AMAZON RAINFOREST 2

NEW 819<div>
</div><div>=</div><div>oops bold, may have lost some</div><div>
</div><div><div>=</div><div>an 8 22in Brazil, far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has been a scathing critic of environmentalism — not unlike his American ally, former U.S. President Donald Trump, and other MAGA Republicans — while encouraging the use of <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-06/bolsonaro-throws-a-15-year-lifeline-to-thermal-coal-in-brazil#xj4y7vzkg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">fossil fuels</a>, including coal, over green energy. Bolsonaro has made no secret of the fact that he believes <a href="https://www.eenews.net/articles/biden-talks-emissions-with-brazils-climate-denying-president/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">climate change</a> is a myth, and he doesn’t view deforestation in the Amazon as a problem.But journalist Terrence McCoy, in an in-depth article published by the Washington Post on August 30, lays out some reasons why the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2022/brazil-amazon-deforestation-enforcement/?itid=hp-top-table-main" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">destruction of the Amazon</a> is an environmental disaster that Bolsonaro’s policies have encouraged.“The violent and lawless erasure of the Amazon is perhaps the world’s greatest environmental crime story,” McCoy explains. “Scientists warn that the forest, seen as vital to averting catastrophic global warming, is at a tipping point. But in Brazil, home to about 60 percent of the Amazon, nearly one-fifth has already been destroyed. And virtually no one, law enforcement officials say, has been held accountable.”READ MORE: <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/record-deforestation-amazon-tipping-point/" target="self" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Record deforestation pushing Amazon Rainforest toward 'the tipping point of no return': report</a>Bolsonaro, McCoy stresses, has treated deforesters in the Amazon “not as criminals, but as honest workers oppressed by authoritarian environmentalists.” And environmental inspector Ivan de Jesus Pereira de Araújo e Silva told the Post that under Bolsonaro, Brazil’s environmental agencies “have been shrunk so much.”Bolsonaro is up for reelection in 2022, and his critics fear that his environmental policies will grow even worse if he wins a second term.One of Bolsonaro’s left-wing critics in the United States is Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. In a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/23/jair-bolsonaro-brazil-coup-bernie-sanders/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">column published on August 23</a>, liberal Washington Post opinion writers Greg Sargent and Paul Waldman reported that Sanders had met with Brazilian activists who fear that even if he loses the 2022 presidential election in Brazil, Bolsonaro won’t accept defeat and will try to stage a coup d’état.“Such fears have prompted Sanders and his staff to draft a resolution that would seek to get ahead of any such eventuality,” Sargent and Waldman reported. “It would express the view of the Senate that if Bolsonaro loses and refuses to step down, the United States will view it as an unacceptable outcome. The resolution — which we have viewed in draft form — declares that the United States will immediately recognize the election outcome that international monitors deem free and fair. And it warns that the United States will reevaluate its relationship with any government that assumes power through undemocratic means, including a military coup. It says this could imperil future U.S. aid.”READ MORE: <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/brazils-military-role-destruction-amazon/" target="self" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">How Brazil’s military has played a role in the destruction of the Amazon</a>During an interview, Sanders told Sargent and Waldman, “It is absolutely imperative that the U.S. Senate make it clear, through a resolution, that we support democracy in Brazil. We look forward to a free and fair election.”In mid-August, Brazilian pollster Datafolha found that Bolsonaro’s left-wing rival, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, had a <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/lulas-lead-against-bolsonaro-narrows-215919419.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">15 percent lead over him</a> — and Sanders believes that Bolsonaro, like Trump and his MAGA allies in the U.S., is quite capable of trying to steal a presidential election.Sanders told Sargent and Waldman, “What we are seeing all across the world are massive attacks and rollbacks to democracy…. where people are giving up on democracy and moving toward authoritarianism. We have groups that have done that right here in the United States.”READ MORE: <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/08/genocide-of-his-people-complete/" target="self" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">'The genocide of his people is complete': Last member of remote Brazilian tribe found dead</a>
Activists and conservationists worldwide mourned Monday following news that a man believed to be the last of a remote Brazilian tribe was found dead after years of resisting all efforts by the outside world to contact or interfere with him.Known by defenders of Indigenous rights as "Indian of the Hole" or "The Man of the Hole" (Índio do Buraco)—a name given due to pits he dug for shelter, concealment, and possibly hunting—he was the only inhabitant of Tanaru Indigenous Territory in Rondônia state, in the western Brazilian Amazon. First encountered 26 years ago, the man—believed to be approximately 60 years old at the time of his death—lived reclusively in the remote region after other members of his tribe were thought to have been poisoned by ranchers who wanted to develop the land where they lived.OPI, the Observatory for the Human Rights of Uncontacted and Recently-Contacted Peoples, issued <a href="https://povosisolados.org/2022/08/27/nota-do-opi-o-que-significa-a-morte-do-indio-do-buraco-e-quais-medidas-devem-ser-adotadas/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">a statement</a> (translated here into English) bemoaning that "another Indigenous person, the last representative of his people, has died.""In the recent past," the group continued, "he was the victim of an atrocious extermination process, as a result of the installation of large state-sponsored farms. He witnessed the death of his people, lost his territory to pastures and was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in a small portion of forest interdicted by justice, surrounded by large farms in the region of the Corumbiara River in Rondônia.""For resisting with extreme determination to any endeavors of contact," OPI added, the man "died without letting know which ethnicity he belonged to, nor the motivations of the holes he dug inside his house."As The Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/28/amazon-activists-mourn-death-of-man-of-the-hole-last-of-his-tribe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">reports</a>, "Officials know very little about the man, but his determined independence and evident solace helped create a mystique around him that captured the attention of activists and media across Brazil and around the world."Survival International, which advocates for Indigenous rights and autonomy in Brazil and elsewhere around the world, called the death of the man—whose remains were recently found in a state of decomposition in the Tanaru territory—a symbol of genocide against the Amazon's Indigenous peoples. The group called the region where he lived as "a small island of forest in a sea of vast cattle ranches, in one of the most violent regions in Brazil."Fiona Watson, research and advocacy director for Survival International who <a href="https://www.survivalinternational.org/articles/3105-the-last-of-his-tribe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">visited the man's territory in 2004</a> with a government monitoring team, commented on the man's passing."No outsider knew this man's name, or even very much about his tribe—and with his death the genocide of his people is complete," said Watson. "For this was indeed a genocide—the deliberate wiping out of an entire people by cattle ranchers hungry for land and wealth."[twt]what the man symbolized, said Watson, was "both the appalling violence and cruelty inflicted on Indigenous peoples worldwide in the name of colonization and profit, but also their resistance. We can only imagine what horrors he had witnessed in his life, and the loneliness of his existence after the rest of his tribe were killed, but he determinedly resisted all attempts at contact, and made clear he just wanted to be left alone."Watson also invoked the policies of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who is notorious for his antagonism toward the Indigenous people of Brazil and his wanton destruction of the Amazon rainforest by backing the logging, cattle, and mining interests who have sought massive profits from the region's land and natural resources."If President Bolsonaro and his agribusiness allies get their way," warned Watson, "this story will be repeated over and over again until all the country's Indigenous peoples are wiped out. The Indigenous movement in Brazil, and Survival, will do everything possible to ensure that doesn't happen."<a href="https://yokad.com/the-man-in-the-hole-died-the-indigenous-in-brazil-who-spent-almost-30-years-isolated-and-without-contact-with-anyone/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">According to</a> government officials with Funai, which monitored the man from a distance, it appeared the man had prepared for his death and that neither foul play nor a violent end was suggested. A forensic doctor with the nation's federal police is expected to carry out an autopsy and anthropologists and other researchers are expected to try to learn more about how he lived.Following the man's death, OPI renewed its called for the Tanaru reserve where he lived his final years to be permanently protected as a memorial to Indigenous genocide.=</div><div>===</div><div>omfg
<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/record-deforestation-amazon-tipping-point/">https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/record-deforestation-amazon-tipping-point/</a>
jake j cmn dr the Brazilian government published data Friday showing that more than

