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ABSTRACT
Environmentalist concerns have been consistently dismissed and disputed by conservative right-wing actors. In this article, I argue that anti-environmentalism, with its persistent links to anti-genderist, racist and classist discourses, is best understood through an ecofeminist lens. Within hegemonic development discourse, nature is routinely apprehended as a commodity to be used. I argue that the conceptual framework which rationalises an unsustainable use of nonhuman nature is aligned to that which maintains unequal human relations, and that recognition of this alignment is vital to fighting the environmental crisis we all face today. Indeed, such recognition may foster more unified rather than fragmented efforts in this fight. In this article, I offer a thematic analysis of the discourses of the current far-right authoritarian Brazilian government and demonstrate how concepts of gender, race and class are intertwined with those of nature, development and sustainability, all contributing to the perpetuation of hegemonic identities which foster environmental exploitation. I conclude that to move forward we should turn instead to a reappraisal of what it means to be human and of what truly constitutes our self-interest as such.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 See Cabral et al. (Citation2020) and Salleh (Citation2020).
2 Those are composed of members from diverse entrance points, such as Christian religious fundamentalism (vast Catholic sectors including the current and former Popes, most Evangelical sectors, and Orthodox leaders), nationalism (for example in the current Hungarian and Polish governments) and neoliberal conservatism (like the Brazilian MBL). See Mayer, Ajanovic, and Sauer (Citation2014), Kováts and Põim (Citation2015), Salleh (Citation2020).
3 On the contrary, Bolsonaro's irreverent register is rather meaningful and purposeful. ‘In the mediatized sphere of politics nowadays, comedic performances ‘accrue visual capital’ while shielding the performer from the seriousness of the propositional content of their utterances’. (Storto and Zanardi Citation2020, 517)
4 For example, the 2019 Amazon fires, planned and set in motion by Bolsonaro supporters (Storto and Zanardi Citation2020, 524), which disrupted and cost innumerable lives in the region.
5 That is because violence and a constant state of crisis are Bolsonaro's very method (see Storto and Zanardi Citation2020). The bond this presidency promotes among its supporters is necessarily ‘a wounded, divisive one’ (Storto and Zanardi Citation2020, 529) which can only exist in a state of continued active aggression towards the enemy other – in other words, a coalition based on a master model.
6 Bolsa Família was a social welfare program set in place in 2003 by the former leftist president Lula, intended to support low income families through conditional cash transfers.
7 Brazil's status within Latin America bears the historical specificity of having been land colonised by Portugal and not Spain, which is the case for the vast majority of the countries in the region. This historical separation is still noticeable in a certain self-image of disconnection from its neighbours despite deep social, political and economic similarities. The racist project for a white(r) Brazil has been exemplified in eugenicist campaigns throughout the 20th century, and remains strong within right-wing discourse.
8 MST or Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra, meaning Landless Workers’ Movement. This movement was founded in the 1970s, and has since fought for agrarian reform and the fundamental rights of rural communities in Brazil.
9 A point can be made that this apparent lack of mediation is just an illusion that ignores the algorithmic framing of social media content (Cesarino 2019 cited in Storto and Zanardi Citation2020, 530).
10 APA or Área de Preservacao Ambiental, meaning Environmental Preservation Area.
11 Quilombolas are those who are from or live in Quilombos. Quilombo is the name given to black communities formed initially by fleeing enslaved people or their descendants.
12 See Fausto (Citation2008) for an analysis of the category of owner/master in South American indigenous societies, a system of non-dualistic hierarchy in which there is no differentiation between human and nonhuman subjects. ‘The master is then the way through which plurality appears as singularity for others. It is in this sense that the master is an owner […] the master-owner is the form through which the collective constitutes itself as an image’ (Fausto Citation2008, 334. Author translation).
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Notes on contributors
Morgan Rocha
Morgan Rocha is an historian focused on contemporary history, specifically regarding gender and sexuality studies. As a Latino trans person, he is primarily concerned with the interdependent nature of structural inequalities which endanger not only vulnerable human lives and livelihoods but also life on Earth as a whole.