Amazing Amazon

Brazilians were on tenterhooksTenterhooks are hooked nails used to fasten cloth to a frame. But being "on tenterhooks" is a phrase used to describe a feeling of nervous anticipation. as they waited for the election results.  Would the former president "Lula" da Silva win? Or would the sitting president, Jair Bolsonaro, manage to cling to power?

Finally, the results came through. Lula - as Brazilians call him - had won by two million votes.

It was an incredible comeback. Lula had been president from 2003 to 2010, but had then been arrested for corruption and money-laundering. He spent 580 days in jail before being declared innocent.

The two rivals could not have been more different. Lula is a former trade unionAn organisation of workers who band together to negotiate their wages and working conditions collectively, on grounds that this gives them more bargaining power. leader who left school at 12 to work as a shoe-shine boy. His main concerns as president were ending hunger and providing better housing for the poor.

Bolsonaro is a far-right former soldier who supports big business. He has spoken against women's rights, gay rights, immigrants and gun control.

He refused to take Covid-19 seriously. As a result, Brazil has the third highest death toll from the virus in the world.¹

Lula and Bolsonaro have very different views on the environment. Txai Surui, a campaigner for the rainforest, summed it up: "One candidate wants to save the Amazon, and the other wants to burn it down."

Bolsonaro has said that Brazilians can do what they like to the rainforest. Under his government, businesses were allowed to cut down trees or burn them to create farmland.

Last year an average of 18 trees were felled per second, destroying an area bigger than Northern Ireland.

In his victory speech, Lula invited other countries to help save the rainforest. "Brazil and the planet need an Amazon alive and breathing," he said. "A tree, still standing, is worth more than a ton of wood cut down illegally."

A week before COP27The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as the Conference of the Parties (COP). begins, many think it was the best news delegates could have asked for.

Did yesterday's Brazilian election change everything?

Yes: Brazil now has a president who cares about the rainforest and will do all he can to protect it. Preserving its 39 billion trees will play a vital part in bringing global warming under control.

No: Even without further damage to the rainforest, we will struggle to restrict carbon emissionsWhen a gas is let off from something, like a car, it is an emission. Carbon dioxide, or CO2, is a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. enough to curb climate change. And a future president could prove as irresponsible as Bolsonaro.

Or... The fact that so many Brazilians put voting for Bolsonaro ahead of saving the planet shows what environmentalists are up against. Educating people about climate change is essential to combating it.