politicnewsbusterinsiderpostreview: Death and deforestation in the Amazon

August 30, 2022

A sad thing happened somewhere deep in the Amazon rainforest this month. A solitary man, the last surviving member of an uncontacted tribe, was found dead in a hammock, covered in feathers.

I think the New York Times article about the man's death buries the lede a bit. The man was the last of his tribe because the rest of its members had been killed in a genocide. For 26 years after the other members of his group were poisoned or gunned down by settlers, an individual—known only as "Man of the Hole" for the pits he dug at each of his dwellings—lived in total solitude.

The man was about 60 years old and appears to have died of natural causes. With his death, an entire language, culture, and religion vanishes. Meanwhile, Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who is up for re-election in October, continues calling for the destruction of the rainforest where this man and dozens of other isolated Indigenous groups lived.

"For me, he was this symbol of resistance and resilience," Fiona Watson, a research director at Survival International, told the Times. "To be able to survive on his own, not speak to anybody and avoid all contact maybe out of grief or determination."

—Abigail Weinberg

P.S. Finally, we asked, and you delivered. We wanted to know your thoughts on President Biden's student loan debt cancellation. Below are the results.