It is being described as a catastrophe for the planet. The far-right winner of Brazil鈥檚 presidential election, Jair Bolsonaro, looks likely to further weaken protections for the Amazon rainforest and make the goal of limiting global warming to under 2掳C even harder to achieve.
鈥淚f he carries through on his rhetoric we can expect tribal genocide, torture of dissidents, and climate-altering destruction of the Amazon forest,鈥� , who studies the rainforest. 鈥淭his is a nightmare scenario.鈥�
Bolsonaro has set out few specific policies on environmental issues, and his statements have sometimes been contradictory. He had previously suggested he would pull Brazil out of the Paris climate agreement, for instance; .
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Rainforest clearance
However, there is no doubt that Bolsonaro wants to make it much easier for the Amazon rainforest to be cleared to make way for farms, mines and roads. In theory, this would require changing Brazil鈥檚 existing laws, which set a limit for deforestation by private landowners and also guarantee the land rights of indigenous peoples.
Bolsonaro does not have the majority required to overturn these laws in Brazil鈥檚 national congress. Unfortunately, . If he slashes support for the agencies that enforce environmental laws, farmers and miners will be able to break the law with impunity. And Bolsonaro is after being fined in 2012 for fishing illegally.
Forest protections have already been severely weakened in recent years, in a letter in Nature Climate Change.
The Amazon rainforest is not only one of the richest and most diverse habitats on Earth, it has also been removing huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year despite the ongoing deforestation. But research suggests it is , making the task of limiting future warming even harder.
The stance of other countries could be crucial. Some European countries have suggested that they . If the European Union as a whole adopted this position, it could have a major impact, as the EU is one of the biggest importers of Brazilian soya and beef 鈥� the products driving deforestation.