2,500 fire hotspots were recorded in the Amazon rainforest last month,

the highest number for June since 2007—one of the <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2007/10/2007-amazon-fires-among-worst-ever/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">worst years ever</a> for the critical ecosystem.The latest report from Brazil's National Institute for Space Research <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220701-brazil-sets-new-six-month-amazon-deforestation-record" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">showed</a> that the Brazilian Amazon has lost 1,450 square miles of jungle since the start of 2022.Greenpeace Brazil said in response to the <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/amazon-rainforest-fires-hit-new-record-for-the-month-of-june/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">alarming figures</a>

that the far-right Bolsonaro government's systematic rampage against

basic environmental protections is responsible for the surge in

rainforest fires and overall deforestation, which have helped <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/07/14/biggest-story-world-right-now-humanity-has-flipped-amazon-carbon-sink-source" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">transform</a> parts of the Amazon—long known as a key carbon "sink"—into sources of planet-warming greenhouse gas."Agribusiness

is hitting new records for forest destruction as the dry season arrives

in the Amazon," said Cristiane Mazzetti, a spokesperson for Greenpeace

Brazil. "Illegal burnings and deforestation have accelerated over the

last three years as a direct result of the Brazilian government's

anti-environmental agenda that encourages the destruction of the

forest.""If this trend does not change," Mazzetti added, "we will

approach the tipping point of no return in which the Amazon could fail

as a rainforest."Brazilian academics have warned in recent months

that a Bolsonaro victory in the October presidential election would

mean total demise for the Brazilian Amazon. Recent polling shows that

Bolsonaro is <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/07/03/Luiz%20In%C3%A1cio%20Lula%20da%20Silva" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">trailing</a> leftist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has vowed to pursue "<a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20220621185215-du5vr" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">net-zero deforestation</a>" if elected."If

Bolsonaro remains in the power of presidency, it's hopeless in terms of

the environment," Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the São

Paulo-based Climate Observatory, <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bolsonaro-lula-amazon-rainforest-brazil-election_n_6257353ce4b0e97a351a4430" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">told</a> HuffPost in April, a <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/05/06/green-groups-blame-bolsonaro-policies-amazon-deforestation-sets-new-monthly-record" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">record-shattering month</a> for Amazon deforestation."There will be more deforestation," said Astrini. "The Amazon will fast forward to its collapse point."Environmental

groups have voiced dismay at the Biden administration's failure to

confront Bolsonaro on the international stage over his government's

assault on the Amazon. The U.S. is Brazil's second-largest trading

partner.Last month, during the U.S.-hosted Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, President Joe Biden went as far as to <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/06/09/remarks-by-president-biden-and-president-jair-bolsonaro-of-brazil-before-bilateral-meeting/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">praise</a> Bolsonaro for trying to "protect the Amazon.""In

