How Bolsonaro’s statements destroyed the rainforest

Study by the University of Bonn shows that political rhetoric alone can change people’s behavior

University of Bonn

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of the Institute for Food and Resource Economics (ILR) at the University of Bonn.

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Credit: Photo: Dr. Gustavo Magalhães de Oliveira

The former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro contributed to deforestation with statements opposing forest conservation. This is shown by an international study led by the University of Bonn. According to this, the destruction of the Amazon rainforest accelerated considerably when Bolsonaro and his ministers posted anti-forest-conservation messages on Twitter. Brazil’s environmental authorities were greatly weakened during Bolsonaro’s term of office. Irrespective of this, the analysis shows that even the perception of a low risk of punishment was a relevant driver of deforestation. The researchers estimate that up to 1,700 square kilometers of forest – almost double the area of Berlin – were destroyed due to the power of words. The results have been published in The Journal of Politics.

Can political leaders influence whether society complies with legal requirements – simply through what they say? The current study uses the example of Brazil to show that this can absolutely be the case. The huge country is home to the largest section of the Amazon rainforest. In 2018, Brazilians elected Jair Bolsonaro as their president. In the first months of his term of office, he and his ministers repeatedly made derogatory remarks about the protection of this valuable ecosystem.

The study shows that statements by the Bolsonaro government accelerated the destruction of the rainforest. “We analyzed data from the initiative MapBiomas Alerta,” explains Dr. Gustavo Magalhães de Oliveira. “This initiative reviews and validates deforestation alerts from various sources covering the whole of Brazil. We also examined more than 3,600 Twitter posts that Bolsonaro and his ministers of agriculture, environment, and foreign affairs published in 2019.” The researchers analyzed which of them indicated a lower enforcement risk for infringements against environmental laws. Overall, they identified 38 such posts.

Deforestation depends on the reach of the statements

Political messages are only effective if they are heard. The researchers thus estimated the Twitter reach for 578 municipalities in the Amazon region. To do this, they analyzed how many tweets relating to the topic of “forest” were posted there by citizens between 2015 and 2018. The higher the Twitter activity in a municipality, the greater the likelihood that relevant tweets from the government would not go unread there.

“We assume that such messages spread through word of mouth,” explains the postdoctoral student at the Institute for Food and Resource Economics (ILR) at the University of Bonn. “Supporters share them, as do critics, and they are discussed locally until they reach the people who actually make decisions about deforestation. They view them as a political signal.” The analysis showed a direct and far-reaching response: In the regions at greatest risk, deforestation increased significantly in the months when Bolsonaro and his ministers had published posts opposing forest conservation. “The impacts were not limited to Twitter,” explains Dr. Oliveira. “We see the same pattern when we analyze other forms of exposure, such as television.”

Effect depends on economic incentives

Interestingly, the researchers found that the government statements had no influence on municipal environmental fines or deforestation bans. “Our analysis indicates that, as a result of the messages, people change their expectations of the extent to which they will be prosecuted for breaking the law,” stresses Oliveira. “The effect is thus not attributable to any changes in the local enforcement of forest conservation laws.”

The phenomenon appears to be driven by economic incentives. As a result, the government’s messages did not fall on any more fertile ground in municipalities with high levels of support for Bolsonaro than elsewhere. By contrast, the effect was stronger in areas where agricultural returns are high and where nature conservation policy has restricted deforestation in the past. The researchers estimate that, in 2019 alone, between 190 and 1,700 square kilometers of forest fell victim to the statements by the Bolsonaro government.

The study provides evidence of how powerful words can be – at least when they come from people with great political influence. It is quite possible that this effect goes beyond forest conservation and the context of the Brazilian Amazon region.

Participating institutions and funding:

Alongside the University of Bonn, the University of Texas at Dallas (USA) and Wageningen University (Netherlands) also took part in the study. The research was financed by the ‘Bonn SDG Fellowship Program’ at the University of Bonn, the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL), the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of the German Excellence Strategy, and the EU program ‘Horizon’. Dr. Gustavo Magalhães de Oliveira and Prof. Dr. Jan Börner are members of the Transdisciplinary Research Area ‘Sustainable Futures’; The PhenoRob Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bonn supported the project.

