{"id":170116,"date":"2020-10-12T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2020-10-12T11:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=170116"},"modified":"2020-10-08T06:43:42","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T05:43:42","slug":"brazil-is-up-in-flames-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/10\/brazil-is-up-in-flames-heres-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazil Is Up in Flames\u2014Here\u2019s Why"},"content":{"rendered":"

6 Oct 2020 – <\/em>It is no accident that there are fires all across Brazil, and it is no accident that the fires this year are worse than last. In fact, the fires in 2020 are the worst in the last decade.<\/p>\n

The world is looking in horror for the second straight year as historic blazes<\/a> ravage the world\u2019s largest tropical forest. All the while, instead of fighting the fires, the Brazilian government fans the flames by emboldening those who are setting the fires to expand their agribusiness.<\/p>\n

\"Deforestation
New images show widespread destruction of the Amazon. <\/strong>
\n\u00a9 Christian Braga \/ Greenpeace<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What\u2019s worse, the Amazon is not the only biome in Brazil that is on fire. The Cerrado savannah has already registered more than 38 thousand fire hotspots this year, and the Pantanal wetlands, a biome rich in biodiversity, home to the biggest number of spotted jaguar, has already had 23% of its area destroyed.<\/p>\n

Last year<\/a>, more than 1 million hectares of forest were burned in the Amazon, and the destruction won\u2019t stop unless we take action<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro may be willing to sacrifice vital ecosystems in Brazil for profit, but the true cost of losing the forest is incalculable. The more fires there are, the farther away we get from beating the current climate, health, and biodiversity crises, and the greater the risk to Indigenous Peoples and traditional wisdom that protects the forest.<\/p>\n

The fires in Brazil are not natural. Greedy and reckless people are the arsonists. But what are the reasons behind all this destruction?<\/p>\n

\"Cattle
Cattle is found in area that was deforested last year during the fire season in the Amazon. \u00a9 Christian Braga \/ Greenpeace<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The meat on our plate<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Industrial agriculture is the biggest driver of deforestation \u2013 the practice of clearing forest to make way for agriculture or grazing \u2013 in the world. In Brazil, cattle ranchers and land-grabbers set the Amazon on fire to illegally clear land and expand their destructive business. Cattle ranching is estimated to have directly caused 80% of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.<\/p>\n

Land in Brazil is not only being destroyed to make way for cattle raising. Even though deforestation for soy production is banned in the Brazilian Amazon<\/a>, the Cerrado Savannah has become a gigantic soy farming field, expanding into a biodiversity-rich biome and threatening and displacing traditional communities that have lived in the region for generations. The production of soy is also directly related to the meat the world is eating. 90% of all the soy produced in the world is destined to feed livestock. We\u2019re growing food to feed food.<\/p>\n

\"Munduruku
Munduruku Fishing on Lake in the Amazon.
\n\u00a9 Anderson Barbosa \/ Greenpeace<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Guardians of the forest under threat<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The destruction of the Amazon, the Cerrado and the Pantanal doesn\u2019t happen only on public lands. Indigenous Peoples have been fighting to protect their territories and the forest for generations, but their lands are constantly invaded by land-grabbers, loggers and miners. These invasions are a violation of Indigenous Peoples\u2019 constitutional rights and a threat to their lives. The Brazilian government should be protecting Indigenous rights, but instead, it enables the destruction and weakens federal agencies whose goal is to monitor and protect Indigenous Peoples\u2019 lands.<\/p>\n

The COVID-19 pandemic has added another threat to Indigenous Peoples\u2019 lives. With a mortality rate three times higher than the rest of the Brazilian population, Indigenous Peoples are facing an even bigger threat, with miners and other invaders risking to bring the pandemic into their territories. As of 2 October, more than 34 thousand Indigenous Peoples have been diagnosed with COVID-19, and 837 people have died in Brazil. Indigenous lands are one of the most effective ways to protect the forests. As invaders seize their lands and the populations are put at risk,\u00a0 the world risks losing the knowledge of how to best care for the Amazon.<\/p>\n

\"Fires
Fires have devastated 23% of Pantanal\u2019s biome
\n\u00a9 Leandro Cagiano \/ Greenpeace<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A government of lies<\/strong><\/h2>\n

While Brazil\u2019s vital and irreplaceable biomes burn and Indigenous Peoples have to face a pandemic that is widespread throughout the country, the Brazilian government denies both crises. In fact, President Bolsonaro prefers to blame and attack NGOs, Indigenous Peoples and anyone else who stands up to him for the fires ravaging the forest and chooses to create meaningless measures to combat the devastation of the Amazon, such as sending the army to the forest, and announcing a decree to ban fires for 120 days. Instead, the Brazilian government should have maintained the capacity of federal agencies the country already had in place, so that environmental laws could be properly enforced, as well invest in monitoring and enforcement.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the forest \u2013 and the fate of the world \u2013 keeps going up in flames. In September, Brazil surpassed the grim record of fires from 2019, the highest in 10 years. This is a consequence of a government that, since day one, has been tearing down environmental laws and enabling the destruction from the agribusiness and mining sectors.<\/p>\n

\"Aerial
Aerial View over Amazon Rainforest \u00a9 Rog\u00e9rio Assis \/ Greenpeace<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Why the Amazon\u2014and other ecosystems\u2014matters<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The destruction of the Amazon is not only a threat to biodiversity and to Indigenous Peoples. The Amazon is the biggest rainforest in the world and is vital in stabilizing the climate in the continent. The Amazon is responsible for generating and bringing rain to other parts of South America such as the southeast of Brazil, where major cities like S\u00e3o Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are located. Without the Amazon, severe droughts could devastate the region, impacting the lives of the most populated region in the country.<\/p>\n

The Amazon is also crucial for the fight against the global climate crisis. It stores a vast amount of carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere when the forest is burnt. The more carbon in the atmosphere means a warmer and drier climate, which makes the land more prone to burning. It\u2019s a vicious cycle that we cannot allow to continue.<\/p>\n

But if we all know the threats the destruction of the Amazon poses to the entire world, why do we keep seeing more and more fires each year? We cannot allow global corporations, backed by governments, to continue risking our future for money in their pockets. From more deadly floods and droughts to hurricanes and wildfires, we are already seeing the impacts of the climate crisis. We all need to act together to protect the planet.<\/p>\n

Join the Movement to Act for the Amazon<\/u><\/strong><\/h3>\n

_______________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Diego Gonzaga is a content editor for Greenpeace US based in San Francisco.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original – greenpeace.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

6 Oct 2020 – It is no accident that there are fires all across Brazil. The world is looking in horror for the second straight year as historic blazes ravage the world\u2019s largest tropical forest. All the while, instead of fighting the fires, the Brazilian government fans the flames by emboldening those who are setting the fires to expand their agribusiness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":170118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[536,1176,547,239,1690,686,550,794,401,1393,993,1797,487,866,541,846,1200,1255,329,92],"class_list":["post-170116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","tag-amazonia","tag-bolsonaro","tag-brazil","tag-brics","tag-cattle-and-ranch-farmers","tag-climate-change","tag-corruption","tag-deforestation","tag-environment","tag-forest-fires","tag-global-warming","tag-greenpeace","tag-human-rights","tag-indigenous-rights","tag-latin-america-caribbean","tag-meat-industry","tag-natures-rights","tag-rain-forests","tag-resources","tag-violent-conflict"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}