Cardoso addressed pressing environmental issues, and the need for global action. "The cost of inertia would be much greater than the cost of prompt and strong action," said Cardoso. He focused in particular on Brazil's role as both a developing country and as a forerunner in environmentally prudent policy. "Today Brazil holds a strategic position at the crossroads of the global environmental debate as a target of criticism for our failure to manage the problem of deforestation especially in the Amazon region, as a driver of technological innovation in the field of renewable energies thanks to our pioneering role in bio-fuels, as a leader in the economic use of biodiversity, as a key player in the process of framing an international response to climate change that does not crystallize existing power inequalities," he said.
According to Cardoso, deforestation has already devastated 17 percent of the total Brazilian Amazon, as well as other critical Brazillian ecosystems. Lodging, soil production and cattle-raising are leading causes. Cardoso nevertheless emphasized that it is entirely possible to preserve the forest in an economically viable way. "Experts argue that the economic value of a preserved forest with all its potential for biodiversity and ecological services is 20 times higher than the value of its chopped woods," he said.
Cardoso recalled the success of Brazil's national AIDS program and argued that a similar approach toward Brazil's environmental issues could provide comparably promising results. In response to a rapid spread of HIV within its population, the Brazilian government promoted the use of condoms, engaged the help of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and decided to treat HIV-infected people for free. The prices were ultimately reduced, and so were the amount of Brazilians infected with HIV. "This required a permanent interplay between government and society ... This is what I'm saying about the environment. We need something similar to that," Cardoso explained.
Cardoso also explained that in Brazil today every car is required to run on a blend of 23 percent ethanol. "According to the International Energy Agency Brazilian ethanol from sugarcane may account in 2020 for 30 percent of the global market of transportation fuels," he said.
According to Cardoso, one impediment to this goal is the present U.S. tariff on imported sugar ethanol. "To protect American corn ethanol, the U.S. presently imposes a high tariff on sugar ethanol from Brazil and does not tax imported crude oil. The renewable energy source that would enable the U.S. to reduce its dependency on oil is penalized while oil consumption continues to be encouraged," he said.
Cardoso argued that a strong collaboration between the U.S. and Brazil regarding ethanol use would open up vast possibilities to other developing countries in Latin America and Africa. He said that Brazil is transporting some of their sugarcane to Africa, as well as the equipment to transform the sugarcane into ethanol.
Developing countries are reluctant to address a problem that they did not create. "Brazil's steadfast position has been that the burden of mitigation should be divided among countries in the same proportion as their responsibility in the emission of greenhouse gasses," explained Cardoso.
The lecture was sponsored by the Office of the President and the Victor S. Johnson Lecture Fund as part of a program called "The Rainforest Crunch," organized in part by Professor of Sociology and American Studies Jan Dizard and Amherst alum Mark London '74.
Cardoso concluded, "Either we build one world for all or we will be left with no world at all."