Publication: Gustavo Magalhães de Oliveira, Elías Cisneros, Jorge Sellare, Jan Börner: Anti-Environmental Signals and Deforestation: Evidence from Brazil; The Journal of Politics; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/744065

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Journal

The Journal of Politics

DOI

10.1086/744065

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Anti-Environmental Signals and Deforestation: Evidence from Brazil

 

Ready, set, exhale: Study links respiration and cognition

Scientists discover response speed is measurably faster when exhaling than inhaling

Northwestern University

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EVANSTON, Ill. — Imagine swimmers on starting blocks poised to dive at the sound of the starting horn or the driver of a car going 60 mph suddenly needing to brake to avoid a collision. A small fraction of a second in response time could make the difference between winning or losing and life or death.  

Neuroscientists at Northwestern University have made the surprising discovery that response speed on an exhalation is faster than on an inhalation by an average of 41 milliseconds (1/25th of a second). Response speed during pauses between breaths is also faster than inhalation by 21 milliseconds.

The study is the first experiment to measure response speed during all phases of respiration including the pauses between.

The article, “Response speed is modulated by respiratory phase,” will be published by Cell Press in the journal iScience at 12 p.m. CDT on Monday, Sept. 28. The study’s senior author is Ken Paller, the James Padilla Professor of Psychology at Northwestern. The lead author is neuroscientist Erika M. Yamazaki, a former member of Paller’s lab who has continued to partner on research since earning her Ph.D.   

“By using a tangible and easy to understand task, we were able to show the relationship between respiration and cognition, which I hope people in a range of fields will find application for,” Yamazaki said. “Study of the brain and body connection is still a new field of research, which makes the study findings all the more exciting.”

Study participants completed a Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT), a widely used computer task in which subjects press the space bar as quickly as possible when spotting a red square turn yellow. The participants, 35 adults aged 18 to 33, performed the task while wearing a simple device under the nostrils to measure airflow. Each participant completed the task twice, once before and once after a nap or an eight-hour sleep in the lab.

“This study documents an important link between respiration and the brain systems for responding to environmental events,” Paller said. “We don’t yet know exactly how they are linked, but we suspect neurophysiological efficiency, because other studies have shown that various brain oscillations are synchronized with the rhythms of one’s breathing.”  

Implications and next steps

Understanding sleep physiology in both the brain and the rest of the body, such as in linking respiration to brain oscillations, may yield new insights to help improve people’s sleep and their next-day mental capacity.

Paller’s lab is currently working on related research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and led by Yamazaki, focused on sleep apnea. The problem of harmful breathing pauses during sleep can be very detrimental for people’s health and is often not adequately treated. It is also currently under-diagnosed.

The researchers hope that noninvasive strategies for improving sleep will counter some of the negative consequences of poor sleep, an approach that is sometimes called sleep engineering.

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Journal

iScience

DOI

10.1016/j.isci.2026.117535

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Response speed is modulated by respiratory phase

Article Publication Date

28-Sep-2026

 

Meteor hit Oklahoma 100 million years later than previously thought

University of Texas at Austin

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A geological map noting the types of rock that make up the Ames impact structure. The locations of oil and gas wells are noted with arrows. Credit: Catlos et al.

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Credit: Catlos et al.

Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have rewritten a small part of Oklahoma’s geologic history with global implications for ancient life. 

Below the surface of the small town of Ames, Oklahoma, a meteor impact site spans miles. The crater is buried by sedimentary strata in the subsurface, but it remains an important marker of Oklahoma’s ancient past and present-day economy; the Ames impact structure is a major oil and gas producer.  

It’s also part of a series of significant meteor impacts across North America with ages that center around 467.5 million years ago — it’s been called the Ordovician Meteor Event. The sheer number of impact sites that exist from this time period has led researchers to theorize that Earth might have had a Saturn-like ring of asteroid debris around it during the Middle Ordovician.  

UT researchers, however, have recently discovered that the Ames impact structure is nearly 100 million years younger than previously believed. By dating zircon crystals found in impacted granites at the site, researchers have found that a meteorite hit Ames in Late Devonian times about 370 million years ago, not 467 million years ago in the Ordovician.  

“No matter what technique we used, it was coming back to this younger signal,” said lead author Elizabeth Catlos, associate professor at UT’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. 

The research was published in July in Meteoritics & Planetary Science. 

The Ames meteor impact site had previously only been dated biochronologically; researchers found the teeth of an ancient eel-like creature called a conodont in the rock, which were around during the older Ordovician age. However, the teeth were likely already millions of years old when the asteroid struck Ames, and likely just got jumbled around in the mix of the impact, remaining preserved, Catlos said. 

This new radiometric date from the zircons from the Ames impact shows that it could not have been part of the Ordovician Meteor Event, but squarely fits into the timing of the Frasnian-Famennian mass extinction event, which occurred about 372 million years ago, and led to the extinction of a huge percentage of marine life on Earth. 

