WAV Comment – we need to say nothing – the entire truth is spoken here by the ladies that know the Amazon.  We fully support everything which they say ! – For all humanity; the forest must be allowed to live and the animals be safe.

Amazon Frontlines:

https://www.amazonfrontlines.org/chronicles/indigenous-women-ecuadorian-amazon-solidarity-brazil/

 

To our relatives in the Brazilian Amazon,

From the Ecuadorian Amazon we are witnessing with horror and pain the tragedy that is taking place in Brazil. We stand in solidarity with you. We are all fighting for the freedom of the forests, our people and our future generations to live in harmony and peace!

We feel your pain and you are not alone in this fight. Stay strong!

As indigenous women, we call upon the international community to support indigenous people of the Amazon!

 

Noemi Gualinga

Leader of the women’s association of the Kichwa People of Sarayaku

“To my dear sisters and brothers living in the Brazilian Amazon, we are thinking of you, your children, the living forest, all the animals, the rivers and the sacred trees.

We have to hold governments and multinational companies responsible. They are the ones responsible for the destruction of the Amazon rainforest!

Even if they are destroying the forest, our voices shall be heard and it is in this moment where we need to stay united so we can be stronger together.

You are not alone! We stand with you all the way from the Ecuadorian Amazon.”

 

Isabel Wisum

Former vice president of the Achuar Nation

“Dear women in Brazil, you have our full support in Ecuador, we are sending you strength. Our hearts and spirits are with you!

Do not stop fighting, don’t surrender!

We, indigenous women defend our territories, our forests, our life. Never give up!”

 

Salome Aranda

Women‘s leader of Morete Cocha

“For us, indigenous women of the Amazon, the forest is our source of life.

Without the forest, we cannot live.

The whole world depends upon the Amazon rainforest.

All the way from Ecuador, we stand in solidarity with our indigenous relatives in Brazil.

We are sending you strength to keep fighting, to keep strong!

To the government of Brazil: It is time to put an end to this destruction!

Your life and your family depends on the Amazon too. The whole world is watching.”

 

Nancy Santi

Leader of the Kichwa people of Kawsak Sacha

“As a woman of the Amazon rainforest I feel the pain of the earth, of the animals and all living beings of the forest.

I have cried, because the indigenous people of Brazil are our relatives, our brothers and sisters.

What is happening to the world? How are we going to fight climate change? What are the governments doing?

The governments of the world have to take responsibility and stop this destruction immediately.

Brothers and sisters of Brazil, we feel your pain. We are standing with you and we send all our strength!”

 

Rosa Gualinga

Leader of the Shiwiar women’s association

“As women we defend our forest, we are fighting for our children and grandchildren, for all humankind.

We ask the world to stand with us, to protect the Amazon and defend the Brazilian rainforest!

We ask the world to support indigenous people! Relatives of Brazil, as a women of the Shiwiar people I will continue praying and singing our sacred songs to give you strength!

We are one heart! Let’s fight this together.”

 

Nemonte Nenquimo

Waorani leader of CONCONAWEP

“Bolsonaro, From where do you breathe?

Bolsonaro needs to think about that, not just about industry and taking advantage of the land.

Little by little what is happening in Brazil is destroying the air.

As women of the Amazon we will never stay quiet. We will keep talking, keep pronouncing.

We will keep using our voices that should be respected!”

 

Sandra Illanes

Leader of the community of Raya Yaku

“I stand in solidarity with the women of Brazil offering my energy and strength as a woman.

It pains to see all the suffering of the people, to see the death of animals and plants.

I ask the world to support our relatives in Brazil who are suffering this catastrophe!”

Photo credits: Santiago Cornejo, Melissa Cartagena, Amazon Frontlines

 

http://www.pxleyes.com/blog/2011/06/the-extremy-beauty-of-the-amazon-rainforest-in-50-stunning-photos/ 

 

 

Fires are devouring the Amazon. And Jair Bolsonaro is to blame

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/26/fires-are-devouring-the-amazon-and-jair-bolsonaro-is-to-blame

The ongoing destruction of the Amazon is taking place because of policy choices made by those who now rule Brazil

As the world watches in horror and terror as the Amazon burns, scientists have made clear that the cause, principally if not entirely, is human activity.

Here in Brazil, that human activity has human names and faces: those of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his extremist Environment Minister, Ricardo Salles. They have not merely permitted these devastating fires, but have encouraged and fueled them.

