The Future of Amazonia; an Announced Worldwide Tragedy Volume 4 - Issue 3

Marcílio De Freitas*

• Professor at the Federal University of Amazonas, Former Secretary of Science and Technology of the State of Amazonas, Brazil

Received:June 15, 2021;   Published: June 25, 2021

Corresponding author:Marcílio De Freitas, Professor at the Federal University of Amazonas, Former Secretary of Science and Technology of the State of Amazonas, Brazil

DOI: 10.32474/JAAS.2021.04.000188

Abstract PDF

“Amazonia is one of the planet’s last utopias. Before the New World was discovered, it already instigated the imaginary of people, travelers and government”. What is its future? This article is a synthesis text on the importance of protecting Amazonia and constructing its sustainable development. Currently, it is going through a very critical phase and it needs all national and international solidarities. It needs to be saved. Its cultures and biomes are in process of fast extinction. Its full submission to the market and to the process of predatory privatization has contributed towards its fast ecological depreciation and exploitation. “Why is Amazonia the last eco-cultural utopia of humanity? What problems does it puts to the World and why is it important to Humanity? Why does predatory capitalism have no theoretical and empirical scope to transform Amazonia into a sustainable environmental commodity? How can we protect it of human stupidity and the market greed? Why has the Brazilian government become a weapon against Amazonia? How can it be developed in a sustainable way for the benefit of the Brazilian people and the Humanity? Who will guarantee its protection? Who will finance its sustainable development?” These questions are analyzed in this text through macro scenarios.

The complexity and greatness of its cultural, symbolic and material, representations, annoy stupid governments and challenge those who believe in the power of education, science and technology to promote its sustainable development, for the benefit of Brazil and Humanity. It is the Brazilian passport for its entry into the ranking of developed countries. This region hosts the world’s greatest cultural and biological diversity in contiguous areas, 1/3 of the world’s tropical rainforest reserves, 1/5 of the planet’s surface freshwater, 1/10 of the world’s solid earth biota. Legal Amazonia covers 9 Brazilian states totaling 4,987,247 km2, 58 percent of Brazil’s total territory and 40 percent of South America, which corresponds to 1/20 of the Earth’s surface. Of this area, 3.5-4 million km2 are with its primary vegetation coverings or without significant anthropogenic disturbances. This region is home to a population of approximately 30 million people, including 163 indigenous peoples totaling 384 thousand people, or 44.7 percent of the Brazilian indigenous population. Every people with a rich and millennial culture. Amazonia has the Amazon River, the largest and most voluminous river in the world, which makes up the most complex hydrographic basin on the planet. It has more than 2,000 rivers, 75,000 km of navigable rivers, a fleet of 350,000 boats, 11,280 km of borders with seven neighboring countries, and 22,320 communities within its forests. Experts have identified more than 11,000 tree species in the region; 19 percent of the tree species known in the world. They project that Amazonia has ecological potential to house 16,000 tree species. They also identified 2,000 species of medicinal plants used by their traditional populations, and 1,250 species producing essential oils. It is a different ecological world with 400 billion trees and 350 tons of biomass per hectare, producing 7.5 tons of litter (branches, branches and leaves) accumulated per hectare annually, one of the world’s largest sources of renewable biomass on solid surface. Specialized literature records that 20- 25 percent of its territory is periodically flooded. It also records a population of 116,409 microbes per square meter in a surface layer of 10 cm deep, in a forest in the Anavilhanas archipelago, in Central Amazonia, subject to periodic flooding.

The increasing use of mercury, germicides and fungicides in the region is contaminating the water basins of this ‘water world’ and triggering a set of diseases and concerns for its populations and Brazilians. How many disasters and diseases could be spread to the world with the destruction of this fantastic region? An announced worldwide tragedy is ongoing. Amazonia is strategic to Brazil and humanity. It raises a number of important issues to the world, with emphasis on the following: its participation in the construction of a new aesthetic concept for humanity, its sustainable development as the world’s largest open living library, as a strategic space belonging to Brazil and the world, as a means to renew the planet, as the planet’s thermostat, and as the planet’s climate stability mechanism [1]. These meanings of Amazonia’s material and symbolic representationsneed to be understood by humanity so that we value nature and life at all times. Its cultural and ecological characteristics need to be protected, disseminated and popularized in Brazil and in the world so that its importance can be valued for the improvement of humans, society and humanity. Its full openness to predatory capitalism, by the current President of the Brazilian Republic, has accelerated its cultural and ecological destruction. The rapid spread of covid-19 in the region has also contributed to the extermination of its peoples in an unprecedented genocide [2-4]. Encouraged by the President of the Brazilian Republic and the Minister of the Environment of Brazil, squatters, prospectors, loggers, farmers, speculators, adventurers, among others, have murdered its indigenous and union leaders, deforested its forests and polluted its hydrographic basin with irreversible damage to its biomes and populations. Brazil’s withdrawal from the World Climate Agreement, the diplomatic break with the Amazon Fund and its international partnerships, and the deconstruction of various environmental and social protection policies and programs in Amazonia have accelerated its destruction. These political actions by the Brazilian government have generated a major diplomatic crisis between Brazil, France, Germany and Norway. The managerial and operational disarticulation of Brazilian Institute of the Environment, the National Indian Foundation and its Health Districts in Amazonia, and the explicit manipulation of its deforestation rates by the Federal Government constitute a crime against Brazil and its people [5]. Deforestation and the cultural and ecological destruction of Amazonia have advanced at an unprecedented pace. This set of political problems contributes to isolating Brazil from the international community. The racial hatred against the peoples of the region already declared by the President of Brazil and some of his ministers, especially by the former Minister of Education, consolidate Brazil as one of the most racist countries and Amazonia as a of the most unprotected regions in the world.

