mainly through the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, and to a lesser extent through the state of Mato Grosso and surrounding parts of the department of Santa Cruz in Bolivia and the department of Alto Paraguay in Paraguay.
[2] The Cerrado (from the Portuguese “espesso” or “denso”) is a large tropical savanna ecoregion in Brazil. The Cerrado covers 1,916,900 km², occupying 22% of Brazil’s land area. This is an area larger than the state of Alaska in the United States.
