Indigenous people the world over continue to be exploited throughout history and today. It's heartbreaking for this tribe and for our planet -- the survival of both are inextricably linked.
Why doesn't Amazon whose value has exceeded the trillion dollar mark and who named themselves after this region, create a fund to raise money to protect it's namesake?
We can't wait for governments to take action, it might be the private sector who has to step in -- especially the one who's carbon footprint is contributing so greatly to global warming as people around the world receive their amazon packages delivered by gas guzzling trucks daily.
4
I've been to the Amazon rainforest four times, three trips to Peru and one to Ecuador. Peru and Ecuador do a much better job of protecting the Amazon basin than does Brazil. In return for protecting the environment, Peru and Ecuador earn millions of dollars each year in eco-tourism. Eco-tourism is sustainable and is a much better option than the short-sighted plans that Brazil has for their portion of the Amazon. What will Brazil do after the gold is gone and their portion of the Amazon is a wasteland?
4
This guy, Jair Bolsonaro, didn't come and study the robber barons of the United States by any chance...
2
When these forests, which are so crucial in regulating the planet's climate, are gone, the indigenous people and countless species of plants and animals wiped out, and lands and waters so poisoned so that they no longer can sustain life, what will be left? How are governments going to deal with the fallout from this? The damage that is being done here is irreparable and the forests are far more valuable than the amount of metals that can be extracted for trade. It is not only utterly irresponsible for Brazil and other countries that lie within the Amazonian rain forest not to vow to protect these forests and those that try to take care of it, it is insane.
7
It seems that the reporter is fan of Lula , the former corrupt president Lula who is in jail. It is a lie that Bolasonaro is far right. He is against corruption and that why he won. He said that he will keep Indians territory bu t but the borders, any country give away to Indians their border even USA. Some people here said say things like he is already the president and already decided everything, sorry he needs Congress authorization to change .Constitution more tha was than 3/5 of votes
2
So long as we permit the likes of the Trumps and the Clintons to hold political power in America, and so long as we permit the likes of Goldman Sachs and Chase and other groups of investment bankers to control wealth in America, we are aiding and abetting the destruction of the Amazon, the Arctic, and other precious parts of the planet. Look at the real destruction of nature that we've committed in the island of Manhattan or in New Jersey. We must remove the mote from our own home environment at the same time that we look to the few remaining places we haven't yet destroyed.
Mr. Bolsonaro and Mr. Trump are mere symptoms of a much deeper and more pernicious insult to life on our planet, and as the disease becomes increasingly obvious, we can look in the mirror to see those who are permitting this. We know who the enemy are; they are us until we radicalize to change the basic ways that we exploit other humans, other animals, and our home planet itself.
So long as we accept ideas like human resources or natural resources, we are doomed. Resources are there to be exploited, and exploitation includes both murder and suicide. We cannot continue to accept either people nor the environment as mere means to enrich those already rich if we are to survive.
I am not optimistic. But let's at least go down fighting for the sake or our own dignity. Let's not continue to be complicit in letting this pass. Have some pride.
7
I am not quite sure we here in the US are in a position to call him out on that...
2
This is how it ends for humankind. At the moment when the planet needs wise and conscientious stewardship most, authoritarians like Bolsonaro, Trump, Xi and Putin have mounted the stage seeking unquestioned power and personal enrichment. As the ability of the Earth to continue to sustain human habitation teeters on the precipice, vandals are in control. What a sad ending for a once promising species.
9
Let's not pretend that American corporations are not participating in this genocide and environmental degradation. I just shaved with a Gillette (Proctor and Gamble) razor that was produced in the Amazonian special industrial region. Apple and Google technology are being used to plan the destruction of the rainforest. GM, Fiat-Chrysler, Ford, VW, etc. vehicles are being used to cut down the trees. Putting pressure on multinationals is the only way we can protect the rainforest. iPhones could become bricked if taken into indigenous regions. New forms of technology and tyranny will require new approaches to resistance.
8
A 20-year old Yukuna Indian told me about his problems and tribal aspirations in Jan 2018 on a trip up the Miritiparana River in the Colombian Amazon. He said the government was building an airstrip upriver. He spoke of gold dredges on the main river, the Caqueta. He feared pollution and further disturbance. He proudly described his tribal history and told of annual get-togethers with costumes, dancing, etc. Their land is deeded.
For now, they’re ok. But colonists, especially, and government projects will reach them eventually. When this happens, they will cease to exist as a people. The loss of their language, land, culture, and livelihoods will force them to “assimilate” to the more powerful and numerous Colombian culture.
Tribe by tribe across all the Amazon, villages are being aggregated into the juggernaut of modernity. They are last the survivors of so many tragic injustices committed over the past 500 years.
7
Bolsonaro will be indicted in online chats until our attention is diverted elsewhere. The Amazon and her remaining tribal people will continue to die a death by a thousand cuts as they have been for 500 years.
It started in the 1950’s when they moved the Capitol deep into the Amazon forests. It will not stop until it is totally destroyed. Chile and others did the same thing. Chile even destroyed its national tree! Same is occurring regards the wildlife there and around the world too. I hope there is no reincarnation because I do not want to be on this Earth in another 25-50 years from now!
6
And much of this forest destruction (the logging, not burning) is directly tied to exotic woods used for flooring in new "high end" residential real estate that the New York Times' Real Estate "reporting" consistently markets.
Irony.
So next time the NYT "reports" on a tower on Park Row Manhattan with apartments costing a minimum of two million dollars, think Amazon rain forest destruction.
11
Tks for the coverage of the The New York Times, also shame to brazilian big media, that day and night delivers a propaganda of Bolsonaro or Bozo as is most known, brazilian media is a shame, showing that what he is doing or will do is good for Brazil. He is appointing a Minister of Agriculture that embraces the use of pesticides, killing what will remain of Amazon. We really thank a serious newspaper as the NYT to show the world what is happening here, because brazilian big media only concerned with tremenduous money that government spends wth institutional propaganda. Pls keep on with an eye on this. The path to Bozo victory had the hand o Steve Bannon and the world of fake news that influenced voters here.
