Marina: The Unkindest Cut

Marina Silva´s resignation yesterday as environment minister has shredded the last guise of any environmental credibility in the Brazilian government. It´s not that Marina´s tenure was so incredibly successful – her opposition to GMOs resulted only in getting two companies to put a tiny "T" symbol on their soy oil, and we´ll never be able to forgive Marina, as good soldier dismantling the environmental protection agency Ibama, and pulling the switch executing the Madeira River at Lula´s orders.

It´s more that Marina embodied in a certain way the idealism that´s still out there in the environmental movement . Among her earliest initiatives was to invite Fritjof Capra and the Rocky Mountain Institute to present a seminar on energy alternatives for a select group of Brazilian energy experts, who ended up scratching their heads, wondering why the gringos didn´t seem to know anything about Brazil´s real energy situation or potential. The environment ministry was quickly flooded with refugees from Greenpeace and other ecology groups, and Brazilian environmentalists seemed to all believe they were somehow part of the government. But, soon we were being told by our friends, in response to our proposals, that the Mines and Energy Ministry was the only one authorized to deal with energy policies in Brazil.

Instead of the environment becoming a "cross-cutting issue", as Marina had espoused, advising decisions in every sector of the Brazilian government, it´s clear that the clearcutters, and those who are pouring concrete or are passing money under the table to get public works contracts are the ones who now call the shots in Brasília.