Academic Freedom and Climate Denialism in Brazil and Argentina

• In Event: Academic Freedom and Democratic Backsliding in Latin America

Proposal

Academic freedom and scientific development have been attacked by climate and scientific denialism in different parts of the world. Democratically elected leaders with authoritarian tendencies have used common strategies to attack science, universities, and academics, understanding that these represent forces of opposition and resistance to their policies and interests. In the Latin American context, the far-right governments of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil (2019-2022) and Javier Milei in Argentina (2023-present) represent two strong examples of opposition to academic freedom and scientific development, with a particular focus on climate denialism, which leads to a disregard for environmental preservation in the region and the fight against the global climate crisis. In this context, this research project aims to map the different actions by the Brazilian and Argentine states, during the Bolsonaro and Milei administrations, that have attacked and continue to attack academic freedom and endanger scientific development in the Latin American region, based on the thematic focus of denial and disregard for the environmental agenda. The proposal understands that the comparison between the two countries is valuable for the Latin American context, as it identifies similarities in the way these governments act and justify their environmental policies. These policies are characterized by climate and scientific denialism, neoliberal, anti-system, and anti-globalization values, challenging the scientific literature that investigates and denounces the increase in Amazonian deforestation and the deepening climate crisis in the region. The research intends to utilize quantitative and qualitative methods, in addition to conducting a literature review of the relevant literature. The quantitative approach aims to map cases of undue pressure and state censorship on the activities of research centers and agencies (public and private) responsible for producing data on the environmental situation in both countries, as well as budgetary constraints, denials of research projects, and the actions of researchers who have become targets of intimidation and persecution. The project's qualitative approach, based on a comparative analysis of emblematic cases of pressure, restriction, or censorship on environmental scientific production in both countries, aims to identify common points of attack on science, as well as reflect on strategies for resistance and strengthening academic freedom in the region. The research highlights as its main findings that, in Brazil, the scientific denialism implemented by the Jair Bolsonaro administration (2019-2022) used three main strategies to attack the free production of climate change data: violating the autonomy of institutions responsible for producing environmental data and research, as occurred with the National Institute for Space Research (INPE); publicly discrediting scientific data that pointed to the deepening of the climate crisis in Brazil during his administration; and interfering in the production and censoring the dissemination of information and actions to address the climate crisis, as occurred with the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio).

Author

• Maria Fernanda Silva Assis, Federal University of Minas Gerais