5
This seems to be what the UN was created for. Why are the rights of indigenous peoples in South America not represented by a world body in this day and age? Protecting these lands and waters may benefit the rest of the planet by slowing the acceleration of disastrous human-caused climate change to some degree. But first and foremost, the territory of the remaining indigenous peoples must be protected simply because it is intrinsically theirs, not because it serves a larger, albeit instrumental value or purpose for the rest of the planet. Indigenous people who seek pathways to western education, as quoted by one of the tribal leaders in the article, must be offered that education without having to sell their land, birthright or souls. After all that has been taken from them, we need not justify doing what is right on the basis of benefitting anyone else.
74
But our current UN is under siege by (of course...) "covfefe" AND jailable bolsonaro, among other strongmen, and needs legal teeth like irrevocable and binding jurisdiction of their international courts over countries. No country should ever have been able to pull, say, a US v. Nicaragua.
Working with bad actors is just not enough anymore. We need to work around them, or fight them.
Bipartisanship is dead until we get a sane Other Side.
7
@makor
Yes! On all points, very well said. Thank you.
2
In the U.S. we have had lands recognized as independent and run by indigenous people. But whenever those lands were thought to haves higher and better use they have been seized for others to use. The fact is that there is nothing but the unreliable promise of the states in which indigenous peoples live to assure their rights.
5
And to think that all this tremendous biodiversity, and the irreplceable, carbon-capturing ecosystem — far more sophisticated than us humans could invent — and the indigenous people’s way of life are being destroyed just to mine for gold, a metal 50% of whose global supply we use to make pointless shiny things, and the other 40% of which is purchased by “investors” who think that the arbitrary value that Western societies have placed on gold gives them a clever back up for fiat currency. The Amazon has infinitely more value than gold — real, not arbitrary, man-made value — and, once destroyed, could not be recreated or found somewhere else.
70
This, of course, is part of the developed world's financialization and corporatization - valuing profits above all. This kind of framework will gobble up everything that lies in its path: rainforests, indigenous tribes, wildlife, biodiversity...until our pharmaceutical companies can't keep up with developing new drugs to address our ever increasing variety of ills.
33
No one, especially today, has the right to take away the land of indigenous people. It is time those who have wasted understand that they must come up with a sustainable way of living; no one has an inherent right to take over lands based on their desires. We the consumers, must make choices with our wallets to not purchase that which is based on waste. We have wasted enough of the natural resources in the last 50 years alone. Enough is enough.
34
The destruction of 91,890 square miles of Amazon rain forest in Brazil between 2006 and 2017 should alarm every human on the planet who breathes air. Earth's environmental system cannot sustain the destruction of such a trap for carbon dioxide and not effect our global climate and air quality.
The Munduruku people and other indigenous tribes who have lived in the Amazon for 1000s of years are being displaced by greed. The tribes and forest will be gone forever. Gold mined at their expense will be worn by the wealthy to show off their importance to the other 1%. These actions in Brazil say a great deal about the character of the people destroying the forest.
40
I am a biologist and have lots of Brazilian colleagues. A Ph.D. student of one of my best Brazilian colleagues just spend 4 months working in my lab, and quite frankly she did not want to go back. Brazilian academics are terrified of this new regime, for its intimidation of science and individual liberties, and threats to the world's largest tropical forest. In normal political circumstances countries can rally to impose sanctions on trade with Brazil for assaults on its people and environment. But these are not normal times.
44
@David
"But these are not normal times." Trump would get on well with Jair Bolsonaro and his cronies. Bolsonaro favors torture anmd jaoiling or exiling his political opponents. Our treatment of native Americans has given them a model to follow.
Maybe a worldwide collaboration among all indigenous peoples would help.
10
@David
David, please tell me when times have ever been "normal".
The past isn't what it used to be.
1
I can imagine how devastating this must be for you and your colleagues. I live in the northern hemisphere, but I am heartbroken and worried sick about what is happening there. People whose work is to protect these forests and who have already been working against the tide have a huge battle before them, one which the new president will make all but impossible.
6
The loss of biodiversity and carbon processing capacity resulting from the razing of rain forest should be a concern that has immediate world attention. What’s stored there are the hard fought spoils of hundreds of millions of years of evolution, to say nothing of the affected indigenous communities whose ways of life and languages should be protected as stewards of this wondrous place.
This is one of the only real wonders of the world; to see it progressively destroyed to generate a pittance in gold and farmland is a tragedy.
Given it’s global importance Brazil should be compensated by other world governments for its preservation, taking the minor and short-sighted economic incentive of its destruction off the table. It’s far too great a risk.
73
@Nick N
Approaching Brazil with an offer of compensation to protect these preserves as a world hertage is our only legitimate path, having destroyed our own. We are asking Brazil to leave alone the what we seized.
7
At some point in time, the world needs to come to grips with Climate Change and all of the attendant factors no matter where they occur. Countries and local autonomy mean nothing to oceans that are warming and landscapes, such as the Amazon, that are cut down and thereby fail to reduce CO2.
Of course, the most hideous example is Trump who has the information but refuses to take the appropriate action and instead calls Climate Change a hoax. How can we expect impoverished nations to act responsibly when the richest nation in the world exited the Paris Accord?
Darwin was right, humans are simply not intelligent enough to survive. It seems inevitable that our ignorance & our greed will lead to extinction.
105
@Henry J To not quote George Carlin, the good news is that the planet will shake us off and go on. Humanity is merely destroying itself. After we are gone, the planet will begin the process of healing itself.
18
It seems that this invasion and destruction of indigenous people and their land was going on before Bolsonaro was elected. Now, with Bolsonaro, the situation is going to become desperate. I am deeply affected by the plight of these brave indigenous women and men. It is 1492 all over again, although it has never stopped.
Can you imagine for a moment that the conservation of the Amazon rain forest, and as result the well-being of the world climate, depends on these aborigines who barely have food to
survive? How much can you ask from a group of people? Is the World going to remain silent in the face of such destruction? What about the many enlightened billionaires in the U.S., China, Europe etc.?
153
@J. Parula
You mean the ones who are giving back their own palatial estates and property holdings to the original native owners?
