What can and should be done?

Whoever hears the invocations of Pachamama, Mother Earth, already knows that what has been the norm in the relations of human beings with other biomes must not be repeated in the Amazon. To be mindful of Earth’s patient history means realizing, with joy and humility, that human life is a gift of nature, even if we recognize the presence of the Spirit of God in the process. With different images and myths of origin, peoples see themselves as the potter's clay and the divine breath (1). Their existence on this planet was preceded by an incredible creative process, that is expressed in the spectacular biodiversity in the seas, in the springs of fresh water, in the soil and the subsoil, in the diverse layers of vegetation (2).

Now, one who has the time and the pleasure to dialogue with the Earth, hears from her the warning that there will be no conditions to guarantee a favourable environment for life if the biomes were to be systematically modified or even destroyed. The territories of the biomes are different sources of life, although in very diverse conditions. To give an example, what has been done to the biome of the Mata Atlantica and the Cerrado in Brazil is nothing but an irresponsible and nearly absurd way to be and to act. How can the Earth be maintained in equilibrium if 94% of the layer of vegetation and together with it all the biodiversity existing in the Mata Atlantica has been modified and destroyed? How can the Earth maintain the Cerrado as the biome of waters, of the supply of the aquifers, if in 30 years 80% of its vegetation layer was destroyed, and because of this, the deep roots of the trees and the typical biodiversity of this biome were extirpated from this territory?

Those who dialogue with the Earth and with the peoples who have been living together with her for thousands of years, respect their wisdom and acknowledge that one cannot continue attacking the biomes created by the Earth. And those who, even belatedly, learn of the scientific research on the "state of health" of the Earth (3), confirm the wisdom and the prophetic calls of First peoples demanding changes in the way of being of those who seek wealth at any price, know what should be done in Amazonia—which is the biome that we are reflecting on in this article.

No more deforestation of the Amazon jungle, by adopting “zero deforestation” practices and policies. This means no longer seeing the jungle as a business opportunity, and likewise the treeless Amazonian soil as an opportunity for yet more business. Enough of the false and concentrating "economic progress" of the agribusiness model, that views forests and the peoples of the forest as obstacles to its expansion. This means learning to live tending to the real needs of a dignified human life with initiatives of coexistence, of dialogue and of care for the goods that the Earth created for all living beings.

No more aggression against the rivers of this biome of waters, waters that are necessary for the Amazon to be. Instead of ecologically and socially destructive hydroelectric dams, produce only the energy that is strictly necessary for a dignified human life with the use of other sources, such as the sun and the winds. In place of predatory fishing, the defence of sanctuary-lakes destined to the reproduction of fish. The diversity of life forms and the relation of water to the life of the jungle and with the atmosphere are characteristics of the Amazon. That’s how the “air river” over the forest is generated, a river that, carried by the winds, humidifies and guarantees rains and water in many other regions. With respect to the Cerrado she returns part of the waters that this biome offers her. But to the region of the Atlantic Mata of Southeastern Brazil, she offers gracious and generous rains that maintain a fertile region.

Enough of this aggression against the womb of the Amazonian land to extract from her false wealth in the form of minerals, oil, gas; this should be done only when it is really necessary for a dignified human life, acting with maximum care and love, respecting the sacred areas of the peoples and environmental reserves.

Plant trees in deforested areas, and not eucalyptus or pines, but with trees that are typical of the Amazon.

Why should we act in this way?

The news about weather phenomena in the whole planet are motives of alarm and concern for all people. The Amazon itself and its peoples are experiencing increasing heat and that seasonal river flooding has ceased to be normal. And they already feel the consequences of the major droughts, in 2005 and 2010, with human and animal suffering, but also with the death of innumerable trees in the jungle. And this is followed by floods way above traditional levels, causing social and environmental disasters.

In Brazil, the water crisis affects the lives of millions in São Paulo and in the whole Southeast region this is causing worry and a search for understanding. But why has this region, traditionally wet and well-endowed with water, come to a water crisis?  In a search for answers, differentiated responsibilities appear: the waste of over 30% of the water sold by water treatment and distribution companies in the cities; the abuse of agribusiness, which uses 70% of available fresh water with inadequate irrigation technologies; the privileges of big business, and the abandonment of neighbourhoods where the poor live.  In other words, the crisis is the result of the lack of a public policy that takes care of and guarantees quality water for all people. Water is a common good and right of all persons and other living creatures, not a commodity.

Nevertheless, reflection has revealed other processes that generate the crisis. The existence of the "aerial river" formed in the Amazon with its jungle, rivers, humidity and heat, has led to the illusion that the nearly complete deforestation of the Mata Atlantica had nothing to do with the region’s climate.  But the growing lack of balance already existing in the Amazon is diminishing the aerial river, and with that, the possibility that part of it will be sent to the Brazilian Southeast to guarantee rains, water for dams, and humidity. It is now that we are perceiving the weight of the lack of the Mata Atlantica, that one researcher defined as "savings" (4): when the input is diminished, life is maintained with the savings; and in the case of water, the lack of savings acquires the form of a crisis and the threat of tragedy.

Speaking frankly, the various crises and threats to life provoked by climate change demand that what was done with the Mata Atlantica and the Cerrado in Brazil, and in other biomes in the whole planet not be repeated in the Amazon. It is now that we realize the fact that hydric balance and, in part, carbon balance, are absolutely necessary for life; they depend on the existence of extended forests that are rich in biodiversity -- such as those that the Earth created and offered as an essential part of the environment needed for life.