addition to being divorced from reality, Biden's statement is

remarkably tone-deaf," Maria Laura Canineu and Luciana Téllez Chávez of

Human Rights Watch <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/06/10/bidens-praise-bolsonaro-affront-brazils-forest-defenders" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">wrote</a>

on the final day of the summit, where the two leaders met for the first

time. "Biden has shamefully squandered the opportunity to leverage his

meeting with Bolsonaro to support the courageous defenders of the

Amazon.""These defenders are putting their lives on the line to

protect the world's largest rainforest and a vital bulwark against

climate change," they continued. "Biden should correct this mistake and

press Bolsonaro to reverse his damaging policies, urging Bolsonaro to

get Brazil back on track in fighting deforestation and protecting forest

defenders from violence."Diana Ruiz, the head of forests at

Greenpeace USA, said in a statement Friday that "up to now, the Biden

administration has only legitimized the Brazilian government's

anti-Indigenous and anti-environmental agenda.""The U.S. has a

responsibility to act and stop making deals with President Bolsonaro,

who continues to wage an assault against Indigenous Peoples and

environmental defenders," Ruiz added.<div>=</div></div><div>=
</div><div><a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/08/28/brazil-amazon-indigenous-protest/">https://theintercept.com/2021/08/28/brazil-amazon-indigenous-protest/</a></div><div>
</div><div>big</div><div>=will hit 500K kia covid #2 to US
heated 621there are few humans with more power over the climate than Jair Bolsonaro. The Trump-like president of Brazil knows this better than anyone—which is why he’s threatening to destroy it unless he gets lots of cash.Reports of this threat come from President Joe Biden’s virtual summit of world climate leaders held this past Earth Day. At that summit, Bolsonaro <a href="https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlUctuxCAM_JrlRsQrCRw49NLfiHg4u6gEIiCN0q8v2UXIBlvjGQZnGjxzufSea0N3WNq1g05w1gitQUFHhbIEr9k8EaUI8lp4KkeJQl3WArCZEHUrB6D9sDE400JOb4CYOXppJwwDZi03diRqNePoKJ2t4mp1RnDzYTWHD5AcaPiFcuUEKOpXa3t98K8H--77PM-hwNEl1cHlrVfsUUOCWvsR0m8oOW2Q2t3IseZkSsbVXBXbYv5CxGeIERcw7oVdDFt_OU59XjExtAvbCzMykh4YxURgxvogFPR9JxOdKBMTGQc6wLg6KcEr5rlyqq_ZSyEpXedR8pk_BNmebKiHrc24n1srKno3bXM_9O4-b8fe5W7Y0vN2pK5ggWRsBP_xsn1-5O3u8oQEpev1i2maToxL0bmkUuxjXjebzxMXXM6o8_rcUUm_4Ib8AwJCoYQ" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlUctuxCAM_JrlRsQrCRw49NLfiHg4u6gEIiCN0q8v2UXIBlvjGQZnGjxzufSea0N3WNq1g05w1gitQUFHhbIEr9k8EaUI8lp4KkeJQl3WArCZEHUrB6D9sDE400JOb4CYOXppJwwDZi03diRqNePoKJ2t4mp1RnDzYTWHD5AcaPiFcuUEKOpXa3t98K8H--77PM-hwNEl1cHlrVfsUUOCWvsR0m8oOW2Q2t3IseZkSsbVXBXbYv5CxGeIERcw7oVdDFt_OU59XjExtAvbCzMykh4YxURgxvogFPR9JxOdKBMTGQc6wLg6KcEr5rlyqq_ZSyEpXedR8pk_BNmebKiHrc24n1srKno3bXM_9O4-b8fe5W7Y0vN2pK5ggWRsBP_xsn1-5O3u8oQEpev1i2maToxL0bmkUuxjXjebzxMXXM6o8_rcUUm_4Ib8AwJCoYQ&source=gmail&ust=1624126289590000&usg=AFQjCNHPsm9KYnIqIzdT3ogZX4CPTIgdtA">publicly