7134814
Description
Flashcards by Alice Kimpton, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by Alice Kimpton
about 8 years ago
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| Question | Answer |
| What has happened to Brazil in the last 20 years? | Since passing of the Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s and the end of the Cold War, that Brazil has begun to play a role in regional and world affairs corresponding to its size, natural resource wealth, and economic power. |
| What was Brazil the first of? | Brazil was the first Latin American entry to emerge from the recent recession and now is awash with foreign capital. |
| Where is Brazil ranked in the World Bank's report? | Brazil ranked 129/183 countries in the World Bank’s latest Doing Business report, worse than Nigeria. |
| What isn't good enough to support economic development in the country? | Country’s infrastructure is not good enough to support economic development. Brazil also remains one of the world’s most unequal societies. |
| What happened between 2004-08? | Between 2004-08 the number of people living in poverty fell from almost half of Brazil’s 192 million people to less than a quarter, but the very poorest have not benefited at all. |
| What was national growth average between 1995 and 2009? | National growth average only 2.9% a year between 1995 and 2009; China and even India have been much more successful. |
| What is still a problem in Brazil? | There is still political corruption and the drug trade is a growing problem. |
| What is happening to the Amazon? | In the Amazon it is estimated that 596,000km^2 of rainforest have been lost since 1970. Landowners are now taking legal action to undermine conservation legislation and allow more agriculture and development in the region. |
| What has Brazil's lack of fossil fuel resulted in? | Brazil’s lack of fossil fuels was seen as a problem at one time, but it stimulated innovation and as a result Brazil forged ahead in developing renewable energy sources. |
| How much energy does HEP provide? How much energy in Brazil comes from renewable sources? | Hydroelectric power(HEP) now provides roughly 80% of Brazil’s electricity, and ethanol manufactured from sugar-cane is used for transport fuel. Nearly 45% of Brazil’s total energy therefore comes from renewables. |
| What is a concern? | However concern about impact of dam building on local communities and the environment has hampered the development of new HEP projects. There has been an international campaign against the Belo Monte project planned for the Amazon region. |
| What is Brazil now self-sufficient in? | Brazil is now self-sufficient in oil. It has new oilfields 150-300km off the coast, mainly between Rio de Janeiro and Pirituba, and its oil reserves are second only to Venezuela in S Africa. |
| What is Brazil the biggest exporter of? | Brazil is now the world’s biggest exporter of beef, chicken, orange juice, green coffee, sugar, ethanol, tobacco and the soya complex of soybeans, soybean meal and oil. |
| What has happened since 1990 in terms of grain? | Since 1990, grain produced per hectare has doubled. |
| What is happening in western Bahia in the cerrado? | In western Bahia in the cerrado, huge agribusiness use the latest crop varieties and their combine harvesters have sat-nav systems accurate to within a few inches. Farms may be hundreds of thousands of hectares in size. |
| What is the Belo Monte dam on the River Xingu? | This was approved April 2010. It’ll be the 3rd largest HEP scheme in the world, with generating capacity of more than 11,000 MW. (Biggest in Itaipu, 12,6000 MW, jointly run by Brazil and Paraguay on River Parana). |
| What will the Belo Monte offer the possibility of? | Offers possibility of energy for over 23 million homes, but the dam remains highly controversial. Rotting plant matter in the reservoirs created by HEP schemes emits methane, a greenhouse gas that is 25 times more potent in global warming than CO2. There are also threats to the lives of local tribal peoples and to the forest. |
| What is the key question? | Perhaps the key question we need to ask ourselves is whether Brazil will able to bring opportunities to its poorest people. |
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