Ignacy Sachs

Brasil rural: da redescoberta à invenção

“Entre todas as regioes do globo, talvez a mais apropriada a agricultura seja o Brasil, pois que na sua vasta extensao acham-se climas, terrenos e exposicoes de quantas qualidades e possivel imaginar, de forma que dificilmente nos poderemos lembrar, de uma especie de vegetal, ou de uma sorte de cultura, que nao exista ja, ou que nao possa, para o futuro, introduzir-se neste abencoado pais, tao fecundo e variado em producoes, ameno em aspectos e ares, tao regado de aguas, revestido de matas, e aprazivel a vista, que os primeiros descobridores nao duvidaram avancar, que tinham por fim deparado com o paraiso terrestre”.

A revolução energética do século XXI

The beginning of the century coincides with the beginning of yet another energetic revolution stirred up by the raise in oil prices and conditioned to three factors: • The proximity of “oil peak,” that some geologists are announcing for the next decade, and that is translated by the unevenness between the volume of its production and that of the recently discovered reserves. According to Colin J.Campbell (2006), from 1981 on the world began to use more oil than it discovered. In 2005, for every five barrels consumed, only one was found, 1 thence the tendency of raising prices of the black gold. As I am writing this article, the barrel of oil is sold between US

Da civilização do petróleo a uma nova civilização verde

50 and 60, having reached US

Em busca de novas estratégias de desenvolvimento

75 already. Many observers forecast that in the next few years it might reach US

O desenvolvimento enquanto apropriação dos direitos humanos

100 or more. The competitiveness level of Brazilian sugar cane ethanol that benefited from thirty years of improvement and from the drop in price of its production is at US

Approaches to a political economy of environment

35 per barrel of oil, while biodiesel becomes competitive in the US

Forms of Foreign Aid: An economic analysis

50 to US

De volta à mão visível: os desafios da Segunda Cúpula da Terra no Rio de Janeiro

60 range, with great possibilities of further cost reduction in the future. • The late realization that, regardless of the economic costs, the international community must promote with maximum urgency an obstinate and rigorous policy to reduce the consumption of fossil energy sources to avoid harmful and irreversible climatic changes, caused by the excessive emission of greenhouse effect gases. The Kyoto Protocol is an extremely timid and totally insufficient step in that direction. According to the scientists, there should be at least a 50% cut in emissions by 2050, and by a factor of four in the industrialized countries. 2 Among the followers of “deep ecology”, some people believe that the point of no return has already been surpassed, and that the inadequate use of technology has hopelessly harmed the Earth’s self-regulation of the system. Instead of claiming for sustainable development, we shall, at best, discuss the sustainable withdrawal, with a drastic limitation of both consumption levels and world population. 3

Entering the anthropocene: ‘Geonauts’ or sorcerer’s apprentices?

, the International energy agency based in Paris, a branch of the oeCd, organized an international seminar on biofuel options, together with the united nations Foundation and the Brazilian government. Brazil was represented by a strong delegation led by Minister Rodrigues. In a sense, this seminar was a coming-of-age for biofuels, or at least heralded a new situation, as explained by a conjunction of three factors:1. a great number of geologists believe that oil output will peak in the next ten to twenty years. this does not mean that there will be no more oil, but simply that the new reserves apparently do not compensate the extraction. We are entering a period of depleting oil reserves that could last a century. However, this is not important in itself, what matters is that we find ourselves in a time of permanently high prices caused by diminishing supply and still growing demand. this is the first factor, oil prices have hit sixty dollars a barrel, already way above the margin that starts to make biofuels competitive. If this proves a relatively long-term phenomenon, we could say that we have entered a new age. 2. the second reason is geopolitical, in other words, the mounting costs that the united states and its allies have to shoulder in order to maintain the supply-lines through the Middle east. More and more north-american specialists are starting to think that it would be more worthwhile to invest in alternatives than to continue trying to administrate this situation. 3. the third factor, which I consider as very important, though I do not believe it has led to the new situation, is the environmental problem. It is already clear that, even if the Kyoto Protocol were implemented fully, it would still be far too little in terms of cutting greenhouse gas emissions. the combination of these three factors recently led the eminent north-american energy specialist, amory Lovins, to publish a new book. In the

Transitions to Sustainability

Na vespera da Conferencia sobre desenvolvimento social em Copenhague (1995), o autor defende novas estrategias condizentes com uma axiologia do desenvolvimento. Para ele, nao ha desenvolvimento sem crescimento equilibrado dentro de cada pais e nas relacoes Norte-Sul. Por outro lado, nao se pode prescindir da ecologia. Finalmente o objetivo do desenvolvimento e o homem, sua cultura propria, seus valores universais: o direito a insercao produtiva e a participacao enquanto cidadao, o que supoe um Estado democratico, regulador de uma economia mista. No plano juridico, o autor sugere a criacao de um foro internacional independente.