pledged to make Brazil carbon neutral by 2050</a> and end illegal deforestation of the Amazon rainforest by 2030. That was great news, because ending deforestation in the Amazon is crucial to reaching the 1.5 degree Celsius target. It simply will not happen without Brazil.Privately, however, Bolsonaro refused to make any agreement with the Biden administration to end <a href="https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlkctuxCAMRb9m2CUKjySwYFGp6m8gHk4GNUAEpFX69YUZhGzJyL7cY6sr7Cnf8kyloh5UvU-QEX7LAbVCRleBrLyTZF0mISbkJHOYzxz5orYMELQ_ZM0XoPMyh7e6-hRfDWyl6CkxF8ZpzjfimKFu03hdmDUWZoKt4Pytqi_nIVqQ8AP5ThHQIZ-1nuVBPx7kq93-pTGkuGuj79Gm0GpkIrilibWgy2APH5qhoVwh-DpccUuHK0NMg_EO4mDSUVLUOQ066L8UBwf6GLaU67PN83HvY8LZ9eiXUvXXdwLKhzNDKc3Wg36-nHrZlacFL5iwZZpHPMK8Wc7BCeKosKKd1XHGMd7WmdOVPtgUdjKWy5Sq7Xc3gLI8dQ32G_fXvYN8lRtH1XK4oq-3gqjNAe6NuL4X9YKudoiQm1-ndJV4IZSzpsWFIG-mbQd0XSijfEVN16XWFeUTess_dWeqkw" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlkctuxCAMRb9m2CUKjySwYFGp6m8gHk4GNUAEpFX69YUZhGzJyL7cY6sr7Cnf8kyloh5UvU-QEX7LAbVCRleBrLyTZF0mISbkJHOYzxz5orYMELQ_ZM0XoPMyh7e6-hRfDWyl6CkxF8ZpzjfimKFu03hdmDUWZoKt4Pytqi_nIVqQ8AP5ThHQIZ-1nuVBPx7kq93-pTGkuGuj79Gm0GpkIrilibWgy2APH5qhoVwh-DpccUuHK0NMg_EO4mDSUVLUOQ066L8UBwf6GLaU67PN83HvY8LZ9eiXUvXXdwLKhzNDKc3Wg36-nHrZlacFL5iwZZpHPMK8Wc7BCeKosKKd1XHGMd7WmdOVPtgUdjKWy5Sq7Xc3gLI8dQ32G_fXvYN8lRtH1XK4oq-3gqjNAe6NuL4X9YKudoiQm1-ndJV4IZSzpsWFIG-mbQd0XSijfEVN16XWFeUTess_dWeqkw&source=gmail&ust=1624126289590000&usg=AFQjCNFAYoLCs5Ts07-BCybKGTf7edTJcQ">his own legal assault on the Amazon</a>. And his environment minister, Ricardo Salles, told the Wall Street Journal that it wouldn’t happen <a href="https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlkMuSgyAQRb8m7LB4RXDBYjbzGxZCmzCjYEE7lvn6wYSieNym6dvHO4RHLqfdckVyLSOeG9gER10AEQrZK5QxBit0z4aBkWBV4OZuSKzjXABWFxeLZQey7dMSvcOY0ztBaUmelk1KgmRaCM4k73sOc_B6Bin84LRzn6puDxGSBwt_UM6cgCz2ibjVm_y6ie82j-PojvrT-by2mysY_QK1HafiXnGp1C9xbe3Q3H7AvQDFTKcYINHNnXSvNGW8tPYcqFvdKyfKec_NMGjFGIlWsOaxb5JQPbt3vIP77I2BMIggBz-0oYNRhvNZ343U8qbY-hBd3aeKzv9e3kixm8PVIr-rjovOUGZ2z7uqeI5wjJTQuEDzf80H-THB-QoLQ2wujQ8l5Io1qt5lF8QDWwUvdSSaNJqxtyy0r2CVfKPy9kmh4" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlkMuSgyAQRb8m7LB4RXDBYjbzGxZCmzCjYEE7lvn6wYSieNym6dvHO4RHLqfdckVyLSOeG9gER10AEQrZK5QxBit0z4aBkWBV4OZuSKzjXABWFxeLZQey7dMSvcOY0ztBaUmelk1KgmRaCM4k73sOc_B6Bin84LRzn6puDxGSBwt_UM6cgCz2ibjVm_y6ie82j-PojvrT-by2mysY_QK1HafiXnGp1C9xbe3Q3H7AvQDFTKcYINHNnXSvNGW8tPYcqFvdKyfKec_NMGjFGIlWsOaxb5JQPbt3vIP77I2BMIggBz-0oYNRhvNZ343U8qbY-hBd3aeKzv9e3kixm8PVIr-rjovOUGZ2z7uqeI5wjJTQuEDzf80H-THB-QoLQ2wujQ8l5Io1qt5lF8QDWwUvdSSaNJqxtyy0r2CVfKPy9kmh4&source=gmail&ust=1624126289590000&usg=AFQjCNEhimd9onmw_mtwNPAQwr_A294HWQ">unless the U.S. gave Brazil at least $1 billion</a>. “We think that $1 billion … is a very reasonable amount that can be mobilized up front,” he said.Salles told the Journal that Brazil needs the money because it can’t save the rainforest without it. The country, he said, needs help to increase enforcement of environmental laws against illegal deforesters, and to support