Not downvoting, but as a Brazilian living in Brazil I don't agree with the false dichotomy you imply here, that you can't develop in an environmentally sane way. What the current government is implementing is criminally irresponsible and walks us back to 20th century exploitation. My dad worked for Shell and Rio Tinto for years, and travelling with him around the country you could see how practices changed as environmental regulations came into play. It was definitely less lucrative for the companies, but they were not major employers or generators of local business anyway. We can do better than suggesting we should replicate environmental damage the first world committed.