theSIGNAL ENVIRONMENT
20 September 2026
"The first step in the exploitation of a people is the theft of their land."
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Environment

Brazil's Green Energy Boom Leaves Farmers in the Dark

Brazil holds the world's fifth-largest onshore wind capacity, yet the farmers hosting its turbines say the contracts that promised prosperity have delivered something closer to ruin.

On Antonio de Souza's 50-hectare farm in Serra do Mel, a small municipality in north-east Brazil's Rio Grande do Norte state, the rows of cashew trees that once grew beneath the power lines are gone. A clean energy company ordered them removed. Now four hectares of what the family depended on for its income sit as wasteland, even though the contract specifies that the infrastructure occupies just one. Cattle cannot graze near the cables, and after heavy rain the tractor driver risks electric shock if he ventures into the affected strip.

De Souza signed the original agreement after a year of drought, when representatives of the French renewable energy multinational Voltalia arrived in the village offering a monthly payment of 3,000 to 5,000 reais — roughly £430 to £720 — adjusted annually and, he was assured, without damage to his crops. Brazil currently has around 35 gigawatts of onshore wind capacity in commercial operation, ranking it fifth in the world according to the Brazilian Association of Wind Energy and New Technologies and the Global Wind Energy Council. Nine in every ten of those turbines spin in the north-east — a region engineers routinely describe as having the best sustained winds on earth, and one that also carries some of Brazil's worst social development indicators. In November 2023, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva declared before an audience in Riyadh that within a decade Brazil would be recognised as the "Saudi Arabia of green energy.

" The people living in the turbines' shadow heard that ambition differently. A decade after signing, De Souza is now the lead figure in a public civil lawsuit filed in May 2025 by three rural workers' organisations against Voltalia, supported by a favourable legal assessment from public prosecutors. He is careful to say he does not oppose wind power itself. What he opposes is a model in which the energy transition is built on land that belongs to communities who received the risk but were not allowed to share the reward — a pattern that campaigners warn is already being replicated as Brazil's wind industry moves offshore and other nations in Africa and South Asia adopt similar frameworks without stronger land-rights protections in place.

"If I'd known it would be like this — that I'd be prevented from planting and harvesting — I wouldn't have signed that contract with them," De Souza said.

Photo: Zac Wolff / Unsplash
Wind turbines rise above the dry scrubland of Serra do Mel, where farming families say promised income never materialised.
Discuss
  • What responsibilities do renewable energy companies have toward the communities whose land they use?
  • Why might farmers in a drought-affected region be particularly vulnerable when signing long-term energy contracts?
  • Is it possible for a country to lead in green energy production while also failing its poorest rural citizens?
Science

Microbes Quietly Evolved Under Pittsburgh's Toxic Soil

Two miles from Carnegie Mellon University, the 178-acre Hazelwood Green site along the Monongahela River housed Jones & Laughlin Steel for over a century — and left behind a chemical legacy of benzene, toluene, and related carcinogens collectively known as BTEX. Beneath that contamination, billions of microorganisms kept living. Decades of exposure appear to have pushed them to adapt, turning industrial pollution into an unplanned evolutionary experiment.…
  • Can microbes that evolved in toxic soil safely accelerate brownfield cleanup worldwide?
Environment

UK Homes Brace for a Destructive Flood Winter

A record-breaking El Niño, layered onto an accelerating climate crisis, has pushed UK flood experts to issue an unusually urgent warning: this winter's storms could be among the most damaging in recent memory, leaving millions of homes exposed. Tracey Garrett of the National Flood Forum cautions that past flooding patterns can no longer be used as a reliable guide, making community preparation more critical than ever. Local flood groups, council plans, and Environment Agency alert systems are the first practical line of defence. At the household level, campaigner Mary Long-Dhonau argues that protection begins outside — cracked brickwork or crumbling mortar can act, in her words, "like 20 taps in your wall," allowing floodwater straight through.…
  • Should governments or individuals bear more responsibility for flood preparation?
"
If I'd known it would be like this — that I'd be prevented from planting and harvesting — I wouldn't have signed that contract with them.
Antonio de Souza, farmer and lead plaintiff, Serra do Mel, Brazil
EUROPE · Environment
Microplastics in soil pose global threat by acting like ‘Trojan horse’ to deliver toxins
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Scientists are fighting a longer mosquito season with ... more mosquitoes
GLOBAL · Environment
Air pollution linked to higher suicide risk, international research suggests
theSIGNAL IN THE LAB
1VOCABULARY
wastelandsustained winds
social development indicatorscontaminationbrownfields
crumbling mortarcarcinogens
2GRAMMAR FOCUS
Nominalisation — converting verbs to nouns for formal register
Nominalisation transforms verbs or adjectives into noun phrases, making writing more formal and concise. For example, 'prepare' becomes 'preparation', and 'adapt' becomes 'adaptation'.
preparation · contamination · adaptation · opposition · protection · declaration · exposure
  1. Community is now considered more important than ever, as past flooding patterns can no longer serve as a reliable guide.
  2. De Souza's is not to wind power itself, but to a model that places all the risk on local communities.
  3. President Lula's before an audience in Riyadh that Brazil would become the 'Saudi Arabia of green energy' was heard very differently by those living in the turbines' shadow.
  4. Decades of to benzene and related carcinogens appear to have driven the microorganisms beneath Hazelwood Green to evolve.
  5. The of billions of microorganisms to industrial pollutants has turned a toxic site into an unplanned evolutionary experiment.
  6. Flood experts warn that household must begin outside, with cracks in brickwork sealed before the winter storms arrive.
3DEPENDENT PREPOSITIONS
Complete each phrase with the correct preposition. All from today's articles.
  1. Brazil ranks fifth in the world _____ onshore wind capacity.
  2. The turbines spin _____ the north-east of Brazil.
  3. Communities received the risk but were not allowed to share _____ the rewards.
  4. Past flooding patterns can no longer be relied _____ as a guide.
  5. The site left _____ a chemical legacy of benzene and related carcinogens.
4CRITICAL THINKING
Antonio de Souza says he does not oppose wind power itself, only the model behind it. Is this distinction meaningful — can an energy source be ethically sound in principle but structurally exploitative in practice, and what would need to change for the two to align?
5CREATIVE · HEADLINES
Write a headline for the top story in each of the following styles. One line each, no explanation:
  • TABLOID NEWSPAPER
  • LUXURY MAGAZINE
  • ACTIVIST BLOG
6WRITING
A public prosecutor has sided with the farmers in the lawsuit against Voltalia. Write a short statement (120–150 words) from Voltalia defending its record in Serra do Mel, acknowledging community concerns while arguing that its renewable energy work ultimately benefits Brazil.
7DEGREES OF EXTREMITY
Complete each ladder from mild to strong.
  • wet→→
  • dirty→→
  • unhappy→→
  • dry spell→→
  • ___→→
  • ___→→
8SPEAKING
  1. What makes a legal contract genuinely fair for both parties?
  2. Can extreme weather ever make flood damage truly unpreventable?
  3. Who decides which communities bear the costs of progress?
  4. Does scientific discovery always translate into practical community benefit?