Environmental Sustainability: Brazil on the wrong-way and in a counterclaim
In the Houaiss brazilian dictionary the term accident relates to words such as eventual, fortuitous, unexpected, unpredictable. On the other hand, the word disaster implies a happening that causes suffering and huge damage, misfortune. This last one fits without adjustments to the disruption of the fundão bam occurred on November, 5th 2015 when the tailings mud went through more of 650 km of river and streams, killing 19 people and more of 10 tons of fish, displacing hundreds of families, contaminating in 17 days a biome that will only be recovered by nature in more than 100 years. The impacts were and continue to be monitored and their extent cannot be specified. Then, it ratifies a total adequacy in terms of suffering, injury, damage, and misfortune..
However, it contests the unpredictability that could describe such event as a mere accident. Between the years 2005 and 2010 were recorded by the company 5 disruptions, with and without leaks; the dam operated over capacity, with drainage problems, structural failures, and no contingency plan. Such elements mischaracterize therefore the character of unpredictability or eventuality attributed to accidents. In opposition to the cry for help of the environment silenced by the effusion of goals that dominated the attention, an agreement was signed with the responsible companies on June 25, 2018, suspending a civil action filed by the Federal Public Prosecutor (US$ 45 billion) and extinguishing another action filed by the Federal Government and Federative Units of Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo (US$ 5 billion) in an agreement involving parallel studies and possible future renegotiations. Certainly a counterclaim..
