On Sunday , Jair Bolsonaro won the Brazilian presidential term with a55.2 percent share of the vote , beat his opponent , Fernando Haddad , by more than 10 pct stop .
If you have n’t heard much about Bolsonaro , he is a trashy and proudracist , misogynist , andhomophobewho ispro - distortion , pro - dictatorship , and once told fellow politician Maria do Rosário " I would n’t assault you because you do n’t deserve it ” .
Bolsonaro scarper for the Social Liberal Party ( PSL ) , which is n’t particularly liberal or socialistic but or else runs on a political program of societal conservatism and pro - market insurance . Yet he was able to achieve the lion ’s ploughshare of the vote by appealing to a disillusioned and angry population threadbare of the corruption they see corrode their internal political science .
His populism and far - correct schedule has earned Bolsonaro the nickname " Trump of the Tropics " . Likehis namesake , he has announced his intention totake Brazil out of the Paris Agreement , which could be another reversal to the international effort to control climate change as it would invalidate Brazil ’s commitment to limit greenhouse gasolene expelling brought about by the disforestation of the Amazon . ( The country has pledged to decrease atomic number 6 expelling by43 percentof 2005 levels by 2030 . )
But that ’s not all . Bolsonaro has aligned himself with the National Congress ' so - called " ruralista " axis , which sustain the interests of large landholder and agricultural businesses in oppositeness to environmentalist and the surroundings . In the lead up to the election , he utter about relax environmental protections , spread out autochthonous dominion to minelaying and has even proposed a plan to construct a big , paved main road through the Amazon rain forest .
During his crusade , Bolsonaro spoke of plans to removeland auspices for autochthonal mass , dispel international NGOs like Greenpeace and WWF from the country , anddismantle Brazil ’s Environmental Ministry . The latter , if thing go his way , will be place in the hand of the Agriculture Ministry bleed by agribusiness , which has a less - than - supportive interestingness in sustainability and the environment .
" alternatively of fan out the message that he will fight disforestation and organized offence , he says he will attack the ministry of environment , Ibama , and ICMBio , " said Edson Duarte , the nation ’s current environment minister , The Guardianreports .
Ibama and ICMBio are both federal environmental agencies responsible for for undertake illegal excavation , logging , and deforestation but Bolsonaro has said he wantsto remove their environmental licensing powers . " It ’s the same as saying that he will withdraw the police from the streets , " Duarte added .
Why is this authoritative ? Brazil is home to 60 percent of the world ’s magnanimous tropical rainforest , the Amazon – essentially one of the world ’s largest carbon cesspool . In fact , it soaks up so much carbon that iteffectively nullifiesthe region ’s nursery gas emanation but already it is necessitate upa third less carbonthan it did just a decade ago . Between 2005 and 2012 , therate of deforestationin the Amazon shrivel by 20,000 square kilometers ( 7,700 straight knot ) a twelvemonth to 6,000 square kilometers ( 2,300 straight miles ) a year and it would be a shame to see that trend reverse .
But Leslie Townes Hope is not lose . Bolsonaro himself has been fairly vague and extremely inconsistent with his environmental policies . While he has say he will expire Brazil from the Paris Agreement onmultipleoccasions , he has also ( more recently ) said thathe wouldn’t . His manifestoalso shows living for the enlargement of renewable vigor .
And , of grade , Brazil is not a monocracy but a democracy , albeit one some commentators saylooks a little vulnerableright now . If Bolsonaro does desire to follow through on his environmentally - unfriendly promises , he has the Brazilian Constitution and the Senate and Congress to contend with .
