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Activity 9
Brazil: National Progress or World Disaster?

Adapted from "New Frontier in Brazil," in Environmental Education, Interdependence: A Concept Approach.  New York: Center for Global Perspectives. 1976. pp 39-40 and 55-56

Grade Level

Secondary

Introduction

As needs for minerals and farm land increase, nations have turned and are continuing to turn to their few remaining, untapped regions.  In Brazil, for example, the vast Amazon wilderness had for centuries defied exploration and development efforts.  Scattered tribes lived there, completely separate from white culture, values and diseases.  But during the past several years, the Amazon barrier has been broken by the construction of major highway systems.  These became a source of controversy in Brazil comparable to what the Alaskan pipeline was once for the United States.

Much of the road network has already been built, but there are still unsettled questions about the continued construction of other roads and the future development of the region.  Proponents-government officials, construction companies, and multinational corporations and agribusiness interested in developing the Amazon-point to the importance of (1) facilitating economic growth through the exploitation of mineral and other natural resources in the region; (2) opening up new lands to relieve population pressures in densely populated areas; and (3) establishing a communications network throughout the country in order to guarantee the security of the region.  Critics argue that these projects will erode the soil, destroy vegetation and threaten indigenous cultures.  Some have even predicted that the razing of the jungle will have a long-term effect on climate patterns in other, distant parts of the world.

This case study is designed to help students deal with the environmental questions which are part of the larger controversy.  The study describes the situation in the Amazon and discusses some of the advantages and disadvantages of developing the region.  Students are asked to evaluate the impact of a changing environment on a society and its culture and to grasp the concept of "progress" as it is related to growth and to the preservation (or destruction) of the physical environment and indigenous cultures.

Teacher/Student Objective

The general goal of this lesson is to help students recognize that a healthier environment depends on people making difficult choices and carefully measuring the consequences of those choices.  Additionally, it furthers the understanding that culture (in this case, the cultures found in the Amazonian rainforest area) and what some would term "progress" may well determine the variety of ways humans adapt to and alter their surroundings.

Gauging Student Understanding

The progress indicators cited reflect desirable end goals.  Teachers should be prepared to use a wide variety of observational, testing and authentic achievement evaluation measures in judging the progress of students.

By reading, discussing and further researching this case study concerning the development of the Amazonian rainforest in Brazil, the students will clearly recognize and be able to enumerate and evaluate the pluses and minuses of the altering of the physical environment by technological advances, and the effect upon that environment and the people residing in it.  This will entail clear indications of student improvements in the areas of reading, writing, research and reasoning skills (to include analogies to their own environment).

Suggested Materials

• Copies of Handout 9A, A Case Study of People, Progress and the Environment.
• An easel-size map of South America with the Brazilian rainforest clearly identifiable.
• Additional up-to-date resources such as books or articles about the Amazonian rainforest, or handy references to the topic on the Internet.

Initial Data for Consideration and/or Process

Distribute Handout 9A, A Case Study of People, Progress and the Environment.  After students have read the case study, the following questions can be discussed or researched:

• How has contact with so-called "modern" civilization and technology changed the way of life of indigenous people?  How might such changes, in turn, impact upon the world's people at large in such areas as medicine, environmental management, etc.?
• What impact could such a project have on indigenous family relationships?  On traditional group bonds?
• What are some of the positive aspects of opening up the Amazon region?  What are some of the negatives?  (Specify the groups impacted in each case.)
• What criteria would you use to settle the competing claims made by the indigenous peoples and by the mineral developers and the peasants in other parts of Brazil who seek more land?  Would you halt development?  At what point?  And at what costs-Political, economic, social, international?
• What are the values of progress?  (i.e., what does progress cost?) What does conservation cost?  Are progress and conservation incompatible?  How would you estimate the impact on your values of the changes occurring in your own environment?  (Be specific.) This question involves students in thinking about their own values.  It is important for them to consider what "progress" means to them and how they weigh the demands for economic growth, development, etc., against concern for the preservation of human and physical environments.

Other Possible Activities

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 US?  What did it mean for the traditional ways of life of the Native Americans?  Consider also the consequences of improved and expanded air transportation in the 20th century.

Many other tribal groups around the world are being assimilated by the forces of modernization and urbanization.  Use resources such as National Geographic, 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 and the Aborigines of Australia.

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