Danny Stockli, dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences and a co-author of the study, said that zircon U-Pb dating is not only the most accurate way to tell when events like this occurred in Earth’s history, but that microstructures in zircon can record the shock pressures of impacts. 

“These small crystals allow us to go back in time and learn about the major changes to Earth’s ancient landscapes,” Stockli said. “It would be great to do this for more of the meteor impact sites across the continent so we could get a more accurate timeline for these major events.” 

To prove that the zircons they dated were in fact impacted by the meteor, the research team worked with NASA to image the crystals using cathodoluminescence and electron backscatter diffraction. When a zircon is hit by an impact like this, it recrystallizes in a very specific way, which they can see through these methods. 

Catlos said that having a more accurate timeline for mass extinction events and other big moments in Earth’s history is crucial for understanding how our planet works. It matters whether these extinctions were driven by an extraterrestrial force such as this one, or an interior force such as a series of massive volcanic eruptions, she said. 

“With this research, we’re basically taking a major pawn out of the Ordovician Meteor Event and dumping it into the Frasnian-Famennian event, and saying, ‘This is where this impact belongs,’” she said. 

This research was instigated by former Jackson School of Geosciences graduate student Andrew Parisi, who graduated in 2018 and has since passed away. He went to Oklahoma to collect the Ames rock core from the Oklahoma Geological Survey, extracted the zircons and helped to date them. 

Co-author Michael Brookfield, an affiliated researcher at the school, also passed away before the paper was published. 

Research Professor Sean Gulick and Professor Emeritus Mark Cloos at the Jackson School also contributed to this research.

A map of upper North America shows the approximate area and location of impact structures from about 486-360 million years ago. Credit: Catlos et al.

Credit

Catlos et al.

DOI

10.1111/maps.70191

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Meteoritics & Planetary Science

 

Abuse and disability trap: 90% of incarcerated Michigan youth suffered prior abuse

University of Michigan

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Nearly every incarcerated male youth in a new University of Michigan study experienced some form of prior physical abuse.

 

Nine in 10 were exposed to at least mild physical abuse, one-third suffered severe prior sexual abuse, and two-thirds reported adverse childhood experiences, according to U-M researchers, who looked at incarcerated adolescents ages 13-20 at a single all-male juvenile detention facility in Michigan.

 

"What really stuck out to me most was the sexual abuse rate, that 70% of them had at least some exposure to sexual abuse," said Suzanne Perkins, research assistant professor at the U-M Institute for Social Research. "I've worked with a lot of kids, so very few things upset me in the work that I do. But when I saw that statistic, I just burst into tears. I couldn't believe that it was such a high statistic."

 

According to the study, published in the Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, 85% of the teenagers had a learning disability, a mental health condition or both. More than 75% showed signs of a learning or cognitive disability during direct testing.

 

The findings also showed that more than 60% had a disability listed in their official records before the study. In addition, 80% met the criteria for multiple diagnoses and 25% qualified for five or more diagnoses.

 

"Children with genetic disorders or disabilities are much more likely to be targeted for violence and sexual abuse," Perkins said. "At the same time, violence causes cognitive problems through brain injury mechanisms. The relationship is bidirectional."

 

Perkins and colleagues reviewed medical and educational records, surveyed participants about their experiences with violence and trauma, and also conducted individual cognitive and educational testing.

 

According to the researchers, the relationship between disability and violence can work in both directions. Young people with disabilities may be more vulnerable to abuse, while violence and trauma can contribute to cognitive problems.

 

The study also highlights the importance of identifying learning and cognitive problems early.

 

"Schooling is really central," Perkins said. "Young people who have missed school or struggled academically may need interventions for reading, attention, organization and planning."

 

The study suggests that support should address the broader circumstances surrounding young people's lives, including housing, food, healthcare and dental care.

 

"It's a multipronged problem that really requires social work and schools and counseling, and not just policing," Perkins said.

 

Hidden cognitive needs

 

The study also included cognitive experiments testing inhibition and other executive functions—direct testing that Perkins said is less common in research on incarcerated youth, which tends to rely on medical and educational records.

 

The findings suggest that understanding these kids' learning and cognitive needs could help schools and service providers identify problems before they become harder to treat.

 

"If you want to stop this from being an ongoing problem, you really need to start with early intervention," Perkins said.

