Brasil, 200 anos de devastação O que restará do país após 2022?

Abstract

Two structural traits run through the history of Brazil in the last two centuries: slavery and its legacy in human relationships, and the destruction in the relationships between humans, the natural landscape and other species. This essay analyzes the latter structural trait of Brazilian society. The speech given in 1823 by José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva marks the starting point of a process that would only get worse. After 200 years of destruction, three evidences are clear: 1. After 50 years (1970-2020) of destruction and degradation of over 2 million km2 of biomes, Brazilian society is moving towards an unprecedented environmental catastrophe; 2. This development has accelerated in the last decade; and 3. Multiple indicators allow us to assert we are already in the early stages of this collapse