Even with all the focus on the environment, the Amazon Rainforest endures decimation by big business and logging companies. January marked a milestone for deforestation records in Brazil, more than doubling the amount of the previous year.
According to data collected by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) satellite-based DETER system, more than 280 square kilometers (110 square miles) were cleared. This is an increase of 108 percent, and the largest area cleared in January since 2015. The DETER satellite monitors deforestation in real-time.
It’s as if these people and companies doing the deforestation just don’t care about climate change. The Amazon Rainforest is known as “the lungs of the Earth” due to the significant amount of oxygen produced there. It is essential in regulating the atmospheric makeup of our entire planet.
More than two-thirds of the Amazon rainforest is located in Brazil. This is not good news considering the current President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro has vowed to help Brazil’s economy at the expense of the Amazon Rainforest.
Before he took office the numbers of deforestation in January were 58 square kilometers in 2017, 183 square kilometers in 2018, and 136 square kilometers in 2019.
INPE data for the year in 2019 showed alarmingly high numbers. The data recently published in mid-January showed that deforestation in northern Brazil had jumped a ridiculously high 85 percent in 2019! They cleared out 9,166 square kilometers of forest versus 4,946 square kilometers in 2018. This is the largest area cleared in the last 5 years on deforestation records.
Jair Bolsonaro is a known climate change skeptic. Last August he made light of all the forest fires in Brazil. He told reporters in Brazil:
Deforestation and fires will never end, it’s cultural.
Marco Astrini the Public Policy Coordinator of Greenpeace Brazil talked about the culture:
About 90 percent of the destruction of the forest occurs illegally. Therefore, the only cultural aspect of deforestation in the Amazon is the culture of forest crime, which the government does not seem to want to confront.
Last week Bolsonaro unveiled his plans that would open up indigenous lands to mining, farming, and hydroelectric projects, which would lead to further destruction and deforestation of protected lands.
Joênia Wapixana is Brazil’s only indigenous congresswoman, here she left a comment:
Mining on indigenous lands is illegal and unconstitutional… Mining only brings pollution and death. We don’t want the deaths of rivers, the forest, and indigenous peoples.
Bolsonaro has strong opinions about indigenous tribes saying they live like “animals in zoos,” and mockingly said they are “evolving” to become more human.
The new bill proposed by Bolsonaro is not yet approved by congress.
Amazingly, people like this are allowed to destroy the same planet that we “all” live on.