They have done so with a toxic brew of radical ideology, political corruption and banal greed. Put simply, the ongoing destruction of the Amazon is taking place because of policy choices made by those who now rule Brazil.

The magnitude of these fires, and the severity of the dangers they pose to the world, have been widely demonstrated over the last week. As the New York Times reported on Wednesday, the National Institute for Space Research documented that it “had detected 39,194 fires this year in the world’s largest rain forest, a 77% increase from the same period in 2018.”

The raging fires have become so potent that the smoke they generate plunged the Western Hemisphere’s largest city, São Paulo, into total darkness in the middle of the day on Tuesday. What was particularly shocking about that sudden event was that the Amazonian fires are hundreds of miles away from that city, but have become so dense and overwhelming that they snuffed out light in that distant major metropolis.

To the extent one can locate any silver lining in this literal dark cloud, it is that the cause of these fires are almost entirely manmade, which means they can be stopped with changes in human behavior – specifically, with policy changes by Brazil’s new government.

President Bolsonaro’s election victory last November was a shock to the Brazilian political system because, as a Congressman for almost 30 years, his retrograde and unhinged views had relegated him to the fringe of politics life. His presence in the Congress was regarded by most as a national embarrassment; that he would one day occupy the presidential palace was unthinkable.

But as has happened in numerous other countries in the democratic world, including the United States, a series of crises and failures validly attributed to the establishment class have driven large sections of the country’s population into the arms of any self-styled outsider, no matter how demagogic and radical.

Among Bolsonaro’s many extremist views is climate denialism as stubborn and extreme as any prominent world figure, if not more so. He has long dismissed the scientific consensus about climate scenarios as a hoax. And he campaigned on an explicit pledge to exploit – ie destroy – the Amazon, which currently provides 20% of the world’s oxygen and which climate scientists widely regard as the most valuable asset humanity possesses in our increasingly difficult battle to avoid climate catastrophes.

Since his election, Bolsonaro has not only made good on his promises to fundamentally subvert our country’s long-standing commitment to protect the Amazon, but has done so with a speed and aggression that has surprised even his most virulent critics. To be sure, Bolsonaro’s predecessors – including those from the center-left Workers’ Party – have earned their share of valid criticisms from environmentalists for harming the Amazon for industrial gain. But – after just eight moths in office – Bolsonaro’s damage to the world’s greatest rain forest is in an entirely different universe of magnitude.

Deforestation is an affirmative goal of Bolsonaro. That can be achieved by cutting down trees or, more efficiently, by simply burning large areas that Brazil’s agricultural industry wants to exploit. It also means displacing the indigenous tribes that have lived in those forests for centuries: people for whom Bolsonaro has repeatedly expressed contempt. Their displacement from those lands has often been accomplished with violence against environmental activists and indigenous leaders.

Bolsonaro’s choice for his Environment Minster, Ricardo Salles from the so-called New Party (Partido Novo), exemplifies the radical and even violent anti-environmentalism fueling these fires. Last year, Salles, while serving as a state environmental official in São Paulo, was found guilty of administrative improprieties for having altered a map to benefit mining companies.

He was fined and deprived of his political rights – including his right to seek elected office – for eight years. Bolsonaro evidently viewed these transgressions as a virtue since he announced his selection of Salles to serve in his cabinet a mere three weeks after his conviction.

In 2018, Salles – now the custodian of the Brazilian Amazon – ran for federal Congress with a political ad that displayed bullets from a rifle as his solution for environmental activists, indigenous tribes impeding the destruction of their land, and “leftists.” Salles lost his bid for Congress, but was rewarded with a much more powerful position: Bolsonaro’s Environment Minister.

Bolsonaro and Salles view deforestation as such a pressing priority that they openly despise anyone who seeks to impede it. Earlier this month, Bolsonaro fired a top scientist after he warned the country that deforestation was taking place at an unprecedented and dangerous rate. Last month, when a reporter asked Bolsonaro about the damage being done to the environment by his industrial policies, the President contemptuously told the reporter he should defecate less: “one day yes, one day no.” And, in the face of rising political pressure over the Amazonian fires, he infamously, and baselessly, blamed environmental groups this week for having started them.

The agencies charged with safeguarding the nearly one million indigenous people in Brazil have suffered such severe budget cuts under Bolsonaro that they are now barely functioning. During the campaign, he vowed: “Not one centimetre will be demarcated for indigenous reserves or quilombolas.” In late July, gold miners invaded an indigenous village and one of its leaders was stabbed to death.