5
I agree with you: obviously the NYT can’t blame a person who hasn’t even started his mandate. Bolsonaro will START his term in January 2019. Before the recent election, the opposition, Workers Party, Lula’s PT, had won all presidential elections since 2002. Let’s keep this biased news report in mind in 4 years when we can fairly evaluate Mr Bolsonaro. I sincerely hope The NY Times will write another article and things will not be so bad. I live in Brazil, so I do have a huge interest in preserving the environment here - and everywhere.
3
“Right wing” has become a synonym or byword for being a selfish git. We see it in the United States and we see it in Brazil. It’s repugnant politics.
10
The Munduruku are fighting for ALL of us.
7
Hey, he sounds like Barry Goldwater on Vietnam: "Think of the wealth...."
1
The NYT knows everything that is going to happen in Brazil in the next 4 years, but it doesn’t know anything that happened here in the last 16 years!
3
Best comment! Bolsonaro has not even started as president, but he is already responsible for everybody else’s mistakes.
1
Amarildo Dias Nascimento, and his immoral explotive ilk are the natural outcome of neoliberal capitalism where greed is the highest value and a complete disregard for people and the enviroment is promoted as nomal business.
5
The Amazon Rain Forest is the lung of our planet. I hope that the whole world will stand up against its destruction for ugly, dirty profit. Ruthless, greedy and narcissistic demagogues will be ruling and eventually destroying our world if we continue to be indifferent to what is happening in our countries.
7
Those pictures depicting patches of the primeval forest torn to shreds only to benefit some unseen greedy foreign investors speak volumes, just by themselves.
The overflow of maroon color that overwrites great swathes of luxuriant green automatically translates into the destruction of life already well underway. For the nature-lover, these are quasi-depictions of hell on Earth. Oddly, today do we celebrate the centenary of WWI's armistice which harks back and conjures up another stream of pictures, not so unlike those very ones. Images of unwilling men for the most part armed with bayonets when stuck in the mud of trenches for years on end. Just another 100-year-old human folly which lasted for much too long (thus set a strange echo to this one) when both could have been easily prevented from day one.
4
Between Trump and Bolsonaro, we now have an environmental thimble brain in both hemispheres. It's always a good idea not to have a concentration of stupidity in any one area.
3
Seems like Bolsonaro has taken his Trump lessons all too diligently, shortsightedness and insensitivity high among them. Let's hope both countries can survive their misbegotten "leaders."
3
This is the face of the far-right and of the lust for money and power. Today, Remembrance Day in Canada and Veterans’ Day in the US, it is wise to reflect on the visage of Fascism and of the sacrifices our parents and grandparents made to wipe that diseased face from the human record. Those sacrifices are mocked by the likes of Bolsonaro and by the madness of a public that applauds at his feet. Dangerous forces are at work in the Western World and it is past time for good men and women to beat it back into the foul earth from which it springs.
4
If you have seen the movie "Avatar" then this story about the raping of the Amazon for its resources will seem too familiar. However, "Mother Nature" will not rise up to defend Herself in this case and will require the help of Her millions of stewards to step up on Her behalf.
3
Please, please bring on the UNITED NATIONS!!!! Our very world depends on protecting these indigenous peoples and our future definitely depends on that very protection.
3
Are you suggesting the US a interfere in other countries like it has done before, with consequences we all know about? I suggest you deal with your (many) problems before doing anything abroad. You do have native people in trouble, too. Try to be better informed before suggesting something like that. This report is totally biased. Mr Bolsonaro won’t start his term until January and will not hold a majority in Congress (far far from it) so his powers will be limited.
Seems like Brazil's president is not too different than America's electoral college president who wants to open up national parks and protected land--including Native Lands--to oil drilling. If bolsonaro gets his way not only will it be worse for the Indegnious tribes, but also for countries beyond Brazil, who will face a more drastic upward change in temperature.
3
If those lands truly were indigenous, I shouldn’t be seeing its people fishing out of factory mass-manufactured aluminum boats made who-knows-where on it, should I? Why would a remote native even need to know about checker-plating metal, that’s an OSHA thing. In a modern world, indigenous is an oxymoron. Those pictures look more like they were taken at a costume party.
2
If the illegal destruction of the Amazon forest for mining, logging, and farming is due to lack of other work for the men creating the carnage, the simple answer is to train them in forestry and environmental science. Give them work restoring, not destroying, the rain forest.
The men in the forest are the third layer of the problem. The secondary layer is the corporate interests sending them in.
The primary driver of the decimation of the rain forest is corrupt politics that allows those corporations to exist.
This is a United Nations problem, coming at a time when right wing nationalism is rising world wide. It's time for intelligent humans world wide to invigorate a planet wide world view for economic development through the only existing global (there's that word again) deliberative body.
Is there any other choice for saving the planet?
2
This is a very instructive write up. What most commentators allude to must be succinctly expressed. Where and when ever the white man sets his foot on the territory of an indigenous people, their population starts dwindling and gradually disappearing and eventually - if care is not taken - becomes extinct. History is replete with this scenario and the white man's attitude of "the earth belongs to us alone". It is always a white minority that initiates and propagates this attitude. The majority is passive, persuaded, enjoy the fleeting profits and finally jump into activism, when it is almost too late for the indigenous populations. A change in mindset oriented towards "miteinander" (we together) will go a long way to preserve the earth's diversity.
1
@enyi Nobel sentiment, indeed. Regrettably, your new “German” Muslim neighbors just want your stuff.
1
"Some families fare better than others, with television sets, cellphones and appliances powered by rumbling old generators."
Look up "cultural relativism".
2
Humans will continue to destroy the Amazon in our savage desire to acquire power and resources to propagate our species. It’s not political, it’s primal.
1
I have no children and will have no grandchildren, but I care more for this planet and future generations than the ruling powers who have many children and grandchildren. Why is that? Why do they so easily destroy for short-term gain only to leave a desert of dry earth for the future of their children? Blind greed can't be the only answer for even the blind can see that there is no future.
1
This man is a clear and present danger to the health of this living planet we call home. He may rule a nation a continent away, but his decisions ultimately affect all of us.
Alas, he may have a fervent supporter and ally in the person of Mr. Donald John Trump, the man who took us out of the Paris Agreement. Perhaps (just perhaps) Mr. Trump's point is well taken. Nations can cheat. But the power of the Agreement could pressure such rogue nations to fall in line. I fear one of Mr. Bolsonaro's first moves is to take Brazil out of the Agreement.
