Paper Short Abstract:

This study examines the temporalities of oil spills in Guanabara Bay, focusing on the 2024 Suruí River spill and the 2000 pipeline disaster. Drawing on the memories of artisanal fishers and crab catchers, we explore how these communities connect small, present-day spills to the 2000 catastrophe and global climate change. By intertwining human narratives with the ecological impacts of chemical residues, we highlight how oil spills reverberate beyond isolated events. This analysis bridges past and present, local and global, to interrogate the intertwined relationships between industry, environment, and human and more-than-human lives in the region.

Paper Abstract:

On October 2, 2024, a tanker truck collided with a trailer on the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan ring road in the city of Magé, overturning in the process. This section of the highway crosses the Suruí River, a vital water body for families of crab catchers and artisanal fishers who depend on the lives sustained by its waters. The accident caused a chemical spill that flowed into the riverbed, killing fish and crustaceans and severely impacting local communities. This oil spill evoked memories of another large-scale environmental disaster that occurred on January 18, 2000, when a crude oil transport pipeline burst, releasing 1.3 million liters of oil into Guanabara Bay. This presentation examines the temporality of oil spills in the region and the connections between the local petrochemical industry and global climate change. Drawing on the memories of fishers and crab catchers, who link small present-day spills to the 2000 catastrophe and global warming, we weave a narrative that bridges past and present, local and global. By interlacing human memories with the ecological impacts of chemical residues, we aim to demonstrate that large and small oil spills are not isolated incidents but reverberate through their material and ecological consequences. We propose to reflect on the multiple temporalities that shape the relationships between industry, environment, and human and more-than-human ways of life in Guanabara Bay.