Disjointed Times in “Climate-Smart” Amazonia

Abstract

What does it mean to resort to neoliberal environmental approaches to heal the socio-ecological devastation wrought by fascistic forces? In Brazil extremist right-wing efforts to impose sovereign state rule over Amazonia have resulted in rampant deforestation, violence against forest peoples, and a catastrophic COVID-19 pandemic. Some environmentalists suggest that escaping such devastation means returning to previous neoliberal policies such as “climate-smart agriculture” (CSA) that were promoted as a way to open a future of endless economic expansion and forest preservation. Rejecting the choice between fascistic and neoliberal environmental approaches, this article examines the future-oriented work of Amazonian environmentalists who grapple with “disjointed times” in which economic and ecological trends resist harmonization. Attentive to multispecies and multi-temporal dynamics, they suggest ways to avoid a temporal trap wherein the catastrophic failure of anthropocentric future-making projects always calls for yet another anthropocentric future-making project.