The Amazon is burning

[nairiporter]

The Amazon is Earth's lungs, producing 1/5 of the global O2. And now it's burning. It is literally turning to char - at a tremendous speed. As we recently mentioned here, the Brazilian president is subject to fierce criticism for his aggressive rhetoric and his inadequate policy that has allowed widespread fires to be started on purpose. He has removed reputed ecology experts, and silenced them whenever they have published conclusions that he doesn't like.

There is good reason for all the criticism. But is his rhetoric and his reactions such a surprise? What else could be expected from a right-wing populist like himself? The more heated the debate, the more controversy his actions cause, the higher the indignation, the less he and his government are prone to negotiate. They will only be hardening their position. And that's not in anyone's interest.

But what could really be done here? I mean, apart from sending messages of condemnation, and tweeting under the #PrayForTheAmazon hashtag. There are thousands of wildfires destroying the Earth's lungs at this very moment - and this didn't start yesterday or the day before. It has been ongoing for quite a while - at times slowly, other times like now, more rapidly. And I'm not just talking about claiming new land for agriculture and cattle herding. The number of illegal gold mines in Brazil has been steadily increasing for years, for example.

On top of that, several enormous dams have been built in the Amazon lately. Their number will exceed 20 by 2023 - all projects, confirmed and signed by the previous president, leftist Lula da Silva. Those are dams with a questionable energy efficiency and a high ecological cost. Entire districts will remain underwater when they are completed. The huge biomass that will start decomposing on their bottoms will release tremendous amounts of methane into the atmosphere. And as we know, methane is much worse than CO2 as a greenhouse gas.

In 2012 Porto Velho, the capital of the state of Rondonia, witnessed the consequences of a new dam being launched on the river Madeira. Once the dam was activated, the water flooded the entire city. Today, that same Porto Velho is being ravaged by wildfires - and no plane could possibly land anywhere near the place, because the pilots can't see anything on the ground from all the smoke.

The gradual murder of the Amazon rainforest has been going on with no interruption for years. No sanctions against Brazil (of which Germany and Norway are talking right now) would bring any result. They would likely bring the opposite effect: if the aid for tackling climate change in the rainforest gets halted, this would only put fuel into Bolsonaro's fire, and give him more ammo to promote his aggressive policies supporting the agriculture industry at the expense of the environment. And it would weaken the position of those who are fighting to preserve Earth's lungs.

Bolsonaro effectively slashed the environment funds in 2018. Now the international community needs to invest more resources and efforts if the Amazon is to be saved. I'm thinking of a global fund with compensation payments that would allow to push the economic interests in the region to the background, and place the focus back on the importance of that rainforest. Because it is of vital importance for everyone's survival. It is not a domestic Brazilian issue. It's a global issue. The upcoming UN conference in New York, where climate change will be issue number one, is the right place for addressing these matters directly. It's where the whole world could not only show how indignant they are of Bolsonaro's inaction, but more importantly, that they are capable of acting themselves.

Failing to do that, we'll be all paving our way toward eventual collapse of the human civilisation. Laugh at my supposed overstatement as much as you like, but that's what is going to happen if the Amazon disappears. And don't even get me started on Siberia.