So, Brazil has the largest rainforest in the world. Wonderful diversity of flora and fauna, mysterious things with unknown properties. Rock stars and celebrities have campaigned to save the Amazon, and rightly so. It is one of the few green lungs left on earth.
All that cannot stop progress, though, and the lush rainforests that carpet a large part of South America are slowly being rolled up into farmlands, new cities or barren wastelands through logging (legal and otherwise).
Here, we have an economic powerhouse (often lumped together with its similarly-charged brethren – Russia, India and China) rushing headlong towards prosperity, development and modernisation.
Apart from its stunning natural beauty luring tourists the world over, Brazil is experiencing a boom in industry and customer service provision to the rest of the Americas.
Yes, the favelas still exist, but the disparity gaps appear to be somewhat closing. But as the poor hurtle towards modernisation, so too does the need for improved infrastructures – amenities such as electricity, water, housing – and services such as education, hospitals and jobs.
Brazilians seem to have a high level of literacy and numeracy which is great. But the rising population, and the encroachment into natural habitats, mean that there will be a greater toll on its natural resources.
Add to this, local customs and traditions – laudable but how they impact the environment despite all the many campaigns to save it. How else could one explain the need to over wrap everything? Even in McDonalds restaurants, napkins are wrapped in plastic or paper wrappers for additional “protection”.
Then. you have the hedonistic February celebrations of Carnaval leaving every city, town and village in Brazil in rubbish carnage every evening. I certainly don’t envy the council cleaners who have to sweep up mountains of plastic water bottles, paper, beer cans and God knows whatever else so the streets are ready for the next day’s waste orgy.
Much has been written about the ‘mountains’ of rubbish which impoverished Brazilian kids sieve through each day looking for things to eat or resell. Surely, cultural events like the Carnaval do not help.
Double the waste (or recycling effort, if you believe the authorities and businesses). So, double the energy to conserve energy.