Brazil

From Gothpoodle

• Population: 210 million
• Aspects: Stable, Powerful, Fourth Wave

Brazil is sometimes called the “China of South America.” The comparison is apt; although Brazil lags behind its neighbors in technology and standard of living, it boasts the largest economy on the continent. Indeed, Brazil has the fifth-largest national economy on Earth, and seems likely to play an increasingly important role in world affairs with time.

Early in the past century, Brazil was often snarled in controversy over environmental issues. The vast potential resources of the Amazon basin were regarded as key to Brazilian prosperity, but at the same time any development of the region threatened some of the most valuable rainforest ecosystems on the planet. The tension between these facts led to considerable internal strife, as well as a series of disputes with the world community. During the 2030s, Brazil developed a significant local biotech industry, encouraging policy-makers to impose effective protections on the Amazon basin. This proved not so difficult, once preserving the rainforest was regarded as more profitable than destructive development. Deforestation was halted by 2045, and has somewhat reversed since then as ecologists slowly learn to reconstruct the natural ecosystem.

Brazil has a variety of Fourth and Fifth Wave industries, notably bioroid manufacture, genetic engineering, pharmaceuticals, and heavy robotics. Indentured bioroids and engineered parahumans are relatively common. The country also has a small but very active space program, dating to the early 2010s when Brazilian investors helped build the first launch facilities in Ecuador.