A educação ambiental como alternativa à erosão da memória:

as queimadas na Amazônia pelas lentes do jornal Zero Hora/RS

Abstract

This article characterizes the phenomenon that has been called here the erosion of memory resulting from the continuous exposure to reports – through the printed media in particular, of environmental tragedies that occur in Brazil. It stems from a Foucauldian-inspired discursive analysis of a daily newspaper with wide circulation in Rio Grande do Sul (Zero Hora/Grupo RBS). The research mapped the statements related to tragedies involving the environment that occurred between January and December 2019. As a result, 132 occurrences were identified in 314 editions published throughout the period under analysis, from which,  56 concerned fires in the Amazon. The phenomenon was stated in 194 excerpts between editorial, cover story, cartoon, opinion article, among others. In 2019, the case of the fires gained national and international visibility, but even so, it repeats itself every year, joining the set of successive tragic news that we have become accustomed to. That has led me to reflect upon need to enhance political action through education, especially environmental education, taking it as an act of resistance to the naturalization of events like this that have marked our recent history.