RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – At one of Washington’s leading conservative think tanks, the Heritage Foundation, Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo gave an ideological speech in which he criticized what he termed “climatism” and said that there is “climate scaremongering” used by the media and the “political system” in reaction to the onset of a government like Jair Bolsonaro’s in power.
He compared calls to boycott Brazilian products, spurred by fires in the Amazon, to “Stalinist justice” and said that in the past “social justice was used as a pretext for dictatorship and now they are doing the same with the climate.”
“It seems like Stalinist justice to me: to accuse, to execute. Then you say: where is justice? Where is the democratic state? People answer ‘it’s a climate crisis, shut up'”.
The speech took place thirteen days before Bolsonaro’s first participation in the United Nations General Assembly in New York, in which the Brazilian leader may be questioned by other countries about the situation in the Amazon and the conduct of environmental policies during his administration.
The minister suggested that the press, which he considers part of what he calls the “system,” influences companies and decision-makers who have chosen to boycott Brazilian products in the midst of the environmental crisis.
In his speech, the Chancellor used concepts propagated by the ideological pillar of Bolsonaro’s government, controversial writer Olavo de Carvalho – such as criticism of the left, of “globalism”, of “cultural Marxism” and of the press. For the minister, challenges to Bolsonaro and Donald Trump’s governments in the United States are a reaction to the fact that neither are part of the “system”.
“Trump and Bolsonaro are part of the same uprising, which I would call a universal uprising against rubbish. (…) What mobilizes Brazilians, Brexiters and American voters? It’s a rebellion against ideology,” Araújo said. According to him, the uprising is a realization that “we were being despised by an elite that tries to govern us in the name of social justice, or of European integration, or of a world without borders or of progress”.
Brazil finds itself in the midst of international questioning, as the increase in forest fires in the Amazon this year, followed by the increase in deforestation, have garnered attention abroad. Trump, who removed the US from the Paris climate agreement and has already said that global warming is a farce devised by the Chinese, has been an important ally of Bolsonaro’s government amid pressure from Europeans.
For approximately one hour, Araújo said that “the point of climate change is to end democratic debate” and that “not even eating meat is allowed anymore”. With critical quotes from Antonio Gramsci, Bertolt Brecht and Rosa Luxemburg, the minister spoke about Stalinism, socialism, religion, history and the significance of “symbols”.
“After all the bad world experiences with socialism, how can anyone dream of enforcing socialist control of the economy in a country like the US? Never through democratic debate, of course, only through a declaration of emergency. So, a ‘climate crisis’. How can anyone in times of peace possibly dream of undermining the sovereignty of a country like Brazil by saying that the Amazon is on fire? Again because of ideology, because of this climate crisis claim, ‘let’s save the planet,'” Araújo said. “The climate has become the silencer of debate,” he said.
The Chancellor once again claimed that the fires in the Amazon are within the average of the past 15 years – an argument that has been used by the Planalto since the crisis in the Amazon attracted international attention. The number of fires for the whole of Brazil between January and August 24th was the highest in the last seven years for the period, up 82 percent from last year.
Comparing only the month of August, there were more fires in the years 2005, 2007 and 2010. The year 2015 marked the record of deforestation in the region and 2010 was an extremely dry year.
He said the greatest challenge that “our civilization faces” is ideology. “What is the greatest challenge facing our civilization? Some people will say ‘climate change’ and that is absolutely not true,” said Araújo, who added that he is not sure if climate change is an effect of human action.
A survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted in 26 countries in 2018, shows that there is a global consensus that climate change is a genuine risk. In 13 of these nations, climate change is placed at the top of the list of global threats.
Araújo argued that there is a “collective hypnosis” produced by the “system.” When the word ‘nation’ is spoken, the hypnotized crowd says ‘no, no, bad, Hitler'”. “The foreign minister shows a picture of a burning forest, a picture from ten years ago, as if it were from Brazil today, and people react ‘bad, bad, lungs of the world, let’s invade’. It’s like we live in some zombie apocalypse”, he said.
In the beginning of his speech, Araújo said that Brazil is “back to a point where it has never been,” he spoke about the demonstrations in 2013, about the use of social media and about the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff – whom he called “the hated leader”.
Source: Estadão