new programs to “provide alternatives to poor farmers who slash and burn to raise crops and cattle.”But that’s very hard to believe, given the Bolsonaro administration’s record of implementing policies that actively <a href="https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlkUGOwyAMRU9Tdo0CJAEWLGYz14gIuC0aAhE4zXROP06LkG0w1v96eIdwL_Vlt9KQnWHG1wY2w9ESIEJle4M6x2CFmnpjehbsELgeNYttvlWA1cVkse7Atn1J0TuMJb8HBiXZwwphAoSpH5XQ3k-5idwyosgF-0cXz6qbg8RsgcLT6ivkoEl-0Dc2kV-XcQ37eM4Op9z58tKJ9FzQ6nXZz1ScCtUEm9ULtX9xXRdSmouu1qukJ-xlrxCRpeuFXyp4RozJnocc4Df7oFrYtGKXvB-4hMXAxnueAfjzWsNwZBd4w0tFfSgOb-pUUslL0O_3kXX9qWh8z-nOVbt5nD1P_zs3k8872uiM1Ne9xzxNUN2S4LwAYcf_G-U8x0yVPqWMDu0fBJSD6SljREfUkRWqkkOUitGuqHQVLYPOEf-AYJVmn8" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlkUGOwyAMRU9Tdo0CJAEWLGYz14gIuC0aAhE4zXROP06LkG0w1v96eIdwL_Vlt9KQnWHG1wY2w9ESIEJle4M6x2CFmnpjehbsELgeNYttvlWA1cVkse7Atn1J0TuMJb8HBiXZwwphAoSpH5XQ3k-5idwyosgF-0cXz6qbg8RsgcLT6ivkoEl-0Dc2kV-XcQ37eM4Op9z58tKJ9FzQ6nXZz1ScCtUEm9ULtX9xXRdSmouu1qukJ-xlrxCRpeuFXyp4RozJnocc4Df7oFrYtGKXvB-4hMXAxnueAfjzWsNwZBd4w0tFfSgOb-pUUslL0O_3kXX9qWh8z-nOVbt5nD1P_zs3k8872uiM1Ne9xzxNUN2S4LwAYcf_G-U8x0yVPqWMDu0fBJSD6SljREfUkRWqkkOUitGuqHQVLYPOEf-AYJVmn8&source=gmail&ust=1624126289590000&usg=AFQjCNHo4A5QN-ycvmlpIfteH35VD0hUHA">weaken environmental enforcement and encourage slash and burning</a> in the Amazon. The recent alarming acceleration in Amazon deforestation is a “direct result” of Bolsonaro’s policies, <a href="https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlUctuxCAM_JrllohHHnDg0Et_IyJgsqgEIiBdpV9fZxchj2VrNPbYmgZbLpc-cm3kDku7DtAJXjVCa1DIWaEswWk-T1QpSpweHJOjJKEuvgDsJkTdygnkONcYrGkhpzdhmAV5aiHVSjlfqR8VOD96SR2lcgSwYvXT-FE1pwuQLGj4hXLlBCTqZ2tHfYivBG_3q9erMnqO3qc9mwAglDxA1qw-QeGYFTThEYx7AW8xdiZ6yFCAUHS1vnwOeCjPeYXfad2c0fZqZzoYBtHTbP2O7OmmPNyZRcuyPjZgFuARI0ajA6sYnxYaJjz3oYvZUSnOJOKKvwzU4OkjE_j1LM4jHQfeN9PVcUtj-9zTsp-jBttz_s7m63i-8ymrgg7mcK7VogmTWC-jbPld6O75skO6VwC2maTZxIQfUkkrxj6F4ADFPYhByJqjrMrKSfsJN-QfAK6j9" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlUctuxCAM_JrllohHHnDg0Et_IyJgsqgEIiBdpV9fZxchj2VrNPbYmgZbLpc-cm3kDku7DtAJXjVCa1DIWaEswWk-T1QpSpweHJOjJKEuvgDsJkTdygnkONcYrGkhpzdhmAV5aiHVSjlfqR8VOD96SR2lcgSwYvXT-FE1pwuQLGj4hXLlBCTqZ2tHfYivBG_3q9erMnqO3qc9mwAglDxA1qw-QeGYFTThEYx7AW8xdiZ6yFCAUHS1vnwOeCjPeYXfad2c0fZqZzoYBtHTbP2O7OmmPNyZRcuyPjZgFuARI0ajA6sYnxYaJjz3oYvZUSnOJOKKvwzU4OkjE_j1LM4jHQfeN9PVcUtj-9zTsp-jBttz_s7m63i-8ymrgg7mcK7VogmTWC-jbPld6O75skO6VwC2maTZxIQfUkkrxj6F4ADFPYhByJqjrMrKSfsJN-QfAK6j9&source=gmail&ust=1624126289590000&usg=AFQjCNF4-fympgqJEhX05xTfTiGkoGsAEA">according to Amnesty International</a>. Also, literally the day after the interview, Bolsonaro approved <a