All of these dramatic changes have occurred not only from ideology but also political captivity. Along with right-wing evangelicals and supporters of Brazil’s past military dictatorship, Brazil’s powerful agribusiness sector is a critical component of the coalition that swept Bolsonaro into office.

Their gamble on Bolsonaro has paid dividends: a huge array of previously banned pesticides has been approved for use this year with virtually no debate or study. One result: the death of 500 million bees in the last three months alone.

Worst of all, deforestation is consuming the Amazon at a horrifically rapid pace. As The New York Times put it this week: “The destruction of the Amazon rain forest in Brazil has increased rapidly since the nation’s new far-right president took over and his government scaled back efforts to fight illegal logging, ranching and mining.”

The government agency responsible for monitoring deforestation documented the loss of “1,330 square miles of forest cover in the first half of 2019, a 39 percent increase over the same period last year.”

What the world is witnessing is as deliberate as it is dangerous. It is insufficient, and arguably offensive, for already-developed and rich western powers which have done so much damage to the planet to simply dictate to Brazil that it must not exploit its resources the way the west has done with such great environmental damage.

But the world also cannot stand by and let the Bolsonaro government destroy the Amazon. In lieu of unilateral decrees that smack of arrogant colonialism, rich industrialized countries who need the Amazon to survive should fund social programs for poor Brazilians who compose a large majority of our supremely unequal country, in exchange for preservation of this vital environmental asset.

Identifying the culprit – President Bolsonaron and Minister Salles – is necessary but not sufficient to avert the environmental disaster. The Amazon belongs to Brazil, but the need to save the planet belongs to all of humanity, and all of us must bear this burden collectively.

• David Miranda is a federal Congressman in Brazil representing the state of Rio de Janeiro with the Party of Socialism and Liberty (PSOL)

Above – Destruction Asshole.

 

Jair Bolsonaro’s neglect of the Amazon has made him “the most despised and detested leader” on earth, Brazil’s former environment minister has claimed, as the far-right leader again rebuked French president Emmanuel Macron for challenging his environmental record.

Rubens Ricupero warned Bolsonaro was wreaking havoc on both Brazil’s environment and its global standing, as Bolsonaro used Facebook to scold Macron’s “inappropriate and gratuitous attacks” over the Amazon fires and insult France’s first lady.

“These people are lunatics,” Ricupero said of Bolsonaro’s administration in an interview with the Guardian.

“In my opinion, he has turned himself into the most despised and detested leader in the world. I can’t see anyone else – not even Duterte in the Philippines … not Trump, not anyone – who today provokes so much anger.”

“Never, in more than 50 years of our history, has there been a disaster involving Brazil’s image and the perception of Brazil so serious and probably so irremediable as this one,” added Ricupero, who was also Brazil’s finance minister and ambassador to the United States.

“Even in the military period – when Brazil had a negative image above all because of human rights, torture and disappearances – what went on here never drew so much attention as now.”

On Friday, amid a barrage of domestic and international censure, Bolsonaro ordered Brazilian troops to the Amazon to help contain the conflagration and professed “profound love” for a region environmentalists accuse him of helping destroy.

But Bolsonaro has continued to dismiss the crisis as a campaign of “fake news” and “disinformation” designed to discredit his government.

“We are doing what we can,” the rightwing populist told reporters in the capital, Brasília, on Saturday. “The Amazon is bigger than the whole of Europe. Even if I had 10 million people I wouldn’t be able to prevent [these fires].”

At the G7 summit, Macron is pushing for world powers to help put out the fires and fund reforestation and management projects in the Amazon.

Ricupero, Brazil’s minister for the environment and the Amazon in the early 1990s, admitted fighting illegal deforestation was a massive task in a sprawling region where the government’s presence was limited and environmental criminals often armed and dangerous.

“It’s a wild west like in the American films,” Ricupero said of the Amazon. “[It’s not like] Sussex or East Anglia … Even in the best circumstances – even when a government is determined to enforce the law – it is an uphill struggle.”

But Ricupero accused Bolsonaro’s government of simply “folding its arms” when it came to protecting the Amazon, giving criminals a carte blanche to destroy by undermining Brazil’s environmental agency, Ibama.

“[Bolsonaro] has the same mentality as the military rulers in the 1970s: that the Amazon should be colonzied and become soy plantations and cattle ranches,” Ricupero said.