 

Study: The Comorbidity of Violence Exposure, Mental Health, Cognitive Functioning, and Disabilities in Incarcerated Youth (DOI: 10.1007/s40653-026-00960-w)

 

Forest landscapes and birdsong soundscapes have independent physical health benefits

North Carolina State University

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A new study finds that exposure to birdsong soundscapes or forest landscapes reduce physiological stress. These findings of physical health effects compliment previous research showing mental health benefits associated with birdwatching and could be useful for urban planners with limited green space options.

The study, led by North Carolina State University researchers, used heart rate monitors to measure how exposure to different types of sounds and landscapes affected physiological stress. Participants spent time in urban and natural spaces with noise-canceling headphones that played either birdsong or traffic sounds.

Spending time in the forest landscape reduced heart rate relative to the urban landscape, indicating reduced stress. Similarly, listening to the birdsong soundscape increased heart rate variability relative to the traffic soundscape, indicating that birdsong reduced stress.

Importantly, birdsong could reduce stress in urban areas and forest exposure could reduce stress even when traffic noise was present, said Trent Ford, lead author of the paper and an undergraduate researcher at NC State. 

“Across our four treatments, we expected that physiological stress might only decrease for those participants who were both in a natural space and listening to birdsong. However, we found that time in forested landscape and listening to birdsong each had independent, positive effects on well-being,” he said.

The findings show how urban planners can create spaces that improve wellness even if they aren’t able to incorporate both forest and birdsong at the same time.

“Providing access to forested landscapes where birdsong, rather than traffic noise, predominates would be the ideal scenario, but this research suggests urban planners have more options,” Ford said. “When there is not room for trees, they can design stress reducing landscapes with traffic calming measures that shift the soundscape balance away from traffic and towards birdsong. Similarly, when traffic noise is difficult to abate directly, additional tree cover may be beneficial by itself.”

The paper, “Exposure to Forests and Birdsong May Reduce Physiological Stress Among College Students,” is published in Frontiers in Bird Science. Co-authors include Payton DeMay, J. Aaron Hipp, Lincoln R. Larson, Hannah M. Desrochers, Jackson Webb, Iris Howell, Made Ayu Pratiwi, Kushagra Meshram, JD Kluttz, Erin Foy, Griff Barlow, Caitlin McDade, Ivana Mali, Christopher E. Moorman and M. Nils Peterson of NC State University and Christian J. Bourke of the University of Georgia. 

-pitchford-

Note to editors: An abstract follows.

“Exposure to forests and birdsong may reduce physiological stress among college students”

DOI: 10.3389/fbirs.2026.1884835

Authors: Trenton Ford, Payton DeMay, J. Aaron Hipp, Lincoln R. Larson, Hannah M. Desrochers, Jackson Webb, Iris Howell, Made Ayu Pratiwi, Kushagra Meshram, JD Kluttz, Erin Foy, Griff Barlow, Caitlin McDade, Ivana Mali, Christopher E. Moorman and M. Nils Peterson, NC State University; Christian J. Bourke, University of Georgia.

Published Sept. 2, 2026 in Frontiers in Bird Science

Abstract:

Introduction:
The escalating mental health crisis among college students presents a global challenge that may be exacerbated by isolation from nature. Previous research, largely conducted in laboratory settings, indicates that exposure to nature and birdsong improves mental and physiological health. We built on this work with an outdoor experiment testing for independent and potentially additive effects on physiological stress associated with exposure to natural landscapes (i.e., forests) and soundscapes (i.e., birdsong).

Methods:
We engaged 95 participants from North Carolina State University in a randomized, four-treatment, within-subjects design to evaluate the effects of adding different sounds (birdsong vs. traffic) to landscapes (forest vs. gray space) on measures of physiological stress: heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) (measured as RMSSD). We started each sample with 5 min of silent control, followed by 10 min of recorded birdsong or recorded traffic noise. Participants listened to each recording in both settings. We modeled HR and HRV using linear mixed models with a random intercept to account for participant effects and fixed effects for soundscape, landscape, their interaction, age, and gender.

Results:
Forest exposure had reduced HR relative to gray space (b = 0.65, p = 0.007). Birdsong exposure increased HRV relative to traffic noise (b = -1.38, p = 0.049). We did not detect a significant soundscape × landscape interaction for either outcome (all p > 0.16).

Discussion:
These findings indicate that visual and auditory nature cues may support physiological recovery through partially independent pathways, with forest landscapes associated with reduced cardiovascular arousal and birdsong soundscapes associated with increased autonomic recovery. Results highlight the different ways that green infrastructure on college campuses can improve students’ mental health outcomes.

