Aniquilando as naturais produções: crítica iluminista, crise colonial e as origens do ambientalismo político no Brasil (1786-1810) / Annihilating natural productions: illuminist critique, colonial crisis, and the origins of political environmentalism in Brazil (1786-1810)

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes the trajetory of a group Brazilian intellectuals from 1786 to 1810, who inaugurated a sustematic critique of the environmental demage caused by the economy in Brazil, especially forest destruction and soil erosion. These authors, schooled in the culture illuminism, adopted a theoretical framekork centered on physiocratic economic doctrine and the "economy of nature" encoded by Linnaeus. Their natural milieu based on its importance for the survival and progress of to the rudimentary technologies and social practices inherited from the to overcome environmental degradation in the country