Dozens of Brazilian agricultural students are packed into a lecture theatre. They’re
here for a guest speaker who has been invited to talk to them about climate change. In many
parts of the world, students studying for such a degree could expect to hear about the
reality of rising global temperatures. But here they are being told the opposite. The
message of today’s speaker is that climate change is not real.
The so-called greenhouse effect doesn't happen, that’s exactly what we show in the lecture.
This is Ricardo Felicio - a meteorologist who teaches at the university of Sao Paulo.
He’s a media-friendly academic who is no stranger to the limelight. His delivery is
well polished, but his message is more conspiracy theory than hard science.
The goal is to freeze developing countries. Brazil is the main focus of these operations
that involve the environment and the climate. The idea of ​​climate change is to stop
our development.
For Felicio, climate change is a plot invented by foreigners to stunt Brazil’s growth.
He’s promoting his views on an 11 -day lecture tour. Today’s stop is in the state
of Mato Grosso - the biggest soy producer in the country.
The tour is sponsored by a trade association that represents the sort of people who might
benefit from more farming land being created by deforestation.
But it’s not just agri-business who wants to hear what Felicio’s got to say. He’s
been invited to speak in the Brazilian Senate. And his many fans on social media include
Jair Bolsonaro, the President of Brazil himself, and his sons. “Worth checking” wrote Bolsonaro,
when he tweeted a video of Felicio again denying the existence of man-made climate change.
I’m Juliana Gragnani and this is BBC Trending. In this special series, we’re looking at
how disinformation and denial are hindering the fight against catastrophic climate change.
The overwhelming majority of scientific opinion agrees that bold, decisive action is needed
right now to cut emissions. And yet, despite all the evidence out there,
efforts to tackle climate change have been caught up in an information war - one that
is taking many shapes and forms around the world.
For this episode of The Denial Files, we’re in Brazil, where climate change disinformation
is thriving while good and credible information is being undermined - even by the country’s
own president. All of which is having potentially deadly consequences for one of the world’s
most important regions - the Amazon rainforest. I heard it, I heard it here at the union.
Soy farmer Ilson Redivo caught Felicio’s lecture on a local stop of the tour. He owns
a 10,000 acre farm in Sinop, which sits south of the Amazon rainforest. Two-thirds of the
area where the city lies has been deforested since the 1950s.
Like Felicio, Redivo also rejects the established science on global warming.
It’s a narrative, young woman. This is a narrative they preach, right?
Redivo very much enjoyed Felicio’s lecture, he told me. As well as being an academic, Felicio has
also previously stood unsuccessfully as a candidate for President Bolsonaro’s former
party. I’ve made numerous attempts to contact him to ask if he would speak to me, but I
received no reply. So I approached the Association of Soy and
Corn Producers in Mato Grosso, the organisation which sponsored Felicio’s tour. Its vice-president
Lucas Beber told me this: Climate change is a very relative thing, right?
There is no certainty around climate change. If we listen, there are several opinions.
I was struck by how, like the soy farmer Redivo and the meteorologist Felicio, Beber spoke
about climate change as a narrative instead of a scientific fact. Beber said the association
had wanted to show students a different view to what appears in mainstream media. Other
farmers I spoke to in Brazil said similar things, and claimed they felt unfairly targeted
by environmentalists. I would like to emphasise again that Brazil
is an example to the world in terms of environmental preservation, and we feel hurt by the way
we are treated. The Brazilian producer is the guy who preserves the most.
That’s a reference to the Brazilian Forest Code, which mandates that farm owners in the
Amazon must preserve the native forest on 80% of their land. Many farmers think that’s
unfair. In practice, however, studies have shown there are loopholes in this legislation,
which allows for less preservation.
Who is preaching that we cannot deforest? Who preaches? It comes from Europe, OK? The
truth is they don’t want the growth of Brazil. It’s an economic narrative, not an environmental
narrative. We had a back-and-forth about this. I asked
him what would be behind such false narratives. It was all about the money, he said.
Economic interest. That’s right. What moves the world?