I have little knowledge on how our Congress works vis-a-vis Mr. Trump's decision to pull out of the Agreement. If it can exert pressure to get the US back in, that would be a victory for planet Earth. An alliance of two wealthy and powerful nations against the Accord would be a huge setback.
Mr. Bolsonaro had said environmental regulations retard economic growth. I cannot argue against that claim. There's doubtless a bonanza of minerals beneath the soil that has nurtured Brazil's rainforests for millennia. So developers can make big, big bucks in the short term. And...
Well, there are always long term considerations. In 100 years both Mr. Bolsonaro and Mr. Trump will be dead. Perhaps they will have made obscene amounts of money by patronizing policies that have razed our dear living Earth.
Here's the question: In 100 years will our Earth also be dead? And if not, can a smarter, wiser humanity be capable of restoring her to health?
17
I see from the pictures that American manufacturers like Deere and Caterpillar have done well selling their machines to destroy the Amazon. What responsibility do they bear to this, without the equipment, the miners couldn't do as much as they have done. Don't the shareholders and board of these American corporations bear some of the responsibility?
1
Thank you to Ernesto Lodono for such an in-depth account of the conflicts. My heart goes out to the indigenous people. The new Brazilian president reminds me of our own who think nothing of destroying life forms in order to pursue their own selfish dreams. This rape of the Amazon forest needs to be stopped. Hopefully world organizations such as the United Nations will intervene on behalf of the people whose lives are being ruined by the destruction of their land. These tribes could learn quickly, survive and benefit tremendously from the UN goals for sustainable development.
32
Unfortunately Mr Londono does not go in depth about what a president can do alone. He needs Congress to do anything important and he is from a small party that is far far from having a majority. Unfortunately in this report a lot of what he “is likely” to do seems to be sourced from his political opponents: is it true or exaggerated to make him look bad? Mr Bolsonaro was just selected by a majority of voters in a free and fair democratic election, not an ideal candidate but (to me) a lesser evil compared to his opponent in a very hard contest. Let’s keep an eye on him and start criticizing as soon as necessary. He will start on January 1st.
2
Stealing a great future from countless generations for a mediocre return now. Pure selfish greed.
22
Great story and photos, but why no map?
3
"For greed, all Nature is too small." Seneca
There's a case for coming with plenty of big big sticks to surround Brazil, then bringing out the carrots, the blandishments held in reserve.
Trouble is, here's a threat infinitely greater than that supposedly posed by the Iranian regime, a threat far, far harder to counter and control. But if we can't find a way to stop these people, they'll destroy us all.
Having said which, let's turn our attention to America…
Why do we hate our children so much? Our children and our children's children?
13
Myopia isn't a uniquely American virtue. This planet will heal itself by the culling of the most aggressive and selfish species inhabiting it. And we will have invited it upon ourselves.
18
How about this idea: a group of enlightened billionaires - think Bezos, Gates, Soros, Zuckerberg, and maybe add some Chinese ones too - set up a "mining" corporation that simply purchases the rights of access and exploitation of as much of the Amazon forest as possible... and then simply sits on it without ever touching the forest.
This corporation could pay its due taxes and make those greedy and ignorant earth-destroyers like Bolsonaro happy, while protecting the Earth's most precious resource and leave it untouched.
While this would be a monumentally expensive operation - and a sort of "ransom" to be paid to the corrupt Bolsonaro government - it would be well within the means of a group of the world's wealthiest billionaires, and they would become heroes for humanity for generations to come.
200 years from now, those who saved the environment will remembered in history books as heroes, while the Bolsonaro, the Kochs, the Trumps and their ilk will be dumped in the trash heap of history as the sociopathic, ignorant fools that they are.
28
Patagonia the clothing store is doing just this.
1
@Andy
Bozo won the elections with the promisse to combat "corruption" officially in his fake news environment. but he said in other medias that he intends to open the doors of indegenuos protected area to be explored by companies, so there will be no book written, he is a very bad guy.
1
Sociopathic ignorant fools including Mr Bolsonaro? Please, talk about what you know. I respect the office of your president and your democracy, ALWAYS. Mr Bolsonaro hasn’t even started his term. He was just selected by a majority of voters who actually live in Brazil, in free and fair democratic elections supervised by international bodies. Not the ideal candidate but (to me) a lesser evil compared to his opponent in a very hard contest. Let’s keep an eye on him and start criticizing as soon as necessary. He will start on January 1st. Unfortunately Mr Londono does not go in depth about what a president can do alone. Mr Bolsonaro would need Congress to do anything important and he is from a small party that is far far from having a majority. Unfortunately in this report a lot of what he “is likely” to do seems to be sourced from his political opponents: is it true or exaggerated to make him look bad?
1
Until now we have lost some 60% of vertebrates. We are polluting the oceans with plastic thus there will be more plastic than fish unless we don't stop dumping garbage in the rivers and the sea. In Indonesia especially the rain forests are being cut in order to plant palm trees and harvest palm oil which is used in food and diesel fuel.
Mr. Nathaniel Rich wrote an article "Losing Earth" in August where he concluded that we had the opportunity some 30 years ago to save the environment and the biosphere. You may find it in the Magazine by
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/01/magazine/behind-the-cover-losing-earth.html
12
I wish detailed actions people could do now would continually be listed in these articles and TV. There are ways we can do it one choice at a time. But no one brings it to the mass consciousness. Only us who are concerned.
It’s just too bad.
7
@Calleen de Oliveira, I don't think we are able to stop the destructions. Look at www.flightradar24.com and www.marinetraffic.com and you will see all vehicles that are burning oil derivates and emitting not only carbon dioxite but uncountable volumes of steam and soot. All that goes up has to come down and meanwhile the atmosphere is getting warmer.
"For greed, all Nature is too small." Seneca, said one commentator here
2
Just one more dictator for Trump to emulate.
Sebastian Salgado knows the truth about Brazil and the importance of the Amazon to the planet.
So much for science! We are rolling back our advances 200 years with these terrifying leaders.
20
Greed is not good.
