Amazon Rainforest Fire – Free PDF Download

THE LACK OF OUTRAGE OVER AMAZON FIRE

AMAZON RAINFOREST

• The Amazon rainforest, also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America.

AMAZON RAINFOREST

• The majority of the forest is contained within Brazil, with 60% of the rainforest, followed by Peru with 13%, Colombia with 10%, and with minor amounts in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and France (French Guiana).

SOURCE

 HOW DID THE AMAZON RAINFOREST FIRES START?

•  Wildfires often occur in the dry season in Brazil, but this year has been worse than normal, according to INPE.
•  In addition, fires are deliberately started in efforts to illegally deforest land for cattle ranching.
• The space agency said it had detected more than 72,000 fires between January and August and more than 9,500 forest fires since Thursday, mostly in the Amazon region.

HOW BAD IT IS

• The European Union’s satellite program, Copernicus, released a map showing smoke from the fires spreading all along Brazil to the east Atlantic coast. The smoke has covered nearly half of the country and is even spilling over into neighboring Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay.

ACTIVISTS BLAME BRAZIL’S PRESIDENT

• Jair Bolsonaro

 THE FAULT

• Environmental groups have long been campaigning to save the Amazon, blaming Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, for the endangerment of the vital rainforest. They accuse him of relaxing environmental controls in the country and encouraging deforestation.
• Bolsonaro’s environmental policies have been controversial from the start. A former army captain, he made campaign promises to restore the economy by exploring the Amazon’s economic potential.

NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR SPACE RESEARCH – BRAZIL

• Recently the director of INPE was fired after a spat with the president; the director had defended satellite data that showed deforestation was 88% higher in June than a year earlier, and Bolsonaro called the findings “lies.“
• Budget cuts and federal interference are making it even easier for people to exploit the rainforest. Brazil’s environmental enforcement agency has seen its budget cut by $23 million
• Bolsonaro said that the recent wave of fires in the Amazon may have been caused by nongovernmental organizations in order to draw international criticism to his government.
•  “Crime exists, and we need to make sure that this type of crime does not increase. We took money away from the NGOs,” he said.
• “They are now feeling the pinch from the lack of funding. So, maybe the NGO types are conducting these criminal acts in order to generate negative attention against me and against the Brazilian government. This is the war we are facing.”

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