Starting January of 2019, the Amazon rainforest had been once again set on fire, this time burning larger and catching more attention than ever before.
The Amazon is the world's largest rainforest, containing nearly 10% of the world's species. It's also the world's single largest contributor to oxygen production, producing nearly 20% of the world's oxygen. Despite this environmental importance, the Amazon continues to be set on fire and scorched. Does it get to a point where everyone starts asking when is this going to stop? And who is in charge of stopping it?
2019’s fire marked the biggest fire burnt in decades. To put it in perspective, by June nearly 7,000 square miles of the forest were burned. That's enough fire to cover the entire state of New Jersey. These fires were triggered this year by unethical burning practices initiated by humans coupled with a dry spell. The fires turned into a monster. The Amazon is quite literally the lungs of our earth and setting it on fire is going to create even worse problems for the future to face. As we all know, climate change is dependent on the amount of carbon in our atmosphere, and what many people don’t know, is that the Amazon is one of the largest carbon sinks in the world. The Amazon is meant to absorb the carbon and keep it out of the atmosphere. However, once these trees are burned, years and years of absorbed carbon is then released into the atmosphere. It has been reported by the World Wildlife Fund that “ the trees in the Amazon contain up to 140 billion tonnes of carbon. That’s the equivalent of what humans produce in 100 years.” Despite the colossal destruction of forest fires, there are no signs of it stopping.
The Amazon is severely vulnerable to slash and burn agricultural practices. This process takes dried out dead trees and sets them on fire to clear out the area making room for new farm land and grazing pastures for cattle. However, this has gotten out of hand in the past two or three decades with nearly 20% of the entire forest being decimated in the last 50 years. The Amazon has been burning for years, as a matter of fact, for decades, and that can mostly be credited with South Americans' primary source of income: cattle and farming. Brazil is currently the world leader in cattle production. As of 2005, they produced nearly 8.7 million tons of beef thus making themselves the world's leader in cattle export. Though this helps the Brazilian economy, it obliterates its ecosystem. Ranching produces very little production per acre of land meaning as the ranching market continues to grow, more trees will continue to be cut down. The Brazilian government has made several attempts to convince ranchers to opt for more sustainable alternatives, however, none of them managed to be as appealing as the financial and social stability that ranching provides.
For a small period of time between 2004-2014, the government environmental regulations seemed to be successful in restoring the forest. However once a recession hit in Brazil, funding ran out for these programs and deforestation was on the rise again. Nonetheless, after the economy recovered just three years later in 2018, deforestation got back under control and policies were successful in regulating farming practices. This system of regulation seemed to be working until Bolosonaro was elected in the fall of 2018. President of Brazil, Bolosonaro, has ended these programs and convinced his people that deforestation was “a lie”. His stubbornness in believing that deforestation is a hoax has convinced farmers to believe the same. The president's inability to take control of a situation that is, no pun intended, burning out of hand, is the reason for persistent fires.
It may seem like this is all in the hands of the Brazilian government, however there is actually a lot that can be done. One easy way to help protect the forest is to donate money to one of the hundreds of campaigns aimed at helping either rebuild the forest, lobby for change within the government, or help the people affected by these fires. You can also help the cause by spreading the news and sharing the information between the many people around you.
Sources used:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/08/amazon-fires-cause-deforestation-graphic-map/
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