8
Sadly, much as I think Bolsanaro is a terrible man and will be a terrible President of Brazil, both Lula Da Silva and Dilma Rouseff are also greatly to blame here. Had they kept their election promises of really trying to bring democracy and equality to Brazil Bolsanaro couldn't have ever been elected. Instead, they let corruption run rampant while they tinkered around the edges. Why on earth did Rouseff bring both the World Cup and the Olympics (both huge financial scams) to Brazil? She and Da Silva were lousy leaders and now these tribes will really suffer. Shame on them.
10
years ago already,
the int'l community could have $hown compa$$ion, e.g.
when ecuador said, they'd protect yasunani park from big oil,
if $3.6bn were raised for nature ptotection over 13 years.
of $336m which were pledged around the world,
only $13m are now in two trust funds administered by the UN.
waste less oil, less food, less resources,
drive less cars, eat less meat, save plenty of electricity.
promise yourself to be less careless, from now on.
maybe we can still make a positive difference.
if not, there soon won't be anyone left to care.
5
Bolsonaro? Yes. Corrupt. Destroying the environment to enrich himself and his cronies? How is Trump any different? Perhaps the level of condemnation expressed by NYT for Brazil's new corrupt leader could be also expressed, clearly, for Donald Trump?
5
@Chris Davis We have enough condemnation to foist on both bolsonaro and trump. The world already knows how trump is destroying the USA and harming other countries. It is important to know the harm bolsonaro is doing, because the Amazon's health affects climate beyond Brazil.
2
@Chris Davis
That is almost funny! We need the press to condemn Trump. When are they not condemning him?
3
@Chris Davis
I believe the NYT's does express the same level of condemnation for Trump, on a daily basis. They challenge Trump's story with the reality he often ignores.
2
The lungs of the earth are at stake here.
4
Indeed, the sea an the great forests generate the oxygen that all humans and animals need. Plants can get along fine with high levels of carbon dioxide with rather low levels of oxygen. Destroying forests for human activities is so extensive that it substantially increases gaseous carbon compounds in the air and seas while gradually reducing the ability of both to generate the concentration of oxygen for the air, and humans.
4
The fate of the Amazon isn't on the block, the fate of the planet is!
10
Seems to me, Bolsonaro smacks of Trump and Donald of Bolsonaro -- oh! and let's not forget Vladimir! Yes, indeed! Donald would like nothing more than to strut Vladimir's stuff, but he's going to need to slim down to be able to pull off Vladi's two step.
And Vladi? He has cold, cold eyes, doesn't he. There's no good, no kindness in them, no compassion. Power is what he loves and covets, and Donald wants the same.
Be careful, America. You are treading on treacherous ground.
6
Typical right wing mindlessness. When the real world presents right wingers with a complicated challenge, they cannot find the mental energy to address it reasonably. This character will just find some dumb excuse to wreck not just indigenous people’s lands but the entire eco-system of the Amazon to make money that will be useful for a short time and destroy irreplaceable life forever. It’s just an example of how stupidly destructive people can be. A thousand years ago people were few enough that nature could fix up the destructive habits of humans but now the number of people and the powerful tools and machines that people use causes so much destruction that nature cannot recover from it.
9
When Earth looks like Mars, where are you going to spend that wealth?
16
...and what happens to all that packaging delivered to these people? Plastic bags and bottles?
In any event, a sad viewpoint of the results of our profit driven rather than people driven mindset...
6
Yet another story that points to leadership that is willfully blind to how we are destroying the environmental balance that supports our world. What is happening in the Amazon is not isolated, and has consequences for us all. When will our leaders get that through their heads: climate change is not local, and the impact is worldwide. So, there are at least two issues here: the rights of indigenous people to determine and protect their way of life, and the criminal negligence of world leaders who support policies that benefit a few, but destroy the environment of all.
7
Perhaps while there's still a little time, "historians of the future" should start sketching outlines of how and why the human race persisted in paths that ultimately led to the "collapse" (Jared Diamond's apt term) of its societies and the likely extinction of its species.
I think it's a mistake to focus on individuals, whether they be Bolsonaro or Trump: they are where they are, and talk and act as they do, only because large numbers of their fellow country persons (especially the wealthy ones) have put them there.
The psychological forces that now threaten humanity--the urge to dominate, the view of nature as adversary to be exploited, the ability to imagine the future (but only the short-term future)--are probably the same forces that over the last tens of thousands of years led to human dominion of the planet. But only for a little while, an eyeblink of cosmic time. For the lesson that that causes success also causes downfall is the ultimate ironic theme of earth's history. Just ask the dinosaurs. Or the historians of the rise and fall of Rome, the Spanish Empire, the British Empire, the Third Reich, the "Pax Americana" in the jungles of Vietnam, and so forth. . . .
7
Mr. Bolsonaro's short-sighted perspective parallels Trump's.
If we don't conserve our lands we shall perish along with the flora and fauna.
5
Well, who needs oxygen when we have economic growth while shooting criminals on the spot?
That’s the reasoning according to Bolsonaro and his supporters, many of whom seem to think that decimating the Amazon is a small price to pay to get rid of the PT and their legacy.
3
Given our treatment of Native Americans over the centuries until this very day, we should be the last people in the world to be horrified by what is happening in Brazil. We have no moral or ethical standing on the matter of the treatment of indigenous peoples.
9
I couldn't help but notice the giant "Deere" logo on the side of the excavator sitting in the middle of a landscape being illegally destroyed. Can a maker of a product used to commit a crime be sued? Any civil liability? Set aside guns for the moment (which is its own can of worms and not the subject of this article), but for other products? If not legal liability, perhaps it's time for a campaign of shaming the companies that make such equipment. Make them take responsibility for the destructive, illegal ways their products are being used.
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@Charles Um, what? It's highly likely the equipment was purchased second-hand, just for starters. Maybe we should be going after the buyers of the gold!
3
If an organized system of property rights guaranteed the indigenous people negotiated royalties on extracted minerals and rents on the use of their land, all would benefit.
@Jonathan Katz Except the environment, the children exposed to mercury, etc. While a market system with royalties would reduce some basic economic exploitation, these lands shouldn't have any extractive industries on them at all!
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@Jonathan Katz Destroying the Amazon affects our climate, so: NO, not all would benefit.
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Beautiful reporting with pictures to show about this SAD REALITY, and nothing can be done to stop this destruction!
