Brazil’s Post-Disaster Vote | After months of drought, fire, and flooding, climate change was virtually absent from local elections. Why?

In recent days, Brazilian climate experts have mulled why. Some city council and mayoral candidates are financially supported by activities that profit from deforestation, such as logging and mining, Agência Pública reported. Reporters found that in several areas with high deforestation—and thus wildfires—leading politicians tended to be silent about forest stewardship.

Brazil’s largest political parties generally do not tout climate consciousness as a top issue. The party that appears the closest to doing so is the ruling Workers’ Party. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has promoted forest protection and green energy in international forums. But Lula governs in a coalition with centrist and conservative parties and has embraced fossil fuel exploration domestically.

To Angelo, a former science editor at Brazil’s newspaper of record, Folha de S. Paulo, climate was discussed so little in the campaign in part because “mainstream media tries to replicate the conversations that are happening on social media,” rather than journalists trying to orient the news cycle around policy questions.