“In the 1970s the government had a slogan: ‘Amazonia will be colonized by hooves of cows’. They never accepted the idea that the Amazon had to be preserved. They see no reason for the forest not to be chopped down and replaced with agriculture and mining. This is his [Bolsonaro’s] mindset.”

Marina Silva, Brazil’s environment minister from 2003 until 2008, said she felt “deep sadness and anger” at the devastation unfolding in the region where she was born and raised.

Silva agreed Amazon destruction was not a new phenomenon.

“We’ve had fires and deforestation under every government – but with the difference that [before] you had environment ministers … who were genuinely committed to protecting the forests, biodiversity and our water resources,” Silva said.

By contrast, Bolsonaro’s environment minister, Ricardo Salles, was “an anti-environment minister” actively working against nature. “Instead of strengthening his employees he strengthens the offenders,” Silva said.

Ricupero said: “He isn’t a minister – he’s an anti-minister. He’s the opposite of what a minister should be.”

Ricupero said he feared Bolsonaro’s antagonistic reaction to European criticism meant international cooperation to control the destruction would be hard.

Only “the fear of economic consequences” – such as a boycott of Brazilian products or the halting of a trade deal with the EU – were likely to make Bolsonaro’s Brazil change course. “If nothing concrete happens, beyond the complaints … this will continue getting worse,” he predicted.

Bolsonaro continued his attacks on Macron on Saturday, accusing the French president of treating Brazil like “a colony or a no man’s land”.

Bolsonaro’s education minister, Abraham Weintraub, branded Macron a characterless, “opportunistic knave” and “a cretin”, while Brazil’s president mocked the French first lady’s appearance on Facebook.

Ricupero said: “The impression I have right now is that Brazil is committing suicide. That the president himself is ‘suiciding’ the country. It is a strong expression – but it’s what I feel. Destroying your own patrimony is tantamount to suicide.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/25/brazil-the-amazon-fires-bolsonaro

WAV Comment – if it is the EU then there has to be a ‘strategy’. Lets hope that more is done by the EU on this global destruction than all the promises they gave us about taking firm action against Romania and the export of 70,000 live sheep to the Middle East in temperatures which well exceeded the EU’s very on regulations on the ‘protection’ of live animals in transport.  Like all things, some member states of the EU will do whatever they can to adhere to the rules; others (like Romania) will not give a damn and probably do almost nothing – except take whatever they can in EU financial handouts that is.  We have an ‘EU Strategy’ – it is basically called enforcing all members states to follow the rules; otherwise they are punished hard ! – this has yet to be adopted.

European strategy for plastics

Plastics are an important material in our economy, and modern daily life is unthinkable without them. At the same time however, they can have serious downsides on the environment and health. Action on plastics was identified as a priority in the Circular Economy Action Plan, to help European businesses and consumers to use resources in a more sustainable way.

The first-ever European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy adopted on January 2018 will transform the way plastic products are designed, used, produced and recycled in the EU. Better design of plastic products, higher plastic waste recycling rates, more and better quality recyclates will help boosting the market for recycled plastics. It will deliver greater added value for a more competitive, resilient plastics industry.

The strategy is part of Europe’s transition towards a circular economy, and will also contribute to reaching the Sustainable Development Goals, the global climate commitments and the EU’s industrial policy objectives. This strategy will help protect our environment, reduce marine litter, greenhouse gas emissions and our dependence on imported fossil fuels. It will support more sustainable and safer consumption and production patterns for plastics.

EU plastics strategy key documents:

• EU Strategy for Plastics in the Circular Economy – staff working document – brochure
• Strategy for plastics press release and questions and answers
• Factsheets on the strategy for plastics in a circular economy
• Factsheet – changing the way we use plastics (EU wide)
• Factsheet – changing the way we use plastics -EU countries (in all EU languages)
• Other 2018 Circular Economy Action Plan initiatives

EU-wide pledging campaign:

The European Commission is promoting an EU-wide pledging campaign for the uptake of recycled plastics and calls on stakeholders to come forward with ambitious voluntary pledges to boost the uptake of recycled plastics.

 

Proposal for a single-use plastics directive

The European Commission proposed on May 2018 new EU-wide rules to target the 10 single-use plastic products most often found on Europe’s beaches and seas, as well as lost and bandoned fishing gear. Together these constitute 70% of all marine litter items.

