Researchers face attacks from Bolsonaro regime

doi:10.1126/science.372.6539.225

GSTDTAP > 气候变化

DOI	10.1126/science.372.6539.225
	Researchers face attacks from Bolsonaro regime
	Herton Escobar
	2021-04-16
发表期刊	Science
出版年	2021
英文摘要	This month, scientists at the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), Brazil's lead agency for studying and managing the nation's vast protected areas, had to start abiding by an unwelcome new rule. It gives one of ICMBio's top officials the authority to review all “manuscripts, texts and scientific compilations” before they are published. Researchers fear President Jair Bolsonaro's administration, which has a markedly hostile relationship with Brazil's scientific community, will use the reviews to censor studies that conflict with its ongoing efforts to weaken environmental protections. The administration says that is not the intent. But the move adds to recent developments that have rattled many Brazilian scientists and left some fearing for their jobs and even their physical safety. “Science is being attacked on several fronts,” says ecologist Philip Fearnside of the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA). “There is denial of the pandemic, denial of climate change, denial of deforestation; not to mention budget cuts.” Bolsonaro's grievances with scientists date back to the start of his administration in 2019. Then, he accused the National Institute for Space Research of “lying” about satellite data showing increased deforestation in the Amazon and fired its director, physicist Ricardo Galvão, after he defended the numbers. Since then, Bolsonaro has clashed with researchers over issues including his persistent rejection of science-based strategies for combating the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed at least 355,000 Brazilians. Recently, the relationship has become even tenser. In February, Brazil's anticorruption agency, the Office of the Comptroller General, informed epidemiologist Pedro Hallal, former rector of the Federal University of Pelotas, that he could be fired because he criticized Bolsonaro during an event in January. Hallal, who coordinates Brazil's largest COVID-19 epidemiology research project, had called Bolsonaro “despicable,” citing the president's antivaccination rhetoric and his meddling in the selection of university rectors. Hallal ultimately reached a settlement with the comptroller's office, promising not to “promote expression of appreciation or disapproval in the workplace” for 2 years. But he remains defiant. “If the idea was to silence me, I have to say it backfired,” he says. “It's motivating me to be even more critical and say what needs to be said.” But the climate is silencing colleagues, he says. “A lot of people are saying less than they would like to, for fear of retaliation.” Scientists are also reconsidering what they study and publish, says Marcus Lacerda, an infectious disease specialist with the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Manaus, Brazil. Last year, he faced intense inquiries from federal prosecutors—and received death threats—after he published work on the health risks of treating COVID-19 patients with the drug chloroquine. (Bolsonaro promoted chloroquine despite evidence it is ineffective against COVID-19.) “A lot of people are afraid to publish after what happened to me,” Lacerda says. Colleagues have abandoned COVID-19 studies, he adds, in order to avoid online harassment by what is known as Bolsonaro's “digital militia.” In one case, online harassment appears to have escalated to a physical attack. After biologist Lucas Ferrante, a doctoral candidate at INPA, published articles criticizing Bolsonaro's policies in high-profile journals (including Science ), his cellphone and social media accounts lit up with threats. Then, in November 2020, he says he was attacked by a man driving what he thought was an Uber vehicle he had hailed; the man told Ferrante he “needed to shut up” and attacked him with a sharp object. Last week, a group of Brazilian researchers cited safety concerns in explaining why they did not sign their names to a white paper, published by the Climate Social Science Network at Brown University, that outlines Bolsonaro's efforts to dismantle environmental protections. They decided to remain anonymous “for security reasons and considering the current political scenario in Brazil,” they wrote. At ICMBio, the new oversight rule adopted on 1 April gives review authority to the institute's biodiversity research director, one of four ICMBio directors who serve under the institute's president. In a statement, institute officials portrayed the order as simply a bureaucratic shift, noting that ICMBio's president previously had review authority. “There is no censorship,” it states. But researchers note that none of the top ICMBio officials is a scientist trained to conduct technical reviews; all are former military police officers or firefighters. A similar rule was issued last month at Brazil's Institute for Applied Economic Research, a major federal research center. The political pressure comes on top of a deepening science funding crisis. Government spending on research has shrunk by some 70% from a 2014 peak, and Bolsonaro recently cut this year's overall science ministry budget by 29%. The constant conflict is wearing down Brazilian researchers, says Mercedes Bustamante, an ecologist at the University of Brasèlia and co-founder of the Science and Society Coalition, a group created in 2019 to promote science-based policies. “I am so exhausted of having to defend myself all the time,” she says. “Meanwhile, all the important issues that we really should be tackling are being left behind.”
领域	气候变化 ; 资源环境
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文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.173/C666/handle/2XK7JSWQ/322871
专题	气候变化资源环境科学
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Herton Escobar. Researchers face attacks from Bolsonaro regime[J]. Science,2021.
APA	Herton Escobar.(2021).Researchers face attacks from Bolsonaro regime.Science.
MLA	Herton Escobar."Researchers face attacks from Bolsonaro regime".Science (2021).