The proposal of the current Minister of Economy for the development of Brazil considers Amazonia as if it did not exist, or as if it were an obstacle to the development of the country. Amazonia needs a development program supported by a fiscal and tributary reform that stimulates and promotes a industrial policy integrated into the region. How to build the social and economic development of this region without cutting down a tree and destroying its biomes? This is the guiding principle [6]. Priority should be given to bioindustry including pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, perfumery and food, fish and fruit farming, ecological mining, new sources of clean energy, environmental services, fine physical and chemistry, ecotourism, agroecology, biojewels, indigenous arts, new materials for technologies of the aeronautical, automobile and naval industries, electronics, robotics, cybernetics, housing, clothing, environmental management, anthropology of the tropics, information and communication technologies, designer, among other productive arrangements. It is also necessary to build new terms of fiscal and tributary agreements with the business and transnational groups installed in the mining-metallurgical pole in Pará State and in the Manaus Industrial Pole at Amazonas State creating the foundation for a new regional industrial policy centered on innovation, science and hightec technology and driven by sustainable programs. Simultaneously, it is important that the public authorities share new partnerships with large successful international industrial groups in strategic areas, building regulations that protect Amazonia, Brazil and its political, economic and social interests, and generating new productive arrangements and management processes for its economy.

The implementation of multiple laboratories for research and development of new products in the region should be highlighted in this enterprise that will create new perspectives for the youth and Brazil. Emphasis on bioindustry in this promising scenario, although still distant [7,1]. Internalizing the national state in the region and institutionalizing the science and technology structures in its municipalities is a condition to accelerate its development on sustainable bases. Its regional and national integration and its incorporation into the national project is the greatest challenge for Brazilian managers and politicians. Institutions such as the National Bank of Social Development, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Industry and Trade, among others, also have to be headquartered in Amazonia. The investment of 1trillion US dollars over 10 years, by public and private partnerships, will enable the success of sustainable development in Amazonia. The political change of the capital of Brazil from Brasilia to Amazonia will consolidate this historical framework that will quickly put Brazil in the ranking of the most developed countries with real prospects of eliminating its great social inequalities. Convincing the Brazilian Parliament for the sustainable development of Amazonia is another political challenge.

Historically, the political representations of the Brazil’s most developed regions, passing through all its ideological aspects, always resist the political proposals that enhance the reconfiguration of Brazil’s economic axes. Amazonia has the worst human development indexes and the most fragile public policies in Brazil; it is one of the most socially and economically unprotected regions of the planet. If it were a sovereign country, certainly, in a period of 10 years it would be among the five most developed countries in the world. Who will save Amazonia? Its future is an announced worldwide tragedy and already agreed in the Brazilian Parliament and Government. International pressure is the last political resistance to its total destruction. Amazonia needs to be occupied by public policies, books, the arts, and by a consistent sustainable development policy, and not by adventurers, opportunists, and nature destroyers. Brazil’s promising future necessarily passes through Amazonia. UN, UNESCO, IMF, WTO, Vatican, Governments committed to a sustainable future, World public opinion, International Financial System and a segment of the Brazilian Judicial System play an important role in national and world movements for the defense of Amazonia. Its total destruction is ongoing. Its transformation into a world heritage is a historical necessity. An important memory of world anthropology and archaeology is also being destroyed. History will judge us all.

1. Freitas M, Silva Freitas MC (2021) Who Will Save Amazonia? World Heritage or Full Destruction. Nova Science Publishers NY In process of publication.
2. Freitas M (2021) Sustainability & Covid-19; Miguel’s Challenges. Peter Lang Publishing NY In process of publication.
3. Freitas M, Silva Freitas MC (2020) The Future of Amazonia in Brasil, A Worldwide Tragedy. New York Peter Lang Publishing.
4. Freitas M, Silva Freitas MC, Ioris A, Castro Júnior WE (2017) Amazônia (Amazonia). Chiado Publishing, Lisbon, USA.
5. Gash J, Nobre C, Roberts J, Victoria R (1996) Amazonian deforestation and climate. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, USA pp: 549-576.
6. INPE (2019) Alertas do DETER sobre desmatamento e degradação ambiental na Amazônia em junho somam 2.072,03 km² (DETER’s alert about deforestation and environmental degradation in Amazonia in June cover 2,072.03 km²) INPE News.
7. Steegel H, Rens WV, Dairon CL, Daniel S, Alexandre A, et al (2016) A descoberta da flora arbórea da Amazônia com uma lista atualizada de todas as taxas arbóreos conhecidas (The discovery of the Amazonian tree flora with an updated checklist of all known tree taxa, Bol. Mus. Para Emílio Goeldi Cienc. Nat 11(2): 231-61.