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Journal

Frontiers in Bird Science

DOI

10.3389/fbirs.2026.1884835

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Exposure to forests and birdsong may reduce physiological stress among college students

 

CU Anschutz research examines temporary firearm removal among service members and veterans

Colorado study finds nearly 1 in 10 petitions for extreme risk protection orders involved service members or veterans, with cases often involving suicide threats, violence, mental health crises and firearm access

University of Colorado Anschutz

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As Suicide Prevention Month brings renewed attention to ways to reduce suicide risk, new research from CU Anschutz examines how extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs), civil court orders that can temporarily restrict firearm access, are being used among service members and veterans in Colorado.

The study, published in JAMA Network Open, analyzed all 692 ERPO petitions filed in Colorado from 2020 through 2024. Researchers found that 68 petitions, or 9.8%, involved service members or veterans, compared with 7.8% of Colorado’s adult population represented by active-duty service members and veterans.

Temporary ERPOs were granted in 47 of the 68 service member and veteran cases (69.1%). Of those, 36 (76.6%) were subsequently extended to full 365-day orders. This showed that ERPOs are being used as a meaningful tool for a population presenting with complex, overlapping risk (post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD, substance misuse, suicide threats with firearm access).

The study found few significant differences between service member and veteran cases and civilian cases in reasons for petitions, documented firearm access or court outcomes. However, court narratives revealed recurring circumstances including suicide threats, threats of violence, PTSD, mental health concerns, substance or alcohol use, homelessness and threats of mass violence.

“The findings give us a better understanding of what’s happening on the ground and raise important questions about how we can respond when someone is at acute risk.” said Leslie M. Barnard, MPH, DrPH, research assistant professor of epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health and an investigator with the Injury & Violence Prevention Center and Firearm Injury Prevention Initiative at CU Anschutz.

What did the Colorado study find about suicide risk and firearm access?

Firearm access was documented in 56 of the 68-service member and veteran cases. More than half involved threats against other people, while others involved threats to the individual or both the individual and others.

Two cases involved veteran-specific crisis resources before law enforcement filed an ERPO. In one, a veteran experiencing a mental health crisis contacted the Veterans Crisis Line and reported being suicidal and threatening to shoot police. In another, a veteran threatened suicide while holding a firearm during a virtual veterans’ support group. Both cases resulted in ERPOs being granted.

“When someone is in crisis, the goal is to keep them safe long enough for that crisis to pass and for help to reach them. If there’s a firearm immediately available, creating some time and distance from that firearm can be one part of that response. An ERPO is just one tool but understanding when and how it is being used is an important part of the suicide-prevention conversation,” said Barnard.

What does the study show about ERPOs and active-duty service members?

Five ERPO petitions were filed by military supervising officers and all five were denied because the supervisors did not have legal standing to petition for an ERPO under Colorado law. In each case, other measures had already been taken to restrict firearm access, including prohibiting firearm use at work or removing firearms from the home. The researchers suggest military supervisors may benefit from greater education about available options and referral pathways, including who is legally able to petition for an ERPO.

“A supervisor may be the person who first notices warning signs or heightened risk with a service member. We want those people to know what they can do when they’re worried about someone’s safety. Our findings suggest there’s an opportunity to make those options and referral pathways clearer, particularly when firearms are part of the concern,” said Barnard.

Do ERPOs prevent suicide or violence?

This study was not designed to determine whether ERPOs prevent suicide or violence. Instead, it describes how these orders were used among service members and veterans and identifies questions for future research. Future studies will examine whether ERPOs reduce firearm-related harm in military and veteran populations, how they interact with military policies and VA care and whether concerns about firearm removal affect people’s willingness to seek mental health or crisis services.

“There’s no single intervention that’s going to prevent every suicide or act of violence. However, research consistently supports the law's effectiveness in preventing suicide deaths, specifically studies estimate that for every 10 - 20 ERPOs granted, one suicide death is prevented.  What we don't know yet is how that holds up for service members and veterans specifically, given their unique relationship with firearms, the military system and mental health care,” said Barnard. “This study is a first step toward answering that by describing how ERPOs have actually been used in this population, so we know where to look next. What we need now are multiple, coordinated ways to respond when someone in this community is in crisis, and research that shows us how ERPOs fit into that picture."

The research was supported by the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research and the National Institute of Justice.

If you or someone you know is a veteran, active military member, or loved one in crisis, confidential support is available 24/7 by calling 988 (Press 1), texting 838255, or chatting online at VeteransCrisisLine.net.

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Journal

JAMA