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Environment in Brazil

  • Rio carnival stars environmental disaster

    BRAZIL, 2017/04/30 In 2015, the collapse of a dam at a mine in the Brazilian national of Minas Gerais caused environmental damage that was unprecedented in the country. Tonnes of mud with heavy metals — its volume originally estimated at some 25,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools — stretched over 800 kilometres and reached the Doce River ( “Doce” means “sweet” in Portuguese), one of the majority significant of Brazil’s major rivers. The disaster, which had irreversible negative effects on human health and the environment and marked the country's history, was revived this year in one of the majority significant spaces in Brazilian popular culture: the carnival of Rio de Janeiro.

  • Mud From Brazil Dam Burst Is Toxic, UN Says

    BRAZIL, 2015/11/27 Mud from a dam that burst at an iron ore mine in Brazil before this month, killing 12 people and polluting an significant river, is toxic, the United Nations' human rights agency said on Wednesday. The statement contradicts claims by Samarco, the mine operator at the site of the rupture, that the water and mineral waste contained by the dam are not toxic. Citing "new evidence," the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement the residue "contained high levels of toxic heavy metals and other toxic chemicals."

  • The World Cup may be great for planet soccer, but it isn’t so good for planet Earth.

    BRAZIL, 2013/12/15 FIFA says the 2014 tournament, which will require huge amounts of air travel to venues across Brazil, will produce the equivalent of 2.72 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. That means staging the month long tournament will produce as much carbon dioxide as 560,000 passenger cars do in one year, according to the greenhouse gas calculator on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s website. In an effort to curb pollution, FIFA will finance such projects as tree planting trees, which help reduce carbon emissions. FIFA’s chief of corporate social responsibility, Federico Addiechi, said in an interview that the ruling body will be spending several million dollars.

  • Presidential candidate Marina Silva

    BRAZIL, 2013/02/24 Marina said “it is not a party created just for the elections” and said it “calls for a new vision of the world, in which we will be participants and not just spectators.” Former Brazilian environment minister and presidential candidate Marina Silva has launched a new political party with an eye on next year’s presidential elections. The new party is called “Sustainability Network.” It was launched in Brasilia at a meeting of politicians, congressmen and other Silva supporters.
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