Single-use plastic directive key documents:

• Single-use plastics directive proposal and annex
• Impact assessment part 1 – part 2 – part 3 and summary
• Supporting study
• Implementation plan
• Synopsis report stakeholder consultation
• Single-use plastics – factsheet
• Single-use plastics – press release
• Single-use plastics – questions and answers

 

Conference “Reinventing Plastics – Closing the Circle”

The conference “Reinventing Plastics – Closing the Circle” took place the 26th September 2017 in Brussels and was an important opportunity to explore issues and potential solutions to be proposed in the plastics strategy.

Related links

• Infographic with facts and figures on plastic waste
• Intentionally added microplastics in products – october 2017
• Plastic study
• Coherence study
• Green Paper on a Strategy on Plastic and Plastic waste in the Environment
• Green paper on Plastic Waste – results of the consultation

https://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/plastic_waste.htm

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/23/brazil-protests-amazon-bolsonaro-failure-protect

Protesters have laid siege to Brazilian embassies around the world as international outrage over Jair Bolsonaro’s failure to protect the Amazon intensified and supporters maligned critics of the Brazilian president as leftist conspirators.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside Brazil’s embassy in central London on Friday with placards reading: “The planet deserves better” and “Our house is on fire”.

“Bolsonaro wants to destroy the forest … and we do not want this,” one indigenous leader from Brazil told the crowd.

There were also rallies outside Brazil’s embassies in Mexico City and Paris, where demonstrators reportedly carried banners reading: “Fora Bolsonaro!” or “Bolsonaro, out!”

Protesters also surrounded the Brazilian consulate in Geneva while further marches were planned in cities including Adelaide, Lisbon, Stockholm, Boston and Florida.

Brazil’s far-right president has rejected the international outcry over the fires raging in the Amazon and his stance on the environment.

Bolsonaro on Thursday painted the barrage of criticism as part of a foreign conspiracy that might eventually be used to justify a foreign “intervention” in the Amazon.

“This happens all over the world, it’s not just in Brazil,” he said of the fires decimating the world’s largest tropical rainforest.

Bolsonaro’s politician son, Eduardo, claimed criticism of his father was part of an international intrigue designed to damage his government.

 

“The GLOBAL left has come together in a clear attack against president Jair Bolsonaro,” he tweeted.

Rômulo Batista, a Greenpeace campaigner in the Amazon, said such claims – and Bolsonaro’s baseless insinuation that NGOs were behind the fires – were merely an attempt to deflect from Bolsonaro’s own responsibility for the environment calamity. “He is trying to hide behind a smokescreen,” Batista said.

In Brazil, demonstrators were preparing to mobilize for a weekend of protests in cities including Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Curitiba, Recife and the Amazon city of Manaus.

“Almost everyone I know will go,” said Frederico Svoboda, 18, a history student from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

“I believe that if there is not international pressure to force the government to deal with the fires and guarantee the protection of biodiversity and indigenous peoples there could be climate disasters in Brazil and maybe South America.”

People around the world should “pressure the Brazilian government to act”, Svoboda added.

Anna Mello, a 24-year-old biologist, said she would march in the north-eastern city of Recife.

“For me this is surreal, I can’t believe it is happening. It is absurd that … people can support this as if it were totally normal rather than a crime and something that might affect the whole of humanity.”

Writing in the O Globo newspaper, the columnist Bernando Mello Franco said that thanks to Bolsonaro, “Brazil is on track to go back to being seen as an environmental pariah”.

 

If you wish to contact your local Brazilian embassy, then please use the following link:

https://www.embassy-worldwide.com/country/brazil/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diplomatic_missions_of_Brazil

 

LONDON:

Address: 14-16 Cockspur St, St. James’s, London SW1Y 5BL

Hours:

Closed ⋅ Opens 9AM Mon

Saturday	Closed
Sunday	Closed
Monday (Summer Bank Holiday)	9am–6pm Hours might differ
Tuesday	9am–6pm
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Phone: 020 7747 4500

 

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/macron-amazon-forest-fires-veto-mercosur-eu-trade-deal-brazil-a9076181.html

France will block an EU trade deal with Brazil and its neighbours over the country’s handling of fires in the Amazon rainforest, a spokesperson for Emmanuel Macron has said.

Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro has been criticised around the world for his response to the fires, which scientists say are man-made and campaigners have linked to businesses looking to exploit the land.

