Deforestation news. From CNN:
Brazil's Amazon rainforest has been deforested by a record amount in the first half of 2022, according to the country's Space Research Institute (INPE).
Data from INPE satellites shows that 3,750 square kilometers (1,448 square miles) of the world´s largest rainforest were lost in Brazil between January 1 and June 24, the largest area since 2016, when the institute began this type of monitoring.
INPE satellites have been registering new monthly deforestation records since the beginning of the year, and it also registered a record 2,562 fires in the country´s Amazon last month.
May and June generally mark the beginning of significant annual burning and deforestation in the Amazon, due to the dry season.
"Brazil sees record Amazon deforestation in first half of 2022," Rodrigo Pedroso and Jorge Engels, CNN, July 4, 2022.
Update
'There has been no time for the Pantanal to recuperate. The devastation from the fires and drought has left communities in the biome close to ruin and the environment that supports them on the brink of disaster. Many of its residents say it is dying.' https://t.co/3Px3sXrFdt
— Ben See (@ClimateBen) October 25, 2022
We have 18- 24 months to end deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest to avoid total collapse. International capital, particularly from the United States, has a key role in driving Amazonian destruction through investments in Brazil’s beef sector. Why is this never in the news?
— Ben See (@ClimateBen) April 19, 2023
"Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon dropped by 22.3% in the 12 months through July, government data showed Thursday, as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made progress on a pledge to rein in the destruction that happened under his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.
Some 9,000 square kilometers (3,475 square miles) of Amazon jungle were destroyed in the 12 months through July, according to data from Brazilian space research agency Inpe, down from the 11,568 square kilometers cleared a year earlier.
It was the smallest area cleared since 2018, the year before Bolsonaro took office."
— "Amazon deforestation falls more than 20% to its lowest levels in 5 years," Reuters, November 10, 2023
Previously
In November 2020, there was this:
The world watched as California and the Amazon went up in flames this year, but the largest tropical wetland on earth has been ablaze for months, largely unnoticed by the outside world.
South America's Pantanal region has been hit by the worst wildfires in decades. The blazes have already consumed about 28% of the vast floodplain that stretches across parts of Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay. They are still not completely under control.
The fires have destroyed unique habitats and wrecked the livelihoods of many of the Pantanal's diverse indigenous communities. But their damaging impact reaches far beyond the region.
Wetlands like the Pantanal are Earth's most effective carbon sinks — ecosystems that absorb and store more carbon than they release, keeping it away from the atmosphere. At roughly 200,000 square kilometers, the Pantanal comprises about 3% of the globe's wetlands and plays a key role in the carbon cycle.
When these carbon-rich ecosystems burn, vast amounts of heat-trapping gases are released back into the atmosphere, contributing to the greenhouse effect.
"The world's largest wetlands are on fire. That's a disaster for all of us," Ivana Kottasová, Henrik Pettersson and Krystina Shveda. CNN. November 13, 2020.
And in August 2020:
A Brazilian sanctuary, home to 15% of the world's population of blue macaws, has been consumed by fires -- and there are fears for the well-being of the rare birds.
* * *
Between 700 and 1,000 blue macaws lived on the ranch, she said. "It is the largest known population of free macaws in the world," Barreto told CNN.
"Fires destroy home of one of the world's rarest birds in Brazil," Eduardo Duwe, Marcia Reverdosa and Rodrigo Pedroso, CNN, August 19, 2020.
In October 2022, Lula defeated Bolsonaro.
Lula’s narrow victory is still a massive win for Brazil: for its working class, its Black and Indigenous communities, and against fascism. It’s also a win for the Amazon and the planet itself—and thus v good news for the multiracial working class of the whole world.
— Daniel Aldana Cohen (@aldatweets) October 30, 2022
Celebrations in order for anyone who cares about the Amazon rainforest. But as much from relief as from joy. Lula’s narrow win avoids the certain catastrophe that would be four more years of Bolsonaro. But…
— jonathanwatts (@jonathanwatts) October 30, 2022
Can Lula achieve zero deforestation within the next 24 months to curb savannization of the Amazon Rainforest? 🧵
— Ben See (@ClimateBen) October 30, 2022
According to a Jan 22, 2023 AP article, Joenia Wapichana will be
"Brazil’s first Indigenous woman to command the agency charged with protecting the Amazon rainforest and its people. Once she is sworn in next month [February 2023] under newly inaugurated President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Wapichana promises to clean house at an agency that critics say has allowed the Amazon’s resources to be exploited at the expense of the environment."
My first thoughts on this: *economic* growth is causing/will continue to cause unacceptable multiple extinction risks for an enormous fraction of mammals not least because climate change and deforestation (land-use change) rates are/will remain horrendous.https://t.co/KqmvQv804t
— Ben See (@ClimateBen) April 11, 2023
BREAKING: Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s campaign promise to achieve zero Amazon deforestation by 2030 may be hampered by a blackout of essential data for environmental decision-making. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/cA1IhhIv0G
— Ben See (@ClimateBen) April 5, 2023
The level of carbon emissions in recent decades from deforestation in Paraguay's Gran Chaco “puts its climate change contribution on a par with.. the Amazon & South-East Asia. It is vital that urgent action is taken now to conserve this.. critical biome.”https://t.co/zh6JA4PRLX
— Ben See (@ClimateBen) April 5, 2023
Paraguay is experiencing a deforestation crisis - with a quarter of its net forest cover lost in the last two decades - and the country now has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/Q2DbpsvcKV
— Ben See (@ClimateBen) April 5, 2023
Further reading:
"The Old Man and the Tree: Ecologists thought America’s primeval forests were gone. Then Bob Leverett proved them wrong and discovered a powerful new tool against climate change." Jonny Diamond. Smithsonian Magazine. January 2022.
Archeologists Uncover Lost Cities Of Amazon Rainforest That Were Once Home To Thousands At least 10,000 farmers lived in the dense network of settlements in Ecuador around 2,000 years ago. Christina Larson. HuffPost, January 12, 2024.
More than 1 in 3 tree species are at risk of going extinct, new analysis shows, Rachel Ramirez, CNN, October 28, 2024
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