The need to address other imbalances

A significant scientific consensus recognizes that the destruction of the forests and the general aggression against the biomes were not caused by the increase in the number of persons on the planet. It is clear that this must be taken into account, but the deep cause lies in the way that the population increase itself was framed by the interests of those who appropriated the production and distribution of goods necessary for life of people gathered in the cities: an opportunity to increase the exploitation of work, now salaried work, wages fallen because of the existence of a growing reserve of workers, always on the increase, to increase the sale of commodities, once people lost contact with the Earth and thus lost their autonomy.

With the advance of the capitalist process, everything is transformed into private property and into commodities, including state institutions, subordinated and at the service of endless economic growth, always governed by ever larger and more powerful businesses. And recently, by financial speculation companies, since now 28 large transnational banks control the planet’s currency (5).

For endless and ever faster economic growth, an infinite planet would be needed. But it is finite, and it is because of this that the dominance and imposition of this way of thinking about production, sales and life, commanded by speculation, not only led to the private appropriation of knowledge and technology, but also of the products of their application. The discovery and ever more intensive use of fossil energy is one of the major expressions of this process of domination and exploitation of the forces and the goods of the Earth in order to concentrate wealth and power in order to exploit human beings.

To sum things up, we come to what provoked the emission of absurd quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and, consequently, a progressive warming of the planet, and in the same process, there is the destruction of forests, the disturbance of the equilibrium of the oceans, the extraction of immense quantities of minerals, the invention of motors fed with fossil fuels, the increase in the quantity of livestock, the imposition of chemical agriculture, full of agribusiness poisons, agrofuels, etc.

The urgency of profound change

The world goal, via the UN, is to prevent the temperature from rising more than 2º C. This requires changes in the structures of the world economic and political systems, but it would be naive to think that these changes could be undertaken by those who, with economic power, dominate politics. The most that they will do will be to look for new business in the ecological and social crises, which are both a single crisis and has the same causes, as Pope Francis insists in Laudato Si.  One of these solutions, presented as "the green economy" -- capitalist, of big business -- are the so-called "carbon credits" and "payments for environmental services". These are false solutions, decoys. Their objective is to subordinate what is left of common goods to their own criterion of value, define the price of carbon retained in the trees, define the price of each "service" that the goods of nature provide for the environment, putting territories that still exist under their control through debt titles. Once these titles are consolidated, they can generate speculative gains with "assets" paid by businesses that continue to pollute and emit greenhouse gasses.

Because of this, together with the struggles of citizens in favour of structural changes, that should be defined and implemented through COP21, and as a foundation and mystique of these struggles, it is urgent to work for a process of popular education that motivates persons, communities, peoples to bravely take up the "ecological conversion" suggested by Pope Francis. This is an inner change, a liberation from the standard of life centred around consumerism, a new way to perceive one's self and to be with the Earth, where human beings are tightly banded together with other living things, with water, the soil and the subsoil and the atmosphere. To assume the "integral ecology" vision, struggling to overcome, at the same time, the social and climate crises, building truly human societies, with relations of cooperation between persons, communities and peoples, and harmonious relations with the Earth. That’s how the indigenous peoples propose to face the crisis of the present world paradigm: seeking Right Livelihood.

And it is with this perspective that for years now there have been many initiatives of organization and articulation of the Amazonian peoples, especially the Pan-Amazonian Social Forum, the Articulation for Coexistence with the Amazon (ARCA) in Brazil, and the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesiastical Network (REPAM). We hope that these forces will mobilize the Pan-Amazonian peoples in favour of a project of Amazonian life and living with the biome.

(Translated for ALAI by Jordan Bishop and Carmelo Ruiz).

Notas:

[1] See, for example, the Book of Genesis 2,7.

[2] These long times of process are described in the Bible as "days" given that, on the seventh, God also rested.

[3] The five reports of the IPCC confirm, with increasing confidence, that the warming noted in a permanent way since the industrial revolution is provoked by human actions, and, because of this, climate change that affects in a special way the poorest also has human causes.

[4] See O futuro climático da Amazônia – Relatório de investigação científica. Antônio Donato Nobre (INPE researcher). Publicação da ARA, Articulação Regional Amazônica, 2014. https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/ant%C3%B4nio+donato+nobre+sobre...

[5] See François Morin. L´Hydre Mondiale. L´Ologopole Bancaire. Ed. Lux, 2015. Quoted in OUTRAS PALAVRAS, reproduced in the blog www.facebook.com/ivopoletto on 23/09/2015.

- Ivo Poletto is a philosopher, theologian, social scientist and popular educator.  He participated in the Comissão Pastoral da Terra, Cáritas Brasileira, Pastorais Sociais.  At present, he is national adviser to the Fórum Mudanças Climáticas e Justiça Social and member of the Red Eclesial Pan-Amazónica -REPAM.

* Article published in edition 508 (October 2015) of ALAI’s Spanish language magazine América Latina en Movimiento titled “Cambio climático y Amazonia” (Climate Change and the Amazon), which examines climate change from the situation in the Amazon basin, mainly through contributions of members of the Red Eclesial Pan-Amazónica (REPAM – Pan-Amazonian Church Network ).

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