Desastres ambientais e a incapacidade de enfrentamento jurídico à dinâmica ambiental do capital no contexto brasileiro.

Abstract

Overcoming the contemporary environmental crisis demands changes in a consolidated civilization model. Consumerism, programmed obsolescence and the unbridled use of non-renewable natural resources, lead humanity to an imminent environmental collapse. In this scenario, the capacity to support and renew the Planet's environmental resources is compromised, as well as the expansionist system of capital encounters obstacles in the socio-spatial limits. A sustainable environmental management is essential in the face of the pessimistic horizon and scarcity. The general objective of this thesis is the analysis of five major Brazilian environmental disasters of the 21st century, seeking to unveil the weight of the logic of capital accumulation, which is a determinant of productive and social relations in a broad way. The hypothesis that permeates the thesis is that the current process of capital expansion leads to political, economic and social contradictions, which demand understanding from human and social scientists. Starting from the dialectic and the historical-inductive model, we seek to find systemic contradictions that give rise to new contradictions; the interpretation of reality, in this panorama, is based on critical analysis. The thesis is divided into two moments: the first, in the examination of the environmental crisis in the global context, with the consequent failures of international meetings, and, the second, in the exploratory research that describes the five major Brazilian environmental damages from their procedural and reparatory. The reflection of such disasters is relevant in the Brazilian context, as a peripheral country and exploited ex-colony. Bearing in mind the uneven distribution of natural resources between the hemispheres and the unequal exchange between countries, this thesis seeks to bring together the subsistence of environmental injustice in Brazilian environmental disasters. It starts, therefore, from the reflection of Law as an insufficient instrument of social transformation and guarantor of ambient order. The premise is that Law has a fundamental role as a protagonist and driver of risk management in contemporary society, as well as in the prevention and precaution of disasters. It is therefore advocated for sustainable governmental postures, as well as for a new paradigmatic model of law that guarantees the substance of a healthy environment for the next generations.