“The president can only conclude President Bolsonaro lied to him at the Osaka summit,” a spokesperson for the Elysee told the Reuters news agency.

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/amazon-rainforest-fires-bolsonaro-blames-charities-for-worst-ever-blazes-z8c0tkt7h

Wildfires raging in the Amazon rainforest are an international crisis that must be tackled by the world’s richest nations, President Macron has declared.

The French leader said that the record number of fires that have broken out this month, ravaging forests in Brazil and neighbouring countries, must be top of the agenda at this weekend’s G7 summit in Biarritz.

His remarks drew a sharp response from President Bolsonaro of Brazil, who blames environmental groups for the surge in wildfires as he tries to deflect international criticism

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/23/amazon-rainforest-fires-deforestation-jair-bolsonaro

The rainforest might seem a remote place, but it is the heart of the planet – and it is under attack as never before

The Amazon is the centre of the world. Right now, as our planet experiences climate collapse, there is nowhere more important. If we don’t grasp this, there is no way to meet that challenge.

For 500 years, this has been a place of ruins. First with the European invasion, which brought a particularly destructive form of civilisation, the death of hundreds of thousands of indigenous men and women and the extinction of dozens of peoples. More recently, with the clearance of vast swaths of the forest and all life within it. Right now, in 2019, we are witnessing the beginning of a new, disastrous chapter. The area of trees being cleared has surged this year. In July, the deforestation rate was an area the size of Manhattan every day, a Greater London every three weeks. This month, fires are incinerating the Amazon at a record rate, almost certainly part of a scorched-earth strategy to clear territory. Why is this happening now? Because of a change in power.

A predatory form of politics called Bolsonarism has assumed nearly total, and totalitarian, power in BrazilA predatory form of politics called Bolsonarism has assumed nearly total, and totalitarian, power in Brazil. President Jair Bolsonaro’s chief project is to create more ruins in the Amazon forest, methodically and swiftly. This is why, for the first time since Brazil became a democracy again, it effectively has a minister against the environment.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/23/amazon-fires-what-is-happening-anything-we-can-do

What is happening in the Amazon?

Thousands of fires are burning in Brazil, many of them in the world’s biggest rainforest, which is sending clouds of smoke across the region and pumping alarming quantities of carbon into the world’s atmosphere.

Does this happen every year?

Yes, but some areas have suffered far more than usual. In the worst-affected Brazilian state of Amazonas, the peak day this month was 700% higher than the average for the same date over the past 15 years. In other states, the amount of ash and other particulates in August has hit the highest level since 2010.

What is the cause?

Most of the fires are agricultural, either smallholders burning stubble after harvest, or farmers clearing forest for cropland. Illegal land-grabbers also destroy trees so they can raise the value of the property they seize. But they are man-made and mostly deliberate.

Unlike the huge recent blazes in Siberia and Alaska, the Amazon fires are very unlikely to have been caused by lightning.

Is the entire forest ablaze?

No. Satellite monitoring experts say the images of an entire forest ablaze are exaggerated. A great deal of misinformation has been spread by social media, including the use of striking images from previous years’ burning seasons. This week, there are more large fires in Colombia and eastern Brazil than in the Amazon. Most of the agricultural burn-offs are in deforested areas. But there are also fires in protected reserves.

So should we still be concerned?

Extremely. The fires are mostly illegal and they are degrading the world’s biggest terrestrial carbon sink and most important home for biodiversity. They also contribute to a more important trend, which is an alarming rise in deforestation. Scientists say the Amazon is approaching a tipping point, after which it will irreversibly degrade into a dry savannah. At a time when the world needs billions more trees to absorb carbon and stabilise the climate, the planet is losing its biggest forest.

How much forest is being lost?

In July, deforestation spiked to a level not seen in more than a decade. According to preliminary satellite data from Brazil’s space agency trees were being cleared at the rate of five football pitches every minute. Over the single month, ,2,254 sq km (870 sq miles) were lost, a rise of 278% on the same month last year. Scientists say this year could be the first for 10 years in which 10,000 sq km of Amazon are lost.

Is this the fault of the Brazilian president?

Jair Bolsonaro has made things a lot worse by weakening the environment agency, attacking conservation NGOs and promoting the opening of the Amazon to mining, farming and logging. The far-right leader has dismissed satellite data on deforestation and fired the head of the space agency. But it is not solely his fault. The agricultural lobby is powerful in Brazil and it has steadily eroded the protection system that was so successful from 2005-2014. Deforestation crept up in the past five years under the previous presidents Dilma Rousseff and Michel Temer. But the rate has accelerated rapidly in the first eight months of Bolsonaro’s rule.

