Amazônia ameaçada: análise do discurso jornalístico nos portais de notícias O Liberal.com – PA e A Crítica – AM sobre desmatamento e queimadas no contexto da pandemia da COVID-19

Abstract

The year 2020 was marked by the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and the increase in deforestation and fires in Brazilian Amazon. Data from Inpe (2020) recorded 10,312, 88 km² of consolidated deforestation in the region, in addition to 103,161 outbreaks of fires during that year. Months of August and September were the ones with the highest rate of fires and the states of Pará, Mato Grosso and Amazonas accounted for 70% of deforestation. Meanwhile, "the herd passed" [a figure of speech refering to Ricardo Salles speech] with the approval of 593 acts by the federal government related to changes in rules on environmental protection in Brazil (OBSERVATÓRIO DO CLIMA, 2021). Amid the health, political and environmental crisis, journalism played an important role in providing information to population (CASERORIPOLLÉS, 2020). In this context, this research analyzes how was the coverage on deforestation and burning in two of the main news portals of the North region of the country: “O Liberal.com – PA” and “A Crítica – AM”, during the month of September 2020, considering the pandemic period and its adversities. The main theoretical and methodological framework chosen was the Critical Discourse Analysis - CDA (FAIRCLOUGH, 2001). Through the analysis of the newspapers it can be concluded that Jair Bolsonaro government, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, managed to occupy a privileged space in the publications, with a speech aimed at alleviating the problems in the Amazon and widely reproduced by the two newspapers without significant counterpoints. Justifications that attributed deforestation and burning to the climate itself in Amazon and to agricultural activities traditionally carried out by rural, indigenous and quilombola communities were used. In addition, the credibility of scientific data on the subject disclosed by institutions such as the National Institute for Space Research - INPE was questioned.