But when I asked him who would be behind such a conspiracy, he answered with a knowing laugh.
Oh, Juliana. He went on to make vague references to “world
rulers” and people who wanted to exploit the Amazon for their own purposes.
Brazil’s the world’s largest exporter of soy and beef, and in the coming years demand
for both is predicted to rise. Currently much of it is going to China.
Brazil is home to two-thirds of the Amazon rainforest, which is the most vibrant habitat
on Earth. But in recent years, fires to clear land for agriculture and ranching, as well
as mining, have had a devastating effect. Last year alone, an area roughly the size
of Jamaica was deforested. Trees suck in carbon, and the Amazon rainforest
has an important role in the planet as a carbon sink, absorbing carbon dioxide. Yet according
to research published in the journal Nature earlier this year, significant parts of the
forest are now emitting more carbon than they are able to absorb.
And last year another study suggested that as much as 40% of the Amazon is at risk of
switching from rainforest to open savannah with fewer trees.
The message is clear: The Amazon rainforest, and its role in helping us combat climate
change, could be reaching a tipping point. Redivo is unconvinced.
I've been here for 30 years, there was a ton of deforestation and the climate remains the
same. There was no climate change. Views like Redivo’s that dismiss the environmental
impact of deforestation and blame global power struggles instead may sound conspiratorial.
But in Brazil, these views are not just popular amongst farmers. They’re spread and amplified
by those at the very top of government. In the summer of 2019, President Bolsonaro
was asked by foreign correspondents about new data which showed an increase in Amazon
deforestation. In his response, Bolsonaro made it clear that he thought foreigners should
stay out of what he viewed as Brazil’s affairs. First of all, the Amazon belongs to Brazil,
not you. He went on to attack the scientists who had
produced the data and claimed they had a hidden agenda.
I think that, further investigating, we’ll see if people published with bad intentions
this information to damage the current government and tarnish Brazil’s image.
So who were these people with bad intentions? Well... the Brazilian government’s own scientists.
The data of INPE showed that there was a tremendous increase in the deforested area in the Amazon.
The president was very, very upset. This is Ricardo Galvao, the former head of
Brazil’s National Space Research Institute, otherwise known as INPE.
Since the 1980s the institute has been using satellite and radar technology to measure
and help prevent deforestation in Brazilian rainforests. It’s funded by the Brazilian
government, and the data Galvao was referring to showed an 88% increase in deforestation
compared with the same month in the previous year. President Bolsonaro went on the attack
accusing INPE’s leadership of being unpatriotic and of acting on behalf of foreign NGOs.
Some bad Brazilians dare make campaigns with lying numbers against our Amazon. This has
an impact in the whole world.
So that was a very, very serious accusation. I decided to stand up and what was clear for
me was that I would lose my job, I would be fired. But I thought that was very, very important
to bring the news, the real data, to show that the government was completely wrong.
So I did.
The very public row led to Bolsonaro sacking Galvao, who had worked at INPE since 1970.
How did you feel when you were removed from office? Did you feel angry?
No, I felt sad. I felt very, very sad, not only for me, because for Brazil, the first
time in the history of INPE, that happened. I felt sad for the Brazilian science and for
INPE. Since the beginning of the government I was always suspecting that something bad
could happen. But not of that dimension. Not so serious.
Do you think this government is a climate change denier?
Definitely, definitely.
I approached Bolsonaro’s office for comment but they didn’t respond. In the wake of
the INPE crisis, several scientific institutions, including the Brazilian Academy of Sciences,
defended the agency and the accuracy of its data.
One of the organisations building on INPE’s work is Mapbiomas, led by Tasso Azevedo, a
former head of the Brazilian Forest Service and a climate change consultant.
Mapbiomas is a coalition of environmental groups that monitors deforestation in the
Amazon and tries to identify how much of it is being carried out illegally. Azavedo says
data from INPE is vital to their operation.
What we have is an attack on science in general. Right? It’s like disqualify the science
so you can actually invent anything.
