I’ve been here in Brasil doing some research at the site where I did my MS work. We’re measuring the growth of trees and soil nutrient status 6 years after site establishment if you must know. FYI, if you give Schizololbium amazonicum (a tree called Paricá) P and K fert., it can grow up to 27 meters in 6 years, roughly 4.5 meters per year, without weed control. That translates to ~89 feet in 6 years, or ~15 ft per year.
What I wanted to relate is not my research but the ever-important topic of TV. Mostly, in how I can’t get over the types of public service announcements I see on TV here, and how they are in such stark contrast to what we see (or don’t see) on US TV.
What have caught my eye on the TV in Brasil are PSAs that brag about, in no particular order:
-Investment in public schools, particularly in school food programs. Announcing the increase in % (~133%) in money spent per student overall, and demonstrating the increase in healthy food distribution to schools. Closes with the “Lunch Lady” saying “students who are better fed, learn more” (alunos que alimentam melhor aprendam mais).
- Public education campaign for energy use reduction, with an emphasis on the use of compact fluorescent lights vs. incandescent lights. Ads also demonstrate how much energy an average house will save (and $$$) by turning off lights, tvs etc while not in use.
- Public education campaign for water use reduction, with an emphasis on how much water and $$$ people can save by not running the faucet at full strength while brushing teeth or by washing dishes w/o tap on the whole time. Also show water reductions in reduced shower times and fixing leaks/dripping faucets.
- Publicity ads for commemorating the 70th anniversary of worker protection laws, specifically highlighting a construction worker who fell off the 15th floor but whose life was saved b/c the company he worked for was required to provide him with a harness and safety connecting cable. Closes with the line “Making Brasil a better country at work” (Fazendo o Brasil um país melhor no trabalho)
- “Questione. Descubra. Mude. O reconhecimento é irrestivel”. Question, discover, change. Knowledge is irresistible. An ad for the Brazilian science agency (Sebrae) urging the population to take a more scientific approach to life. It asks various rhetorical questions with accompanying images, but one in particular asks “What if religion and science made peace (with each other)?” (E se a religião e a ciência se fizeram paz?)
Brasil is a dynamic country that has plenty of problems and is far from perfect. It has however been changing rapidly with the strengthening of its somewhat nascent democracy (since 1984). Its recent economic “miracle”, well at least it didn’t enter into serious recession like the US and Europe it actually grew quite well, is largely based on large-scale rent redistribution programs like Bolsa Familia, which gives modest sums of money to families that keep their kids in school, if they have them, or simply based on income. It did not engage in austerity programs like the US did either. Some things to think about.
Anyway, in contrast to the current political climate in the US the first PSA mentioned is advocating how good it has been to feed school kids (seems like a no-brainer), whereas here certain elephantine-mascoted politicians here constantly advocate slashing everything related to public-school financing but especially school lunch programs b/c that is just outright communism.
The 2nd PSA advocates energy efficiency and highlighted the benefits of CFLs (personal economy but also energy conservation), whereas said elephantine politicians have gone out of their way to demonize everything from Al Gore, to energy conservation to CFLs, and even introduced legislation seeking to glorify the sanctity of the incandescent bulb and its energy-sucking ways. Again, energy conservation ought to be a no-brainer.
The 3rd PSA seeking to educate the public about water efficiency is something that has been replicated in the US lately, especially in areas recently stricken by hard core droughts (GA I’m looking at you). However, areas that suffer from groundwater pollution caused by fracking are being besieged by misleading ads from the fracking industry trying to paint a picture of how environmentally friendly and patriotic the highly polluting and corrupting practice is. I was raised on water conservation and can’t understand how people willfully waste/pollute it.
The 4th PSA celebrating worker safety laws flies in direct contrast to the current mood in the US in regards to workers/unions, their rights and the “Job Creationists”. Rethugs, and Blue Dogs, can’t bash unions, and the worker protections they defend, fast enough. There have been recent efforts to undercut the NLRB and many states (WI, MI, OH and NJ, I’m looking at you, among many others) have gone out of their way to eviscerate the power of unions and workers.
The 5th PSA advocating science filled me with joy and is also in direct contrast to much of the social atmosphere in the US now. Rethugs are on a rampage right now to discredit science. They want to defund the EPA, they want to gut the Clean Water and Air acts, which are based on science. They want to do away with any and all regulations, based on science, that do anything to hinder the ability of corporations/businesses/individuals to generate as much profit as possible, which usually involves polluting the hell out of the environment.
The final bit of media that really grabbed my attention was an article in a business mag that I found in an airport chair, Isto É: Dinheiro (That’s it: Money). It was filled with the usual free-market etc rubbish, but one article was really awesome. It was about wind energy, and Brasil’s stated desire to increase its wind-power portfolio. Several Atlantic Ocean bound states in the Northeast of Brasil, mainly Bahia, Rio Grande do Norte and Ceará, are in a bidding frenzy trying to entice foreign-based turbine manufacturers to set up shop in their various states. Many Brazilian energy providers are financing wind-farms to increase their green-energy portfolios. Many Brazilian banks (Itaú, Banco do Brasil, Bradesco, Santander) are financing multi-million dollar wind farms and several have portfolios with multi-billion dollar holdings in various wind-energy related deals. And this is all coming from a country that has recently discovered an oil-field (the famed pre-Sal fields in the Atlantic, at great depth) with the potential to dwarf the remaining holdings of Saudi Arabia.
Again, Brasil faces real social and environmental problems, confronting them with a mixed-bag of somewhat dubious results and should not be confused with a liberal paradise.
I just wanted to point out that in the realm of popular media, Brasil’s discourse has a decidedly different feel to it than what I see in the US. I’ve noticed a shifting wind in the US in the 5 weeks since I’ve been here: Obama has begun to turn the tables on the Thug-turds in the debt ceiling negotiations and Murdoch’s media empire is facing a serious crisis (crises?) which only makes me hope that there is a hope that Faux Nooz will be tainted as well, guilt by association ya know. I hope that we can begin seeing more stuff in US domestic media that carries some of the positive vibe that I have noticed here in Brazilian media.
PS – I will write another diary with EcoKos tags re: my agroforestry research…