href="https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlkcGOhCAMhp9muGlEUODAYS_7GqZCVTIIBnAm7tMvzhDShjY_f_kwUHCN6dJHzIXcYSrXgTrgO3ssBRM5M6bJWd2LsVOqI1ZzS-UgicvTkhB3cF6XdCI5ztk7A8XF8BFwwcimxyoSdjCLHQ0bEBWVAGo2naADk5x_XeG0DoNBjS9MVwxIvN5KOfKD_Tz637rf73dbNlxPSNZBaE3c72pM3tbcdz2tCY50H3gNc_Q5BkixyR7yhrmZE_w5nxsML5di2DGUZj7tiqWxcDWw1Oc2xru9QmkK-GduDo-1T5y-7-9GOtKej93Q0haHxUiJVvWWKaPqElZySekiBskEe_BuX_s2n3MuYJ73uCTpA8punvTurje4T7lym2rez-DKNWGAubp-kZbvx3wgTysGTHU2O0HRdOwrveolleq_DCtzJkbGmRSk-tpYVUFveEv-ARHtpJw" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlkcGOhCAMhp9muGlEUODAYS_7GqZCVTIIBnAm7tMvzhDShjY_f_kwUHCN6dJHzIXcYSrXgTrgO3ssBRM5M6bJWd2LsVOqI1ZzS-UgicvTkhB3cF6XdCI5ztk7A8XF8BFwwcimxyoSdjCLHQ0bEBWVAGo2naADk5x_XeG0DoNBjS9MVwxIvN5KOfKD_Tz637rf73dbNlxPSNZBaE3c72pM3tbcdz2tCY50H3gNc_Q5BkixyR7yhrmZE_w5nxsML5di2DGUZj7tiqWxcDWw1Oc2xru9QmkK-GduDo-1T5y-7-9GOtKej93Q0haHxUiJVvWWKaPqElZySekiBskEe_BuX_s2n3MuYJ73uCTpA8punvTurje4T7lym2rez-DKNWGAubp-kZbvx3wgTysGTHU2O0HRdOwrveolleq_DCtzJkbGmRSk-tpYVUFveEv-ARHtpJw&source=gmail&ust=1624126289590000&usg=AFQjCNEzYnGL6iXA9ARkOWu9dt2xnil-fw">a 24 percent cut to Brazil’s environment budget</a>.“Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is not the result of a lack of money, but a consequence of the government’s deliberate failure of care,” former Brazilian environment ministers Marina Silva and Rubens Ricupero <a href="https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlUcuOwyAM_JpySxQeCeTAYS_7G5EDTkqbQARkq_brFxqEjGw0Hs_YQMY1xLc-Qsqkhim_D9QeX2nDnDGSM2GcnNVMDt04dsRqYanqFXFpWiLiDm7TOZ5IjnPenIHsgv8ChOTkroGjVQJpB0qZTkmxLHRA5HK2MPJeXKxwWofeoMY_jO_gkWz6nvORbvznxn7Lfb1ebb7jekK0Dnxrwl6qJe7os0t1lJKzjtHywBFrwkp4BGxmZ9E3c4SP2xrY4RN8E8H5JURMuXmAi80cthQ8xNBYvOpfJcTp2rMb6ECZGLq-pS32i1EK7cgsH81YjiwSFaWL7BWX_Ca6fWVtOufSxDzrqCTqA_JunrT-rtW0b7l4NlUNp3f5PaGHeUN72ZmvpXwNnlb0GMuy7ARZ04FxJQqXGkd2-Vf85nLggitJCq8NBeX1HSvkHwxLo6s" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlUcuOwyAM_JpySxQeCeTAYS_7G5EDTkqbQARkq_brFxqEjGw0Hs_YQMY1xLc-Qsqkhim_D9QeX2nDnDGSM2GcnNVMDt04dsRqYanqFXFpWiLiDm7TOZ5IjnPenIHsgv8ChOTkroGjVQJpB0qZTkmxLHRA5HK2MPJeXKxwWofeoMY_jO_gkWz6nvORbvznxn7Lfb1ebb7jekK0Dnxrwl6qJe7os0t1lJKzjtHywBFrwkp4BGxmZ9E3c4SP2xrY4RN8E8H5JURMuXmAi80cthQ8xNBYvOpfJcTp2rMb6ECZGLq-pS32i1EK7cgsH81YjiwSFaWL7BWX_Ca6fWVtOufSxDzrqCTqA_JunrT-rtW0b7l4NlUNp3f5PaGHeUN72ZmvpXwNnlb0GMuy7ARZ04FxJQqXGkd2-Vf85nLggitJCq8NBeX1HSvkHwxLo6s&source=gmail&ust=1624126289590000&usg=AFQjCNFCnxp2R_c_mVNMxncm4iHmJGi8zg">wrote in</a> The Guardian. Marcio Astrini, the executive secretary of the Brazilian Climate Observatory, seems to agree. “It’s extortion,” he told <a href="https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJxNkU2OwyAMhU9TdokCJAQWLGYz14j4cVKmBCJwpurth7SbkZBBtp-e-ewMwpbLSx-5IrnCgq8DdIJnjYAIhZwVyhK8ZrMYlBqI16OncpIk1GUtALsJUWM5gRynjcEZDDm9BePMyV1LyqUV1k3GKSWnlQrK3DoLLpzg1tqPqzl9gORAwy-UV05Aor4jHvXGv27su53n89mXHGNIW8XW0Lu8t_SRY8Dg6r9nt4LBs8CV-zGhdDbHmpMpuSsmpDW3Ena-hXK6a9qOUjlQplo_CZoNjA7iGnMUw9TTHqbVSQleMc9V-4RSs5ejpHSdJ8lnfhuHfWN9PW1F4x7XYKTow-DuHvSqbhejd7ohWtq9nynga4FkbAT_oYefHbx5LhskKG03fjGoqWBcjs1LKsU-uBpe3hCOXM6k-frcVEnf4ZL8AYSWncI" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJxNkU2OwyAMhU9TdokCJAQWLGYz14j4cVKmBCJwpurth7SbkZBBtp-e-ewMwpbLSx-5IrnCgq8DdIJnjYAIhZwVyhK8ZrMYlBqI16OncpIk1GUtALsJUWM5gRynjcEZDDm9BePMyV1LyqUV1k3GKSWnlQrK3DoLLpzg1tqPqzl9gORAwy-UV05Aor4jHvXGv27su53n89mXHGNIW8XW0Lu8t_SRY8Dg6r9nt4LBs8CV-zGhdDbHmpMpuSsmpDW3Ena-hXK6a9qOUjlQplo_CZoNjA7iGnMUw9TTHqbVSQleMc9V-4RSs5ejpHSdJ8lnfhuHfWN9PW1F4x7XYKTow-DuHvSqbhejd7ohWtq9nynga4FkbAT_oYefHbx5LhskKG03fjGoqWBcjs1LKsU-uBpe3hCOXM6k-frcVEnf4ZL8AYSWncI&source=gmail&ust=1624126289590000&usg=AFQjCNGiy7C_OH2F93Hh_g96dHmqs4x8MA">Rolling