Amazed to see in this day and age, not can be done and the world and all of us is loosing in all aspects!!!!!
1
We ARE nature. Nature is us. All of us. The indigenous people know this. We cannot control her but she can and does turn on us. As nature's resources are disrespected and depleted, so are we. Money will ultimately have no value in a world that does not respect nature. Ultimately, we are headed toward an uninhabitable world or no world at all.
4
Right wing politicians telling people that the destruction of their own back yard will save them is the worst sort of evil. We become impatient, we forget history and allow despots to resort to violence and destruction as solutions to our problems. It’s a pattern repeated throughout human history. Hopefully, human enlightenment will prevail against our lesser angels.
3
The lungs of the earth have cancer. If we don't stop smoking soon, it will be irreversible. Some scientists say it's already too late. The Amazon is dying. Less trees and eco-diversity relates to certain death, for all of us.
3
Bolsonaro, like many evangelical Christians believe a primitive theocracy that certain humans must dominate all creation including ‘lessor beings.’ Such a ‘sacred’ belief of ‘the blessed’ or ‘the strongest’ humans vs. ‘nature’ has always been justification for slavery, nationalism, and violence to the earth and others. Science and education are enemies of this misguided self interest. The mystery of Heaven and God’s forgiveness remain a blissful contingency for any mistakes, ignorance, and overindulgence that harms and destroys.
4
Short of every human being accepting the fact that each and everyone of must sacrifice economically to reverse Climate Change, there will be no way to save ourselves from ourselves. My only daughter has been fairly firm about not wanting children. I think I'm finally at peace with that.
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The miners are described in this article (by an indigenous chief) as white, and perhaps some of them are, but many of them are also likely to be of at least partly indigenous (or African) origin themselves, as are many of the poor Brazilians who take up wildcat mining. Pursuing and prosecuting such miners is difficult for politicians who like to be seen as standing with the people, and who is more representative of "the people" than someone with the gumption to head out to the jungle in search of gold?
Lots of those miners operate more or less independently and entirely outside the law, so it's also hard to hold them to account. There have been considerable problems with prospectors even in French Guiana, which is part of a country with a first-world law enforcement apparatus.
I sometimes think that multinational mining corporations are the answer. They at least have to operate within a legal framework, and it may be less difficult to hold them to account for their misdeeds.
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@Luder
Or we could boycott these legal and illegal operations by refusing to purchase the precious metals for ornamental purpose.
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@nom de guerre And industrial purposes. It's past time we had "fair trade, sustainable gold" -- and held every laptop and cell phone to standards to use such gold.
Even better: improve, support, and have consumer demand for technologies to recycle gold from old electronics. Why is there not more demand for recycled gold? Way more impactful than a ban on straws.
1
Americans can and must discuss indigenous policies in foreign countries, that is very welcome even for us Brazilians as it helps shed some light onto sometimes obscure matters. The problem is not every reader who finds there is room for improvement or even gross distortions in such policies is capable of incorporating such good judgment in their own habits and boycotting goods and services that work against those very principles. One should think twice before criticizing other people and nations and instead try to think what one could do to improve the world we live in. After all, it is the same world. Or is it?
11
Very true and very well said. My wife has long practiced that and I follow her example.
1
The wealth of the Amazon has always been quantified by the products extracted there. Rubber, wood, farmland for soy & cattle, gold. No one who matters has yet seriously valued the Amazon for its true wealth, as the single greatest carbon recapture and sequestration mechanism in the world.
Perhaps it’s time that wealthy western companies and nations who profess the goal of reaching a carbon neutral status contribute some of their wealth to maintaining the Amazon. If direct payments to the Brazilian people could exceed the monetary value extracted by deforestation, it would become an economic imperative to protect the forests rather than destroy them.
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@Mr. Adams
FYI: The largest reservoir of the Earth's carbon is located in the deep-ocean, with 36,000 billion tons of carbon stored, whereas approximately 65,500 billion tons are found on Earth combined. Carbon flows between each reservoir via the carbon cycle, which has slow and fast components.
There is a lot of money wasted in travel by our government. That is merely one example of a source of money for that. The world needs to consider your comments as they make environmental policy. We need a new president before we can be effective in aiding this.
Good luck!
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I would pay carbon taxes if the money actually went to preserving the amazon.
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Sovereignty does not mean carte blanche. Genocide is afoot. Bolsonaro and Brazil will have to be held accountable. Crimes against humanity will someday be prosecuted and reparations, made.
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Before I begin my rant I would like to preface it with I can’t stand Republican politics and our current occupant in the WH, but to all the posts here so far and the hundreds soon coming about the Chicken Little “the sky is heating up, the sky is heating up” that train left the station earth a long time ago. Humans taking over indigenous cultures and robbing them of their resources and their property seems to be our special purpose in life. We have been doing this for hundreds if not thousands of years.
If you are worried about your kids and your future grandkids the best thing you can do for all of us is to stop breeding and tell your kids to stop breeding and come to the cold stark fact that our planet is geologicaly moments away from a catastrophic ”downsizing” event and everyone who reads the news objectively knows this.
Its not the remaining population of the rhinos and snow leopards left that is the most alarming result about overpopulation and our raping of this world’s resources. What is more worrisome is occurring at the other end of the food chain- these little creatures are failing fast and when that chain breaks we’ll all be buying Jonathan Swift cook books.
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I completely agree. You can see it
Coming like a locomotive approaching on the tracks. And yet, the vast majority of people continue to go about their lives as if everything is normal (whatever that means these days). I also think that a deadly virus or bacteria will soon wipe out an enormous amount of humans. Mother nature’s way of putting a stop to the greed and insanity that has led us to this point.
1
@Ted Siebert
We should at least stop subsidizing the "breeding" with our tax credits, subsidized child care, paid family leave, etc.
Don't get me wrong. I love children but to continue to have so many we threaten the possibility to have any. To pretend otherwise is plain ignorance.
We have a developer in chief in the White House and now it looks like Brazil does as well.
@Ted Siebert
Wow! What an astute comment! It's definitely another part of the problem that's the human condition on planet Earth. We think we are Earth's greatest creatures and that we can "tame" nature. In our arrogance, we envision Mother Earth as conquerable. Well, she isn't.
