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shortly after Mendes' death. He saw the Amazon as a smaller mirror of the global
environment. Lutzenberger affi rmed that “It's a complicated system that can take a
lot of abuse, but you get to a point where suddenly things fall apart. It's like pushing
a long ruler toward the edge of a table. Nothing happens, nothing happens, nothing
happens—and then suddenly the ruler falls to the fl oor” (Revkin
2004
, p. 102).
28.3
José Lutzenberger
José Antônio Lutzenberger was born in Porto Alegre, the state capital of Rio Grande
do Sul, in southern Brazil, on December 17th, 1926. His father was a distinguished
German architect, painter, and professor, who was invited to work for a German
engineering company installed in Brazil. His mother was the granddaughter of a
German immigrant who became prosperous in the cattle and farming business.
Best known by his family name, or simply as Lutz, he attended upper class private
catholic high schools, one run by Jesuits, the other by Marists. He learned German at
home, and was also fl uent in English, French, and Spanish. He graduated as an agri-
culture engineer at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, reputed to be one of
the best universities in Brazil. He continued his education at Louisiana State
University, USA, where he obtained an MA in agro-chemistry and edaphology.
On his return to Brazil, he spent 4 years working for a fertilizer company in Porto
Alegre. In 1957 he was invited by CIBA-GEIGY to go to Germany. He soon became
a technician and executive in the area of agrotoxins. After 2 years in Germany, he
was transferred to Venezuela, and later on to Morocco. His market area covered
such countries as Spain, Portugal, Canary Islands, Ceuta, Colombia, Ecuador,
Algeria, and Tunisia.
During his work abroad, he continued studying subjects such as mathematics,
biology, history, and history of the religions. Among his favorite authors were
Albert Schweitzer, Thomas Berry, and Francis Chaboussou, an agronomist at the
French National Institute of Agricultural Research. Lutzenberger's reading of
Rachel Carson's
Silent Spring
had a great impact on him, as she recounted the dam-
age caused by the agrochemical industry to the environment. His range of interests
was wide, but it was the Gaia Hypothesis proffered by James Lovelock and Lynn
Margulis that Lutzenberger adopted as his basic theoretical framework.
When BASF (
Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik
) invested in the pesticide busi-
ness, it became harder and harder for him to reconcile his professional activities and
his personal ideas about environmental protection. In 1971 he made the decision to
leave BASF; and he came back to Porto Alegre.
On his return, he found fertile soil for his preservationist ideas. Henrique Luis
Roessler, another German descendent, was already active in environmental
causes for over a decade; and Augusto César Cunha Carneiro, also an environ-
mental activist, was in close contact with Lutzenberger. The idea of creating a
society for the defense of nature had ripened. Lutzenberger had been in touch
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