Stone</a><a href="https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJxNkU2OwyAMhU9TdokCJAQWLGYz14j4cVKmBCJwpurth7SbkZBBtp-e-ewMwpbLSx-5IrnCgq8DdIJnjYAIhZwVyhK8ZrMYlBqI16OncpIk1GUtALsJUWM5gRynjcEZDDm9BePMyV1LyqUV1k3GKSWnlQrK3DoLLpzg1tqPqzl9gORAwy-UV05Aor4jHvXGv27su53n89mXHGNIW8XW0Lu8t_SRY8Dg6r9nt4LBs8CV-zGhdDbHmpMpuSsmpDW3Ena-hXK6a9qOUjlQplo_CZoNjA7iGnMUw9TTHqbVSQleMc9V-4RSs5ejpHSdJ8lnfhuHfWN9PW1F4x7XYKTow-DuHvSqbhejd7ohWtq9nynga4FkbAT_oYefHbx5LhskKG03fjGoqWBcjs1LKsU-uBpe3hCOXM6k-frcVEnf4ZL8AYSWncI" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJxNkU2OwyAMhU9TdokCJAQWLGYz14j4cVKmBCJwpurth7SbkZBBtp-e-ewMwpbLSx-5IrnCgq8DdIJnjYAIhZwVyhK8ZrMYlBqI16OncpIk1GUtALsJUWM5gRynjcEZDDm9BePMyV1LyqUV1k3GKSWnlQrK3DoLLpzg1tqPqzl9gORAwy-UV05Aor4jHvXGv27su53n89mXHGNIW8XW0Lu8t_SRY8Dg6r9nt4LBs8CV-zGhdDbHmpMpuSsmpDW3Ena-hXK6a9qOUjlQplo_CZoNjA7iGnMUw9TTHqbVSQleMc9V-4RSs5ejpHSdJ8lnfhuHfWN9PW1F4x7XYKTow-DuHvSqbhejd7ohWtq9nynga4FkbAT_oYefHbx5LhskKG03fjGoqWBcjs1LKsU-uBpe3hCOXM6k-frcVEnf4ZL8AYSWncI&source=gmail&ust=1624126289590000&usg=AFQjCNGiy7C_OH2F93Hh_g96dHmqs4x8MA">’s Jeff Goodell</a> in a recent interview. “Bolsonaro and his team are saying, ‘If you don’t give us the money, we don’t know what will happen to the Amazon.’Silva and Ricupero warned the Biden administration not to fall for Bolsonaro’s trap. “What the government is missing is not cash, but a commitment to the truth,” <a href="https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlUcuOwyAM_JpySxQeCeTAYS_7G5EDTkqbQARkq_brFxqEjGw0Hs_YQMY1xLc-Qsqkhim_D9QeX2nDnDGSM2GcnNVMDt04dsRqYanqFXFpWiLiDm7TOZ5IjnPenIHsgv8ChOTkroGjVQJpB0qZTkmxLHRA5HK2MPJeXKxwWofeoMY_jO_gkWz6nvORbvznxn7Lfb1ebb7jekK0Dnxrwl6qJe7os0t1lJKzjtHywBFrwkp4BGxmZ9E3c4SP2xrY4RN8E8H5JURMuXmAi80cthQ8xNBYvOpfJcTp2rMb6ECZGLq-pS32i1EK7cgsH81YjiwSFaWL7BWX_Ca6fWVtOufSxDzrqCTqA_JunrT-rtW0b7l4NlUNp3f5PaGHeUN72ZmvpXwNnlb0GMuy7ARZ04FxJQqXGkd2-Vf85nLggitJCq8NBeX1HSvkHwxLo6s" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlUcuOwyAM_JpySxQeCeTAYS_7G5EDTkqbQARkq_brFxqEjGw0Hs_YQMY1xLc-Qsqkhim_D9QeX2nDnDGSM2GcnNVMDt04dsRqYanqFXFpWiLiDm7TOZ5IjnPenIHsgv8ChOTkroGjVQJpB0qZTkmxLHRA5HK2MPJeXKxwWofeoMY_jO_gkWz6nvORbvznxn7Lfb1ebb7jekK0Dnxrwl6qJe7os0t1lJKzjtHywBFrwkp4BGxmZ9E3c4SP2xrY4RN8E8H5JURMuXmAi80cthQ8xNBYvOpfJcTp2rMb6ECZGLq-pS32i1EK7cgsH81YjiwSFaWL7BWX_Ca6fWVtOufSxDzrqCTqA_JunrT-rtW0b7l4NlUNp3f5PaGHeUN72ZmvpXwNnlb0GMuy7ARZ04FxJQqXGkd2-Vf85nLggitJCq8NBeX1HSvkHwxLo6s&source=gmail&ust=1624126289590000&usg=AFQjCNFCnxp2R_c_mVNMxncm4iHmJGi8zg">they wrote</a>. “To reach a billion-dollar agreement with Bolsonaro’s government at this crucial moment will only strengthen its resolve: it will be a boon for the farmers and land-grabbers who have illegally occupied public forests and indigenous land and send the precisely opposite message to that which is needed in this crucial year for the climate.”So what should Biden do instead? Some