King Canute the Great, a very wise king in 11th Century Britain, demonstrated to his fawning courtiers just how effective great secular power matches Divine Nature.
One fine day he had his throne set up on a beach. Then, before his court, he proceeded to command the incoming tide to stop. Of course he failed and, after being unceremoniously toppled from his throne by a particularly large wave, remarked to his sycophants that even he couldn't control the ocean.
Another wise man, a Tibetan Master has said, "The planet can support only a limited number of lives at any given time." These words were issued as a no-nonsense warning to all of us. If we exceed this limit, I've no doubt that Our Mother will kill her own for the sake of All the Kingdoms she nourishes.
Strangely, your post contains words of hope even as Earth's warning signs are precursors of avoidable human tragedy. Earth WILL survive, either because her human children have wised up and started working with her or because they have pushed her to the limit and brought this painful gift of euthanasia on themselves.
Then,having learned Nature's lesson perhaps, a new and wiser Humanity will arise from the destruction.
Same events that occurred during the formation of the American National Parks, lets hope that conservationists the world over will be able to capitalize on this previous human experience and protect Brasil forests for the good of the Earth!
23
"Outsiders with families to feed ventured into Munduruku land".
Since 1950, Brazil's population has grown by over 150 million, i.e. 4 times what it was in 1950. As long as people are permitted to have as many children as chance or choice dictates, the biosphere doesn't have a chance.
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@Marigrow
As it often does, this issue boils down to religious interference. Catholic missionaries foisted their beliefs upon our South American neighbors, resulting in generations that don't use birth control.
And yet we have an administration that has no problem crossing the "separation of state" line by promoting "faith based" policies.
6
Coming from a country that elected Trump, it seems very strange. One muts acknowlege that Bolsonaro was elected with 57 million votes, overcoming his opponent by 10 million votes. He was elected by a massive vote, unlike Trump, who did not enjoy a majority vote, thanks to the very particular system in the US.
One must examine the reasons for this to have happened, instead of whining over spilled milk and charging against an administration that won over via popular vote and that has not even taken over the power. One must also examine the ACTIONS and not the past statements of the new administration. Stop trying to predivt the future, because it nas not yet arrived. Please examine the reactions to the appointment of a courageous and competent former judge as Minister of Justice, Sergio Moro, the judge that started to drain the corruption swamp that exists in the majority of the Brazilian Congress, state companies, state pension funds, and even in the Supreme Court, to which the PT leftist party appointed a former lawyer of the Party that failed two tests to become a judge and that has no recognized legal exertise.
Please be fair!
14
@Daniel: as an aside ...
i suppose bolsonaro won mostly bc people
are fed up with violence prevailing in brazil.
environmental and other concerns
might have been secondary here.
i wish sergio moro the best of luck fighting corruption!
we shall be watching his [and his opponents'] actions
if we're lucky, we learn how its done & follow suit at home.
4
@Daniel To be fair, corruption has not been a monopoly of the workers party, most political parties have benefited from looting State owned companies and have all gladly appointed under qualified cronies to all kinds of public service jobs, including the many parties which Bolsonaro has represented in his 20 yr career in congress.
The merit of the article is to shed some light on damage to the rainforest and its traditional inhabitants, it is good that international press dedicates attention to this.
4
This story is a word for word history of the eastern North American Indian populations, repeated three hundred years into the future, and resulting in a future of the extinction of pure indigenous cultures. The acceptance of modern civilization is a bargain with the devil.
12
@Myron It is not just of eastern American Indian populations. Take a trip out West.
1
There are echoes in this powerful piece of lack of respect for indigenous peoples throughout the Americas; here in the USA for example. Our environmental legacy, forever changed by rich and powerful patriarchs, as the most predatory invasive species on the planet.
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The sane people of the world needs to reign in these perverse destructive thoughts because wilderness is both a salve for our sanity and a great bank for regulating carbon dioxide. The benefits are too great and not to speak of theindigenous people that these last places are sanctuaries for.
10
These indigenous people are the canaries in the coal mine and are ignored at the peril of everyone. It's terrifying to think what effect Bolsonaro's policies will have on the people and land of Brazil, and consequently, because of environmental destruction and climate change, on the future of the entire earth.
29
Our boat is unquestionably sinking, yet our captain yells at everyone to keep fishing. And sadly that is what we do.
23
Who's in the US, is really worried about the Indians? It's easy to enumerate the selfishness and the hypocrisy among us. People are worried with deforestation bcz it means less clean air for them to breathe. Look the waste around us. 30% of the food served goes to waste. It means the need for more land, for more clean water, less rain forest & oxygen. SUVs mean more CO2, less clean air for all. Worried moms with their babies safety drive those huge cars. Hey moms! what about worrying with their adulthood instead? Cloths! Do you need a T-Shirt of each color? Get curios and learn how much pollution and deforestation a T-Shirt manufacturing creates! Check out how much deforestation and pollution steaks create! Or the needless & useless things bought for funday, like S.Patrick, Halloween, Christmas, etc. Keep in mind, in the Rain Forests areas, also live people, majority in poor conditions, who need to survive & feed their children, even if it means destroying the forest. Their jobs are financed by crooks, whose greed have no limits. We should look for the rain forests health, but also we should look for the people living in. What about petition our government to create an environment tax (sorry Republicans, you breathe too) to help to protect forests around the world? I can foresee scientists flocking to those places for researches & I could bet they could find many ways to provide jobs w/o destroying the forest, consequently the indigenous tribes would be ok too.
21
@Nelson. Hmmm .... "What about petition our government to create an environment tax (sorry Republicans, you breathe too) to help to protect forests around the world?". Actually, Washington State, who's population likes to consider themselves the greenest or green, just voted "NO" to a carbon tax in a referendum in the midterms. Looks like the Democrats (you breathe too) don't care much either. By the way, Colorado and Arizona had a referendum on a carbon tax and also voted "NO". Maybe too much cannabis floating around in Washington and Colorado... LOL!
1
" He has promised to scale back enforcement of environmental laws, calling them an impediment to economic growth, ..."
Where did I hear similar talk before?
