Mario Osava
Inter Press Service
Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
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Video: Roraima in Search of Safe and Sustainable Energy Autonomy
Roraima, the northernmost state of Brazil, on the border with Guyana and Venezuela, is undergoing an energy transition that points to the dilemmas and possible solutions for a safe and sustainable supply of electricity in the Amazon rainforest → Read More
Solar Energy Useless Without Good Batteries in Brazil’s Amazon Jungle
“Our electric power is of bad quality, it ruins electrical appliances,” complained Jesus Mota, 63. “In other places it works well, not here. Just because we are indigenous,” protested his wife, Adélia Augusto da Silva, of the same age. The Darora Community of the Macuxi indigenous people illustrates the struggle for electricity by towns and … → Read More
The Energy Dilemmas of Roraima, a Unique Part of Brazil’s Amazon Region
“Roraima did not have a Caribbean character; now it does, because of its growing relations with Venezuela and Guyana,” said Haroldo Amoras, a professor of economics at the Federal University of this state in the extreme north of Brazil. The oil that the U.S. company ExxonMobil discovered off the coast of Guyana since 2015 generates … → Read More
Solar Energy Benefits Children and Indigenous People in Northern Brazil
Solar energy is booming in Roraima, a state in the far north of Brazil, to the benefit of indigenous people and children in its capital, Boa Vista, and helping to provide a stable energy supply to the entire populace, who suffer frequent electricity shortages and blackouts. The local government of Boa Vista, a city of … → Read More
A Little Land Helps Indigenous Venezuelans Integrate in Brazil
A group of Warao families are, through their own efforts, paving the way for the integration of indigenous Venezuelans in Brazil, five years after the start of the wave of their migration to the border state of Roraima. “It’s a model to follow,” said Gilmara Ribeiro, an anthropologist with the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI), linked … → Read More
Biomethane from Garbage: Turning a Climate Enemy into Clean Energy
Garbage that has accumulated since 1991 in the two landfills in the municipality of Caucaia has become a biomethane deposit that supplies industrial and commercial companies, thermoelectric plants and homes in Ceará, a state in northeastern Brazil → Read More
Great Wind and Solar Potential Boosts Green Hydrogen in Northern Brazil
Brazil could become a world leader in the production of green hydrogen, and the northeastern state of Ceará has anticipated this future role by making the port of Pecém, with its export processing zone, a hub for this energy source. The government of Ceará has already signed 22 memorandums of understanding with companies interested in … → Read More
Biomethane, the Energy that Cleans Garbage in Brazil
The increasing productivity with which humankind generates waste has gained at least one sustainable counterpart: the extraction of biogas from landfills, a growing activity in Brazil. Two small plateaus stand out in the landscape on the outskirts of Caucaia, one of the 19 municipalities that make up the metropolitan region of Fortaleza, capital of the … → Read More
Biofuels Slow Down Electric Vehicles in Brazil
Brazil celebrated 100,000 electric vehicles in circulation in late July, but this is a drop in the ocean compared to the 46 million combustion vehicles registered in the country and in contrast with the pace of the phasing out of oil in the world’s automotive industry. The lag is due to several factors, but one … → Read More
Infrastructure Growth Threatens Brazilian Amazon with Further Deforestation
80% of Amazon deforestation occurs along the highways that are the arteries leading to the settlement of the rainforest, environmentalists say → Read More
Racism Erased (and Erases) Black Intellectual Contribution to Brazilian History
Racism Erased: The battle against racism and inequality will be a long one in Brazil, because a prejudice against the intellectual capacity of blacks is a problem rooted in the national culture, and even in the minds of Afro-Brazilians themselves, as well as highlighted in the country's official history → Read More
Brazilian Metropolis Struggles for
Torrential water in the streets and none coming out of the taps are two disasters that plague Brazil’s metropolises, especially those located along the upper stretches of rivers, such as Belo Horizonte, capital of the southeastern state of Minas Gerais. Floods have become routine, fuelled by the hilly topography, paved-over streams and land-surface impermeabilization in … → Read More
Mobilizing Against Hunger in Brazil, Where It Affects 33.1 Million People
A campaign against hunger in Brazil, a problem that affects 15.5 percent of the population, seeks to mobilize society in search of urgent solutions → Read More
Expensive Energy from Cheap Sources Hampers Brazil’s Economy
Brazil has abundant low-cost energy, but by the time it reaches the consumer it is one of the most expensive in the world. This contradiction hinders the country’s human and economic development and the “solutions” found have actually aggravated the problem. The rise of hydrocarbon prices on the international market, intensified by Russia’s invasion of … → Read More
Cities in Brazil Reap Floods after Hiding Their Rivers Underground
Acaba Mundo has fallen into oblivion, despite its apocalyptic name – which roughly translates as World’s End – and historical importance as an urban waterway. It is a typical victim of Brazil’s metropolises, which were turned into cemeteries of streams, with their flooded neighborhoods and filthy rivers. The Acaba Mundo stream disappeared under the asphalt … → Read More
COVID and Discrimination Aggravated Maternal Mortality in Latin America
Brazil had the dubious distinction of champion of maternal mortality in Latin America during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a 77 percent increase in such deaths between 2019 and 2021. A total of 1,575 women died in childbirth or in the following six weeks in the year prior to the pandemic in Latin America’s largest and … → Read More
Caring for Water Where Mining Leads to Wealth and Tragedies in Brazil
The southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais owes its name to the main economic activity throughout its history: mining – of gold since the 17th century and later iron ore, which took on an industrial scale with massive exports in the 20th century. The so-called Iron Quadrangle, a mountainous area of some 7,000 square kilometers … → Read More
Floods Drive Urban Solutions in Brazilian Metropolis
“We do everything through parties, we don’t want power, we don’t want to take over the role of the State, but we don’t just protest and complain,” said Itamar de Paula Santos, a member of the United Community Council for Ribeiro de Abreu (Comupra), in this southeastern Brazilian city. Ribeiro de Abreu is one of … → Read More
Boosting Food Security and Education in Schools in Brazil
“I like lettuce, but not tomatoes and cucumbers,” said nine-year-old Paulo Henrique da Silva de Jesus, a third grader at the João Baptista Caffaro Municipal School in the southeastern Brazilian city of Itaboraí. He and Tainá Cassia Faria, a 13-year-old fifth grader, both dislike yams (Dioscorea spp., a popular tuber), but say they love the … → Read More
Black Women, the Most Oppressed and Exploited in Brazil
The Theater of the Oppressed helped her become aware of the triple discrimination suffered by black women in Brazil and the means to confront it, such as the Rio de Janeiro Domestic Workers Union, which she has chaired since 2018. Maria Izabel Monteiro, 55, came to work in Rio de Janeiro when she was still … → Read More