The Brazilian Blue Amazon under threat: Why has the oil spill continued for so long?

Abstract

In August 2019, an oil spill incident washed the coast in Brazil affecting some of the country’s most visited and preserved beaches in Northeast and Southeast. This paper argues that the influence of power disconnects delayed the proper actions. Power disconnects occur when the victims of environmental harm (residents of northeastern and southeastern Brazil) lack power to prevent it or, conversely, when those who do have the power to protect the environment (the Brazilian government and the international community) do not experience the costs of degradation. Although Brazil has emerged as an environmental leader in the international arena in the past, it has fallen behind on the improvements that are needed to prevent spills like this from affecting coastal communities and biodiversity in the future. Ultimately, as long as political injustices persist, ecological disasters will continue, and Governance will not improve.

Gender and small-scale fisheries in Brazil: insights for a sustainable development agenda

“…Additionally, when investments exist, gender studies are overlooked since most projects focus on natural science. As an illustrative example, among the projects selected by two calls for projects regarding a major oil spill that reached Northeast Brazil (15 from the Brazilian Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel -CAPES Process 23038.017978/2019-05; and 11 from the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development -CNPq) and impacted artisanal fisherfolk and coastal communities (Gonçalves et al, 2020), none of them focus on gender and research centers from the northeast lead only half of them.…”

A big data approach to identify the loss of coastal cultural ecosystem services caused by the 2019 Brazilian oil spill disaster

“…The uncertainties, doubts, and lack of information about the disaster were exacerbated by a weak and delayed response by federal institutions (Gonçalves et al 2020;Zacharias et al 2021, Brum et al 2020. Moreover, the negative impacts of the oil spill were further amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, generating synergistic negative consequences on the economy (e.g., artisanal fisheries and tourism), public health and ecosystems (Magalhães et al 2020).…”

On the Impact of Brazil's Largest Recent Oil Spill on Regional Oceans

“…Besides that, the adverse impacts of the oil spill disaster upon Brazil's environment, economy and society were previously described mostly in Portuguese [4,7,[15][16][17] which unfortunately lacks international outreach and visibility. Fewer articles, with more impact [2,4,13,[18][19][20][21][22] have brought to attention information on the oil spill along Brazil's northeast and southeast seaboard, trying to find answers and fill data gaps on the geochemistry and identification of the source of the oily material. Discussion about environmental monitoring and response measures that must be implemented to minimize the ecological, economic, and social effects of the spill; which is particularly relevant in areas with high tropical biodiversity while experiencing high social inequality, which is presently the case of this northeastern accident in according to [3] .…”