Sesc SP

Elderly population – A significant rise in Brazilian life expectancy has become a serious problem for the Brazilian government, as forecasts indicate that the number of elderly people will grow nearly fourfold by mid-century. The country, however, has been slow in removing the obstacles that conspire against its population’s active and healthy ageing.

Housing – Low-income housing is high on the public policy agenda. An ambitious federal government plan launched in March involves the construction of one million houses by 2011, with an estimated investment of 60 billion reals, 34 billion of which in subsidies.

Industry – The second largest producer and consumer of ceramic wall and floor tiles, Brazil is, too, the fourth largest world exporter of such products. The Brazilian government’s decision of including this material in housing programs catering to lower-income segments of the population should further boost the sector’s performance.

Environment
• Though boasting the technology and companies capable of disposing of solid waste, Brazil needs a national policy that will guide investments in the area; otherwise, the country will not be able to dispose adequately of the 113 million tons of such material it generates annually.
• Agrochemicals’ components banned or under use restrictions in countries of the European Union and in the United States, for the risk they pose to health, are still present in Brazilian crops. The sector’s companies, however, are fighting to avoid changes in these products’ evaluation criteria.

Sustainability
• As Brazil holds the planet’s largest water reserves, many Brazilians believe that water is a virtually endless good, which places the country at the top of the water-waste world ranking while simultaneously causing great concern among sanitation and health specialists and professionals.
• In Brazil, 90% of the charcoal produced is directed to the production of pig iron, the steel industry’s most important input. The problem is that more than fifty percent of the over 400 million trees felled each year for that purpose come from native forests.

Nature
• With the world’s biggest biodiversity, Brazil witnesses the richness of its flora being threatened, with species risking extinction. Still, and despite the frequent disappearance of species, the phenomenon does not generate much interest, even in the scientific field, unlike what happens with the fauna.
• The illegal trade of wild animals in Brazil, according to estimates by the agency in charge of combating such practice, removes 38 million animals from nature every year. This is due mainly to lax legislation, a network of complicity created by criminal rings and widespread tolerance in relation to the origin of pet animals.

Archeology – Since the 1990s, a new scientific research field is developing in Brazil: underwater archeology. Though fewer than two dozen in the country, this field’s professionals have brought to the surface an important part of the past hidden under the Brazilian waters.

Interview – Issues as the deforestation of the Amazon region and the influence in Congress of the "bancada ruralista" (farm- and agribusiness- linked lawmakers) are addressed by Minister of Agrarian Development Guilherme Cassel in an interview given to Problemas Brasileiros.

Memory
• The month of August 2009 marks the hundredth anniversary of the death of Euclides da Cunha, one of Brazil’s great writers. His work Os Sertões, which describes the conquest of the village of Arraial de Canudos by government troops in 1897, is considered an indispensable classic in forming a thought on Brazil.
• In 2009 it is also celebrated the birth centennial of Brigadier Faria Lima, elected mayor of the city of São Paulo in 1965. Remembered as the administrator who changed the features of the capital city of the state of São Paulo, he was responsible for opening up broad avenues as well as for beginning the construction of the city’s subway.

Landscaping – With many talents, Roberto Burle Marx became famous as a landscapist, but his work also includes mosaics, tapestry, painting and sculpture. Responsible for the creation of over 3,000 gardens worldwide, he contributed to make mainstream a number of species of the Brazilian flora.

Thematic panel – Washington Novaes is a seasoned journalist who specialized in themes related to the environment and the planet’s sustainability. In a talk to the members of the Fecomercio, Sesc and Senac Council of Economics, Sociology and Politics, he presented alarming data on environmental conditions, warning about absolute tragedies that will appear on Earth if our nations fail to increase efforts against deforestation, gas emissions and the waste of non-renewable resources.