How has capitalism and modernization affected the environmental landscape of the Brazilian Amazon?
The forest fires of 2019 devastated the Amazon Rainforest. The burning of the forest and the continuing deforestation threatens to worsen the current state of global climate change. The fires that occurred in 2019 were the consequence of years of exploitation of the natural resources within the Amazon. The situation in the Amazon serves as an example of the externalities of modernization. With the construction of the Trans-Amazon Highway in the 1970s, agribusinesses in the Brazilian Amazon have flourished. However, this development of the highway led to the increased presence of illegal logging which has come at the cost of the health of the Amazonian ecosystem.
Capitalism and Climate in the Brazilian Amazon 