A Case Study of People, Progress and the Environment

Student Materials, the New Frontier in Brazil

Breno Augusto dos Santos, a geologist, was making a helicopter survey of a portion of Brazil's vast Amazon region. In the midst of the largely uncharted jungle he spotted two partially bare mountain ranges--even from the air he could see the rust-brown color, which made his heart leap. He landed to take samples, but that was only a formality. He knew he had discovered a huge deposit of iron ore.

Breno's discovery became more important than just iron ore--though it may prove to be the largest single deposit in the world. Eight years of research and testing have led to an estimate of 17 billion tons of ore in the two ranges--enough to fill world iron needs for up to 300 years.

It was the first of many discoveries that are leading to an opening of the great Amazon frontier. Bauxite (aluminum ore), copper, nickel, and dozens of other metals necessary for industry have been found and are being developed. Banks and corporations from all over the world are anxious to take part. Forest products, the potential for oil, and the building of hydroelectric power plants are additional lures.

To get at these treasures will not be easy. New farms, towns, and cities are needed to feed, house, and service all the workers involved in the projects. Roads and railroads must be carved out of one of the most uncooperative environments in the world. Steaming jungles, where rainfall may exceed 100 inches a year, are crisscrossed with treacherous rivers. The great iron ore deposits are in mountain ranges that rise 3000 feet above the jungle floor.

These obstacles, like the tremendous amounts of money, equipment, and labor needed, will be overcome. The stakes are worth every risk. As one American maintenance supervisor said: "We've had geologists and mining engineers here from all over the world. None of them can believe it. It's just too damned fabulous to be true.''

The burst of activity in this area 2/3 the size of Canada will have an environmental impact, one the natives of the region have already felt. Unprotected from many diseases previously unknown in the region, thousands have died. The number of Indian tribes has already dropped dramatically. When the first Portugese explorers arrived in Brazil, there were 1-5 million indigenous people. Today, 200,000 indigenous people live in the Amazon region. A national organization is making a strong effort to ease the situation by relocating some tribes so that they may maintain their traditional lifestyles. The chances are that life for these scattered bands will never again be the same.

No one yet knows what impact economic development will have on the environmental balances within the Amazon region. A Brazilian official has warned that these projects require ''large doses of scientific humility, since we must recognize our virtually total ignorance about the Amazonian forest and concentrate efforts to reduce that ignorance through programs and projects of objective research."

Will Brazil avoid mistakes opening up wilderness areas? Few observers are optimistic.

Discussion Questions

1. How has contact with so-called "modern" civilization and technology changed the Indian's way of life?
2. What impact could such a project have on family relationships? On traditional tribal bonds?
3. What are some of the positive aspects of opening up the Amazon region? What are some of the negatives?
4. What criteria would you use to settle the competing claims made by the tribes, and by the mineral developers and the peasants in other parts of Brazil who seek more land? Would you halt development? At what point?
5. What are the values of progress? (i.e., what does progress value?) What does conservation value? Are progress and conservation incompatible?

Explorations

• Read up on the history of the first transcontinental railway in the United States. What changes did the railway bring to the western part of the U.S.? What did it mean for the traditional ways of life of the Indians? Consider also the consequences of improved and increased air transportation in the 20^th century.
• Many other tribal groups around the world are being assimilated by the forces of modernization and urbanization. Use resources such as National Geographic magazines, publications of the National Wildlife Federation, and anthropological journals to learn more about the impact of social and technological change on one or more of the following groups: the Eskimos in Northern Canada, the Bushmen of the Kalahari, the Hopi of northeastern Arizona, the aborigines of Australia.