Brazil has been accused of turning its back on its duty to protect the Amazon after the resignation of its award-winning Environment Minister fuelled fresh fears over the fate of the forest. The departure of Marina Silva, who admitted she was losing the battle to get green voices heard amidst the rush for economic development, has been greeted with dismay by conservationists.

"She was the environment's guardian angel," said Frank Guggenheim, executive director for Greenpeace in Brazil. "Now Brazil's environment is orphaned."

In a letter to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Ms Silva said that her efforts to protect the rainforest acknowledged as the "lungs of the planet" were being thwarted by powerful business lobbies. "Your Excellency was a witness to the growing resistance found by our team in important sectors of the government and society," she wrote.

This is what we've been trying to say all along: democractic politicians will never be able to save our environment, because they always end up catering corporate lobby interests in order to stay in power. It's a cycle we have to break through if we are serious about saving the rainforests. This is what needs to be done:

- Fewer people
- Reduced consumption
- Leadership that operates on ability and not financial campaigns
- Higher values than money

Democracy has failed on all these accounts. Corrupt points to the solution, which is a local, organic, self-sustaining community based on capable people leading their citizens into a traditional culture-based lifestyle.