Alert of Pantanal: the apocalyptic narrative of Globo Rural magazine (1985-1987)

a narrativa apocalíptica da revista Globo Rural (1985-1987)

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In this article, I discuss the "apocalyptic" narrative adopted by Globo Rural magazine from 1985, when it was founded,  until 1987, emphasizing its issue number 16, January 1987, where the paper sought to draw attention to deforestation of the biome Pantanal of Brazil. Such an example presents one of the main reports of the magazine related to environmental preservation. The report entitled "The Scream of the Pantanal" had a national repercussion attracting the attention of several environmental institutes and the government in the period of national redemocratization. The customary approach to the idyllic rural environment is shattered by some agent of change whose mystery is emphasized by the use of the natural and supernatural terminology of the terrifying narrative of destruction of the Pantanal's fauna and flora. Thus, I analyze historically, from an environmental cultural history of the rural environment, how this narrative is constructed that aims to project the environment and its social transformations through the use of apocalyptic metaphors and languages.

Keywords: Globo Rural, Pantanal, História ambiental, Environmental History.