TADEAS:
Kai Heron
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1400799563292811267.htmlBrazil on drought alert, faces worst dry spell in 91 years | Successful Farminghttps://www.agriculture.com/markets/newswire/update-2-brazil-on-drought-alert-faces-worst-dry-spell-in-91-years3 Big Things Today, June 2, 2021 | Successful Farminghttps://www.agriculture.com/news/three-big-things/3-big-things-today-june-2-2021The situation isn’t looking good. Already this year farmers from Canada to California have experienced droughts and the US’ soy growing states have been been hit hard. So guess what? The price of soy is rising.
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As the climate crisis escalates, it’s not hard to imagine droughts hitting Brazil and the US simultaneously, devastating corn and soy yields, and sending food prices spiralling upwards.
Recall that the Arab Spring was in part initiated by rising food prices – by a crisis in labour's reproduction within the circuits of capital – to get a sense of where this can go.
That’s one thread we can pull on. One series of tentacular relations. There are others. One is that the drought has reduced Brazil’s hydropower capacity to such an extent that the country is importing natural gas to cover the deficit. --
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Brazils-Worst-Drought-In-91-Years-Is-Good-News-For-LNG.amp.htmlThat’s more carbon produced in transnational shipping and logistics, more GHGs burned, more global heating, more droughts, more food insecurity. Meanwhile, Bolsonaro is trying to create a favourable regulative environment for the fossil fuel industry.
Another thread is that this drought has been worsened by the very process that made Brazil one of the world’s largest producers of corn and soy in the first place: aggressive deforestation and the forceful removal of Indigenous peoples and wildlife.
Rainforests *create* precipitation. Rainforest loss means less rain, means lower crop yields, means a crisis in labour’s reproduction, a crisis in profitability for capital, soaring food insecurity, potential social upheavals, and so on. Elliptical.