24
A great tragedy but with changes in insignificant details and it is almost precisely the same story of what the United States did to the indigenous peoples, particularly accelerating their genocide and exploitation after proclaiming their righteousness in stamping out slavery and self-rule in the American South. I suppose every good deed earns a great crime. In any case, what American living in a home that rests on stolen native land, driving a car fueled by oil from stolen land and reading this with electricity from stolen coal, has any moral standing to say anything?
The process of the last 500 years will, I am afraid continue legal or not. We set the example here. No change in law is needed. “But Mr. Bolsonaro has threatened to take smaller steps on his own, like halting fines against companies and individuals who break the law.” Isn’t this in principle what The One did with DACA? Applying that principle, a president can do nearly anything.
The UN was not created to interfere in internal affairs. The US can hector and complain but can not possible do so from any position other than flagrant hypocrisy.
7
Brilliant reporting, but very painful to read. Thank you.
30
What Bolsanaro is doing in the Amazon, Trump is also doing on US public lands. Environmental protection and rights of indigenous people are being swept aside for short term profits. The result is further destruction of our environment, which will lead to more disease and to worsening climate change.
We can make a difference as consumers by reducing or eliminating our consumption of products that are motivating this destruction, including fossil fuels, gold, and beef.
17
We can also reject the disgusting, devaluing "consumer" slur for describing ourselves, or anyone else.
That does not mean we stop consuming things entirely, and certainly not that we accept nothing more than a tiny house with a candle for light (which actually plays into the mansion-hoarding 1%ers' hands by allowing them more land to hoard); but let's not make it our goal or defining quality.
Stop blaming Bolsonaro based on your misunderstandings. He will START his term in January 2019. Before the recent election, the Workers Party, Lula’s PT, had won all presidential elections since 2002.
1
We must reduce the population rate of all nations. The pressures on the environment by TOO MANY new mouths to feed, is partly responsible for the escalating grab on remaining resources. All national leaders must do what Teddy Roosevelt did with John Muir, go camping in the wilderness for a month.
Only then will they understand what the world's future needs.
7
@John Ring
And yet we continue to subsidize and encourage the importance of "family", while taking away much of the help that people need to prevent "too many new mouths to feed".
Indigenous peoples will have to be strong and insist on their rights or they will likely lose their lands and their way of life forever. I doubt the new government will support them in this.
3
I would be curious as to the reforestation rate that occurs when land, previously stripped of vegetation or strip mined lays fallow for several years in the rainforests this story mentions.
I would imagine much of the land stripped in the last hundred years has repopulated itself.
4
@Tom ,Retired Florida Junkman I've seen forrest in the US destroyed by mining companies. What grows back is not necessarily strong healthy trees. There will be vines and stunted shrubs. I recently visited the place where my hometown once stood. There is nothing pretty about it. The pines and junipers were all gone. What I saw a lot of was the mining company's dirt roads crisscrossing all over the place.
1
Survival International is trying to help. There are other nonprofits as well. Let’s donate and support.
9
Props and thanks to the photographer Meridith Kohut. The images added immeasurably to the story.
32
Look at the last picture. The forest cleaning the air, the mists rich in oxygen and the whole ecosystem generating life. The Amazon is vital to the survival of life on the planet. Chip away at it and no amount of gold will save us.
56
"Re" integrate them into society? They have not been part of that larger society. This is indeed, at the very least, indifference to genocide. It is also indifference to the growing crisis facing the world climate. Sadly, with Trump in the White House the USA will behave in an indifferent manner for Trump calls climate change a hoax and cares little to nothing for any people of color.
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@Anne-Marie Hislop
Was Trump president when the natives were driven from Chicago? Has he been President the last 500 years while this was going on? Are we to be indifferent to our own hypocrisy? Not everything is about Trump. Relating this to Trump is syndromal.
No, he has not been President the last 500 years (or ever, or currently).
But Andrew Jackson and others were, and "covfefe" idolizes their racism and greed, defiantly anti-introspective except to swell his own coffers and ego, and anti-learning except to figure out how to stick it to Those Librul Coastal Elites and other Others.
Such thinking, far more tribal than that of the indigenous they target, IS "syndromal".
1
We have no Purple Martins at the farm.
None.
They came from Brazil.
Once upon a time, hundreds flew over the pond. No more. Not one.
Insects are way down. They came from the grass and the woods and the swamp.
Ticks are down.
Warming?
Damage to the MicroBiome? Antibiotic damage. Fed to livestock? Fed to us?
Parenteral. Subcutaneous.
And mtDNA? What’s what with mtDNA? Our immune system?
Immunity.
Epidemic of non communicable diseases. Yes. Epidemic.
The smallest living things matters most.
Believe it.
Read Rodney Dietert PhD. His book is tops.
Retiring from Cornell. Brilliant.
48
The International Mafia 0.01% inherited/stolen wealth Robber Baron/radical religion Good Old Boys cabal will stop at nothing to be able to pillage and plunder OUR earth at will - without regulation.
These repugnant, insatiably greedy, morally/ethically bankrupt, socially unconscious excuses for human beings will destroy OUR lives, the environment, and the world if WE THE PEOPLE let them.
WE are the only ones who can/will stop them and NOW is the time. The Socially Conscious Women and men we hired/elected this week and those we will hire/elect in 2020 MUST form a governmental-sponsored agency with good paying jobs and send people to these countries where dictators have taken over and help educate locals to fight like hell to save their countries and lives.
The International Mafia is putting OUR world in great danger and it must not stand.
Not now. Not ever.
95
@njglea and where do we sign up to resist these self-styled evildoers?
1
Stop blaming Bolsonaro based on your misunderstandings. He will START his term in January 2019. He is not a dictator. He was elected by the people in free and fair direct vote last October, supervised by international agencies. Before the recent election, the Workers Party, Lula’s PT, had won all presidential elections since 2002 (if you want someone to blame). PS: Does your comment, by any chance, mean you think the US should interfere or invade any country you don’t agree with? The US has done it before...
1
I'm so sorry that indigenous and sane Brazilians will suffer jailable bolsonaro's rule. I'm even more sorry that the Amazon and Earth will suffer it more, which means the rest of us will too. Ugh, such a deplorable boor!
I bet michel "fora" temer's happy that he'll relinquish the title of Worst And Most Self-Serving Crook In Brazil Since That One Coup for a while, though. More voters might prefer jailable, but neither has earned their seat nor he their votes.
14