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| tags: | #Brazil, #Amazonia, #Amazon wildfires, #climate change |
|---|---|
| located: | Brazil, United Kingdom |
| by: | Yair Oded |
The Amazon fires, currently burning at the highest recorded rate, are spiraling out of control.
According to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), since the beginning of the year, 72,843 wildfires were detected in the Amazon, which constitutes an 83 percent increase compared to the same period in 2018.
While in some cases it is natural causes that spark the fires, the vast majority of them are suspected to be intentional acts of arson as miners, ranchers, and loggers feel emboldened to 'clear the land' by the policies and rhetoric of Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, who favors development in the rain forest over conservation.
The wildfires raging across Amazonia are not only a local issue threatening the millions of people and plant and animal species native to the region, but a global crisis that has a tremendous impact on our chances to avoid a complete climate catastrophe, as its trees provide 20 percent of the Earth’s oxygen and soak up a tremendous amount of the CO2 we release into the atmosphere.
A Greenpeace petition now urges the British government to suspend its approaching trade talks with Brazil until Bolsonaro takes significant actions to put out the fires.
Please sign the petition and add your voice to the growing clamour against Bolsonaro’s environmental onslaught.
Image credit: ScienceAlert
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