o
Paulo, neighborhood blackouts are being promoted as the solution to the
shortages. In Brazil, mandatory 20% usage reductions have been imposed on the
general population and industries throughout most of the country. Those who do
not comply are fined and have their power cut off.
- Little is said about alternatives to the energy blackouts – options
like educating for energy conservation and searching for environmentally
sustainable energy sources;
- updating equipment to produce energy more efficiently
- reducing energy loss in transmission systems and
- controlling thieves who pirate electricity.
Nor is there much attention given to industries (like aluminum, iron, paper
and cellulose) that are actually benefiting from the energy crises by
selling their excess energy to industries that can’t reduce consumption –
at up to 5 times the distributors’ costs. Moreover, there is little
consciousness that mandatory across-the-board reductions are unfair to persons
and institutions that have always economized and used only what they needed.
And finally, the consequences of reducing/eliminating street lighting in
already violent areas are being completely ignored.
For years, the national movement of environmentalists and those who have
lost their history, culture and roots beneath the waters of hydroelectric dams
has worked to awaken public consciousness about the social and environmental
impacts of present energy production systems. But now, the sense of
vulnerability, impotence and fear induced by energy restriction, together with
the growing desire to return to accustomed comforts at almost any price, is
leading the public to accept alternatives that they had begun to discard.
In the USA, where Californians are experiencing blackouts and President
Bush is promoting economic growth over environmental safeguards (like
controlling polluting gases or labeling genetically manipulated foods) a
climate is being fostered that supports less government control and more
free market negotiation. In Brazil and other countries, there is increased
pressure for privatization of our national and international patrimony, which
again places future decisions about the world’s goods in the hands of an
economic elite. Though official programs for energy conservation exist, the
calls for privatization and the cry for immediate crisis relief are louder.
Here in Brazil, unemployment has exploded in the months of imposed energy
rationing. Factories have been forced to lower production to meet their
rationing quota. In a recent survey, 63% of the industrial managers questioned
said layoffs were unavoidable because of the energy crisis. Citizens, fearful
of losing energy all together, have reduced buying of new electrical
appliances. Refrigerator and electrical appliance sales are down 33% this
week. Even sales of electric door bells, a small industry, are down 31%. And
if you walk around poorer neighborhoods, where the shops sell 2nd
or 3rd hand appliances without energy-saver controls, you will see
that several used appliance stores have closed and the others are selling used
furniture or other substitutes to try to hang in.
In the panic and discomfort, it is hard to be rational and discerning. This
works well for those who want to benefit from the situation, but it is bad for
the earth, for humanity and the rest of the earth community. We need to be
agents who seek, verbalize and support calm, studied, balanced, non-violent
short and long term solutions that will guarantee life for all, not just for
those who can pay any price and don’t look to the future.
Now, more than ever it is important to take time to look at what is behind
the crisis.
Previously, Brazil had the best energy supply in the world in addition to
having 10% of the world’s fresh water. It had the capacity to confront a 5
year drought without energy crises.
What happened to create the current energy situation? A number of factors
can be identified.
- Over the years, successive governments have allowed electrical firms to
go into debt in order to pay the external debts in dollars.
- In order to prevent inflation, the "charge for service" scale
has not been sufficiently adjusted.
- Mechanical components in the generating and delivery systems have become
outdated or been allowed to deteriorate.
- New sustainable sources of energy have not been explored and cultivated.
Instead of taking steps to modernize equipment and develop sustainable
means of providing adequate affordable energy, Brazil promoted privatization
of energy services as the solution to company debts and inefficiencies. As is
usually the case, the new non-governmental system attracted national and
foreign investors whose primary concern was financial gain, not quality of
service. Brazil, with its eyes directed toward capitalist financing, failed to
perceive that its real economy is energy, and sold its distribution
rights to EDF in France, AES in the USA, then more recently, to Belgian,
Chilean and Spanish companies.
Roberto Malvezzi, of the National Coordination of the Pastoral Land
Commission, suggests an even more troublesome interpretation of the current
energy crisis. Brazilians, he says, have been told that the crisis is due to
inadequate rain. While rainfall has been less than normal, Malvezzi
believes this is nonsense and distracts from what is really behind the alleged
shortages. He suggests that the electrical crises are being manufactured
– created with the objective of privatizing control over Brazilian waters.
Whoever controls hydroelectricity, controls the water reserves (and indirectly
agricultural production and other water-dependent industries). He notes that
multinational water firms have already begun installing themselves in
strategic points of the country, like Manaus. When water inevitably becomes an
export product, they will be perfectly positioned to capture the profits.
Unlike Brazil, there are countries whose populations have always had severe
limits on energy usage. Ask the people in Uganda! Malvezzi says we are all
asleep. We need to wake up and realize
- that the earth’s resources are limited and
- that those resources belong to all living beings, now and in the
future, not to the corporate elites of the present.
All of us need to be serious about preventing environmental crises
by engaging in critical thinking and working toward sustainable living.
Resources used:
Magazine: CAROS AMIGOS, year 5, # 51, June,2001. Article "Why the
Blackout", Cesar Benjamim. Portuguese
Newspapers: Folha de S
