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Read the Editorial / Without the Amazon, the planet is doomed

By the Washington Post Editorial Board

August 2019

ONE OF the easiest ways to combat climate change is to stop tearing down old trees. This is why it is everyone’s problem that new Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro seems determined to chop away at the Amazon rainforest, the world’s greatest reserve of old-growth forest.

According to a recent analysis in the New York Times, “enforcement actions by Brazil’s main environmental agency fell by 20 percent during the first six months of the year, compared with the same period in 2018.” Fines, warnings and the elimination of illegal equipment from preservation zones are among the measures Brazil’s authorities are doing less often. “The drop means that vast stretches of the rain forest can be torn down with less resistance from the nation’s authorities.” The result has been a loss of 1,330 square miles of rainforest since January, a loss rate that is some 40 percent higher than a year previous, according to Brazilian government records.

Mr. Bolsonaro has called his own government’s information “lies,” stripped the environment ministry of authorities and slashed the environmental budget. When eight former environment ministers protested in May, current environment minister Ricardo Salles alleged that there is a “permanent and well-orchestrated defamation campaign by [nongovernmental organizations] and supposed experts, within and outside of Brazil.”

In its reality denial, Mr. Bolsonaro’s brand of right-wing populism closely resembles that of President Trump. Both leaders stoke unfounded suspicions that environmental concerns represent foreign plots to undermine the domestic economy. Both are committed to breakneck resource extraction while dismissing expert warnings. And both lead nations with special responsibilities in the global fight against climate change...

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Now comes the burning of the Amazon Rainforest

Katharine Hayhoe, Professor, Texas Tech: Why is the Amazon burning?

Scientists point to three main causes - each the result of human choices.

1. Deforestation, much of it illegal (currently encouraged by a political administration that turns a blind eye)

2. Farming - more than 3/4 of deforestation in the Amazon is the result of cattle ranching or soy production. Brazil is one of the world's largest exporter of beef and this is where many fast food restaurants get their beef from! Read More

3. Droughts, which are being made more severe by both climate change and deforestation (which in turn produces heat-trapping gas emissions that help drive climate change).

It's a vicious, self-reinforcing cycle that puts us all at risk.

Read more at the Washington Post

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