What is the outside world doing?

The UN secretary general and many world leaders and celebrities have expressed concern. The Amazon will be high on the agenda for G7 leaders at a summit in France this weekend. They are likely to make a strong statement condemning the recent increase in deforestation and urge Brazil to restore the Amazon protections that previously made the country a global environmental leader.

Is that enough?

No. The priority should be building a buffer against the tipping point and drawing down emissions, which means not just protection of the Amazon but massive reforestation. This will require far more financial support than anything seen until now. For this to be effective, governments will also need to align their environment and trade policies. Currently countries like the UK spend small sums on overseas conservation, then promote billions of dollars worth of trade in beef, soy, timber, minerals and other products that undermine Amazon protection efforts. Politicians should also listen more to the voices of the people who live in the forest, such as indigenous groups and riverine communities.

 

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Indigenous people from the Mura tribe show a deforested area in unmarked indigenous lands in Amazonas state. Photograph: Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters

What can individuals do?

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Read more

The most important actions are political and collective. Join a party or campaign group that makes the Amazon a priority. Through these groups, urge your elected representatives to block trade deals with countries that destroy their forests and to provide more support for countries that expand tree cover.

Apart from this, donate to organisations that support the forest, forest dwellers and biodiversity, including Instituto Socioambiental, Amazon Watch, WWF, Greenpeace, Imazon, International Rivers and Friends of the Earth.

As consumers, think twice before buying Brazilian beef or other products unless certified by groups such as Rainforest Alliance. The Amazon connection is not always obvious.

As the crisis escalates…

… in our natural world, we refuse to turn away from the climate catastrophe and species extinction. For The Guardian, reporting on the environment is a priority. We give reporting on climate, nature and pollution the prominence it deserves, stories which often go unreported by others in the media. At this pivotal time for our species and our planet, we are determined to inform readers about threats, consequences and solutions based on scientific facts, not political prejudice or business interests.

 

 

See also https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2019/08/21/brazil-there-is-war-in-amazonas/

 

This site is primarily an animal rights / welfare site. But we also attempt to cover environmental issues when we feel there is need. Now is major need time for the Amazon.

https://mailchi.mp/amazonfrontlines/brazil?e=84705a74b2

The Amazon rainforest is on fire. Millions of acres of indigenous territory across Brazil are burning, releasing enormous amounts of stored carbon into the atmosphere. This is what the climate crisis looks like: Our planet’s largest and most important rainforest going up in smoke.

Amazon Frontlines has joined forces with our indigenous allies in Brazil and is raising funds for the Indigenous Confederation of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB). All funds raised will support the frontline brigades now fighting these fires, and help them build political and technical capacity to continue protecting the forest in the future.

The fires now raging across the Amazon are not natural. They are part of a political crisis in which the governments of the region, most notably that of Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, has enabled the wanton destruction of formerly protected areas, including hundreds of indigneous lands. For years, indigenous groups in Brazil have been trying to warn the world that they cannot hold off the devastation alone. Too often, their voices have been silenced, just as the Amazon is being silenced now.

Let’s turn this disaster into hope, lets change this into action, and let’s work towards the future together. Let’s pray for the Amazon, but also fight for it.

Donate to the Amazon fund – https://www.amazonfrontlines.org/donate/brazil/

 

Amazon fires: ‘Our house is burning’, Macron warns ahead of G7

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-49443389

French President Emmanuel Macron has said the record number of fires in the Amazon rainforest is an “international crisis” that needs to top the agenda at this weekend’s G7 summit.

“Our house is burning,” he tweeted.

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro responded by accusing Mr Macron of using the issue for “political gain”.

He said calls to discuss the fires at the G7 summit in Biarritz, which Brazil is not participating in, evoke “a misplaced colonialist mindset”.

The largest rainforest in the world, the Amazon is a vital carbon store that slows down the pace of global warming.

Satellite data published by the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) has shown an increase of 85% this year in fires across Brazil, most of them in the Amazon region.

• In graphics: How bad are the Amazon fires?
• ‘Football pitch’ of Amazon forest lost every minute

Conservationists have blamed Mr Bolsonaro’s government for the Amazon’s plight, saying that he has encouraged loggers and farmers to clear the land.

