Lungs of the Earth
With such a question pending in the near-future, Lungs of the Earth aims to shed light on the complex web of geopolitics responsible for the massive deforestation of the largest, most diverse, carbon absorbent tropical land in the world, the Amazon rainforest - otherwise known as the lungs of the earth. Through movement and mixed-sound media, we explore what has become Brazil’s hottest political and environmental war zone, highlighting the power struggle between those who live to protect it and those who live to profit off of it.
The impact of President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration along with the expansion of big agribusiness production in the Amazon region has not only threatened its delicate balance of natural resources and diverse species, but most importantly, the lives, culture, and homes of thousands of Indigenous peoples and communities that inhabit the land. This piece is beyond the point of a wake-up call; the environmental crisis, exploitation of natural resources, abuse of power, corruption amongst government officials, violation of Indigenous land rights, cultural and communal genocide of Indigenous peoples, has been ongoing for centuries.
How have we let our capitalistic agendas and neoliberal values override the value of human life, the value of clean air, the value of life on earth itself? When will breath no longer be a human right or automated physiological process, but a commodity in which the global supply must be rationed, bought, or artificially produced in order to support life?
As the only species that has managed to industrialize, exploit, and commodify our people and our planet to an unsustainable end, it is now our duty to humanize ourselves, our relationship to nature and each other, reminding ourselves of its essential existence, beauty, and lifeline before it’s too late.
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