Earlier this year, President Bolsonaro promised to ensure Brazil reaches net zero carbon emissions
by 2050. But environmentalists say that Brazil is actually going backwards. Bolsonaro has
also promised to end illegal deforestation by 2028. And at the COP26 conference, Brazil
is one of more than 100 nations who have pledged to end all deforestation by 2030 and to even
work to reverse it. That commitment has also been met with deep scepticism from activists.
President Bolsonaro has also said that despite budget pressures, he intends to strengthen
environmental bodies and double the funding for inspections.
But the political opposition and environmentalists such as Azevedo have accused the government
of doing the opposite - cutting resources, dismantling inspection bodies, and reducing
fines for environmental crimes.
There is this issue that although we monitor the deforestation, very little action is being
done with the findings.
And every week, we are putting out an average of 1,000, 1,500 reports that, you know, indicators,
whether this deforestation really happens, when it happens. And also you check things
like, for example, if it's over protected areas, if it has an authorisation or not.
So ultimately, you can understand if something is legal, or illegal. And this process, for
example, allows you to identify that over 80% of every single deforestation detected
in Brazil in the last two years - they have elements of illegality.
if you look at the level of penalty that you have on the different offences related to
deforestation, it's all declining. So we don't have like the political will and resources
being applied to actually seize this problem.
Under the current administration, INPEs budget has been decreasing. Galvao fears that this
will damage its ability to monitor deforestation. He is worried that in the future the agency
will not have the satellite network it needs to do its work properly.
The other big concern is replacing INPE’s ageing supercomputer which produces sophisticated
models of climate change.
So Brazil would have to buy a new supercomputer. That's known even before Bolsonaro's government
that was very, very important to do that. Nothing was done. And now INPE does not have
a computer to run these codes with the efficiency that's required to provide relevant results.
INPE’s current management say that they are waiting for funding to replace the supercomputer.
But in the meantime they are installing equipment that may partially take over some of its functions.
But environmentalist Tasso Azevedo fears underfunding will have an effect.
By cutting all the resource for development of science, we are actually creating a problem
for the country in the long run, because we will be lacking the development that we need
in the long run.
The future of climate science in Brazil looks uncertain, but the government continues to
link the issues of the Amazon to national pride.
In this 21st century, one of the biggest issues threatening sovereignty is sustainability.
That’s Brazil’s vice president, general Hamilton Mourão, speaking last September
in a webinar about the Amazon organised by an NGO connected to the military.
He defended efforts to end illegal deforestation. But Like President Bolsonaro, he made it
clear that other countries’ interest was unwelcome.
When we see speeches by leaders from other countries
referring to problems in the Amazon, it is a form of intervention - the next step is
propaganda, as we see happening in the international community today with negative propaganda about
the Brazilian Amazon.
The vice president’s office told the BBC he bases his ideas and opinions on scientific
data.
As the world comes together in Scotland to talk about how we can reduce emissions, Tasso
Azevedo and his colleagues have published new data that suggests in Brazil things are
going the wrong way.
The striking fact is that the emissions grew 9.5% between 2019 and 2020.
It’s the only country from the biggest economies that actually increased emission while everybody
was decreasing emission. The reason for that is because of deforestation.
And yet despite this, Azavedo told me that even in the face of challenges, science and
scientists persist. He believes that Brazil has an opportunity to turn things around - the
science is telling us how it can be done. It just requires the political will to back
them up.
If we can control deforestation, our emissions would drop down very fast. If we control deforestation
there's no country in the world that will have lower emissions proportionally than what
we have in Brazil, so I think that's an opportunity for us.
It's not that we have to fight in every single battle. If we focus on one battle, which is
fighting the deforestation, we will have an incredible result for Brazil and for the planet.
That’s it for this episode. My thanks to producers Kayleen Devlin and Jonathan Griffin,
series producer Vibeke Venema and our editor Ed Main. Thanks for listening.
If you want to get in touch with your thoughts on this or any of our other episodes, you
can email me Juliana.Gragnani@bbc.co.uk