Mr Bolsonaro has suggested that non-governmental organisations started the fires, but admitted he had no evidence for this claim. In comments on Thursday, he acknowledged that farmers might be involved in setting fires in the region, according to Reuters news agency.

Environmental groups have called for protests in cities across Brazil on Friday to demand action to combat the fires.

Mr Bolsonaro responded by accusing the French president of using a Brazilian domestic issue for “personal political gain”.

He said he was open to dialogue about the fires if it was “based on objective data and mutual respect”, but hit out at the calls for it to be discussed at the G7 summit.

“The French president’s suggestion that Amazonian issues be discussed at the G7 without the participation of the countries of the region evokes a misplaced colonialist mindset, which does not belong in the 21st century,” he wrote on social media.

• Brazil wildfires prompt ‘prayers’ for the Amazon rainforest
• Is the honeymoon period over for Brazil’s Bolsonaro?

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has also said he is “deeply concerned” about the fires in the Amazon.

“In the midst of the global climate crisis, we cannot afford more damage to a major source of oxygen and biodiversity. The Amazon must be protected,” he tweeted.

A new level of dismissal

Analysis by Daniel Gallas, BBC News, Sao Paulo

Brazilian presidents shrugging off international concern about the Amazon is nothing new.

Others before Mr Bolsonaro have dismissed international NGOs and European leaders as foreign meddlers into national affairs.

But Mr Bolsonaro has taken this to a new level by suggesting NGOs may be responsible for encouraging wildfires to sabotage him.

His words may shock some international audiences, but they ring true to his supporters at home, where he remains a popular leader.

Surprisingly the one reproving voice that could influence this debate is that of Brazilian farmers.

One would think that they would support policies to promote more farming in the Amazon. But some agricultural leaders fear Mr Bolsonaro’s poor handling of Brazil’s image abroad could hurt exports of soybeans and beef.

Some farmers have already urged a change of tone from the government. These are voices the president may be open to hearing.

How has Bolsonaro reacted to the fires?

Mr Bolsonaro has said that the country is not equipped to fight the fires. “The Amazon is bigger than Europe, how will you fight criminal fires in such an area?,” he asked reporters as he left the presidential residence on Thursday. “We do not have the resources for that.”

The president has suggested that NGOs may have started fires as revenge for his government slashing their funding.

Asked on Thursday who was responsible, he said: “The Indians, do you want me to blame the Indians? Do you want me to blame the Martians?… Everyone is a suspect, but the biggest suspects are NGOs.”

When asked if there was any proof of this, he replied: “Did I accuse NGOs directly? I just said I suspect them.”

Mr Bolsonaro has further angered those concerned over the spike in fires by brushing off the data.

He argued that it was the season of the “queimada”, when farmers burn land to clear it before planting. However, Inpe has noted that the number of fires is not in line with those normally reported during the dry season.

It is not the first time that Mr Bolsonaro has cast doubt on figures suggesting that the Amazon is deteriorating rapidly.

Last month, he accused Inpe’s director of lying about the scale of deforestation there. It came after Inpe published data showing an 88% increase in deforestation in the Amazon in June compared with the same month a year ago.

The director of the agency later announced that he was being sacked amid the row.

 

 

Why is he being criticised?

Climate activists and conservationists have been scathing about the Bolsonaro government and its policies, which favour development over conservation.

They say that since President Bolsonaro took office, the Amazon rainforest has suffered losses at an accelerated rate.

Their anger was further fuelled by satellite data showing a steep rise in fires in the Amazon region this year.

The figures suggest there have been more than 75,000 fires so far this year for the whole of Brazil, compared with just over 40,000 over the same period in 2018.

The figures and satellite images showing most of the state of Roraima, in northern Brazil, covered by smoke have shocked many Brazilians and triggered a global Twitter trend under the hashtag #prayforamazonia

As well as a fifth of the world’s oxygen, the region also produces about 20% of the world’s fresh water, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

The Amazon is also home to about three million species of plants and animals, and one million indigenous people.

What causes the fires?

Wildfires often occur in the dry season in Brazil but they are also deliberately started in efforts to illegally deforest land for cattle ranching.

“The dry season creates the favourable conditions for the use and spread of fire, but starting a fire is the work of humans, either deliberately or by accident,” Inpe researcher Alberto Setzer told Reuters news agency.

Ricardo Mello, head of the WWF Amazon Programme, said the fires were “a consequence of the increase in deforestation seen in recent figures.