Brazil in the mud again: lessons not learned from Mariana dam collapse

Excerpt

History tells us that the motivation for new environmental policy is much stronger when there is demonstrated ecological impact (Rochman 2016). However, in Brazil, despite all scientific warning to prevent environmental disasters, several unreasonable choices have been conducted by policymakers in recent years. These bad practices were taken by removing environmental and social constraints for the benefit of a few companies and political/personal interests (El Bizri et al. 2016). Examples are the new Brazilian Native Vegetation Protection Law (law 12651/2012), Belo Monte hydroelectric building (Fearnside 2017), and the Fundão tailings dam collapse, which is considered the greatest environmental disaster in Brazil’s history (Garcia et al. 2016). …