suggest <a href="https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwtUcuOwyAM_JpySxUeIXDgsJf9jYiAm6AGiMBplb9f0i5CY8vInvHgLMKSy2n2XJFcMOG5g0nwrhsgQiFHhTIFb9goe6174o3wVA2KhDo9CkC0YTNYDiD7MW_BWQw5fRrEyMlqPBs4G72VzAH1fhZ61sAEtdpK17Ivqz18gOTAwAvKmROQzayIe73xnxv7bfeRC4Ql7blxnHeXY6uxntEWenkBazAHD6mD9AolpwgJOyxg8ezeUNsyqVshhrqvUKBzW4ht_c6tNi3Q-bBvOVp3tjEkmGt0L6mkTMh-uNM7DA-nFHjNPNdOtzN6JRSlj3FQfOQ30ceF3esxV7TueSkkxewWo3vS63W5nPqUm1FTi_FIAc8Jkp038F8P8fsTH1enBRKUJtFPFg2VjCvRuJTW_6Y1k_koueBqJI3XN_khmRWulj8V6J7y" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwtUcuOwyAM_JpySxUeIXDgsJf9jYiAm6AGiMBplb9f0i5CY8vInvHgLMKSy2n2XJFcMOG5g0nwrhsgQiFHhTIFb9goe6174o3wVA2KhDo9CkC0YTNYDiD7MW_BWQw5fRrEyMlqPBs4G72VzAH1fhZ61sAEtdpK17Ivqz18gOTAwAvKmROQzayIe73xnxv7bfeRC4Ql7blxnHeXY6uxntEWenkBazAHD6mD9AolpwgJOyxg8ezeUNsyqVshhrqvUKBzW4ht_c6tNi3Q-bBvOVp3tjEkmGt0L6mkTMh-uNM7DA-nFHjNPNdOtzN6JRSlj3FQfOQ30ceF3esxV7TueSkkxewWo3vS63W5nPqUm1FTi_FIAc8Jkp038F8P8fsTH1enBRKUJtFPFg2VjCvRuJTW_6Y1k_koueBqJI3XN_khmRWulj8V6J7y&source=gmail&ust=1624126289590000&usg=AFQjCNH4QOONx6A58twxdH7tLN-DXIfeig">a regional environmental treaty</a>, though Bolsonaro hasn’t been known to take those very seriously. Others, like Senate Democrats, have urged Biden to only give aid <a href="https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlkctuhCAUhp9m2Gk8XAQWLLrpaxiEo0OLYBDbTJ--OBLCNSf_x4ezFddcXmbPRyXXMNXXjibh7xGxVizkPLBMwRsqx0HrgXjDPSihSDimpSBuNkRTy4lkP-cYnK0hp3cBl4w8jZwZFxotgpfAmVZaLw64ds5pSoHfqfb0AZNDgz9YXjkhieZZ63482MeDfrZu9wuqd3m7NqUGF7GtvjJ2c_CYOp-Tjb5rKNvezcX-hdh5XHLBo76hOhfD1h7czVSAFiAGtNzRgXGG3I0gFDAOI-UkGDpQGEYYgfJxED30KBanFHpNPdNOtya94gpgkUIxyR582FbaH-fc0tz3xUmK2W3d3Ddct-sl6n3cPE1t3s4U6mvCZOeI_lZY7494S51WTFgar59sNY2LKd6ymj96O2uOmRwbvZKk5frcqpJ54lXyDx3gm6A" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlkctuhCAUhp9m2Gk8XAQWLLrpaxiEo0OLYBDbTJ--OBLCNSf_x4ezFddcXmbPRyXXMNXXjibh7xGxVizkPLBMwRsqx0HrgXjDPSihSDimpSBuNkRTy4lkP-cYnK0hp3cBl4w8jZwZFxotgpfAmVZaLw64ds5pSoHfqfb0AZNDgz9YXjkhieZZ63482MeDfrZu9wuqd3m7NqUGF7GtvjJ2c_CYOp-Tjb5rKNvezcX-hdh5XHLBo76hOhfD1h7czVSAFiAGtNzRgXGG3I0gFDAOI-UkGDpQGEYYgfJxED30KBanFHpNPdNOtya94gpgkUIxyR582FbaH-fc0tz3xUmK2W3d3Ddct-sl6n3cPE1t3s4U6mvCZOeI_lZY7494S51WTFgar59sNY2LKd6ymj96O2uOmRwbvZKk5frcqpJ54lXyDx3gm6A&source=gmail&ust=1624126289590000&usg=AFQjCNFIwhvnW8j8I8q3Y4eoCsjXb14bmQ">with very strict conditions</a>. There’s also the option of a more aggressive approach—denial of aid, sanctions, et cetera, et cetera.The most immediate thing Biden has to do, though, is appoint a new U.S. ambassador to Brazil. Because up until last week, <a href="https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlUcuOwyAM_Jpyo-KVhBw47GV_I3KCk6INEIGzVffrl7TIsiVb4xkPCxBuubzckSuxK030OtAlfNYdibCws2KZgndq6MU4Cuad8dJ2loU6rQUxQtgdlRPZcc57WIBCTm-AGTR7OAOgZi1BW2uNVdBL0Ukwg5UKhRXmwwqnD5gWdPiL5ZUTst09iI5601839d1iRY8F9ktZQnrm8nNfcmyDLTdIipiIX8PWUULJVkTfUlMWDw7HkUMi9BziDLWCz4VT5nOBv7DzgjVsqXJY28VcGh5zose1igV3bRO97KUyveju8o7duliLflRej8vY3uDbaVKuQ2f1oG9GxE3d6zlXguUtkxV3AMXlR17T7fLs3W6WTa3GMwV6TZhg3tF_3KTPn7z9nTZM7fimfwJyslfamsZlx1F97Gt266HXRtuBNV6fGyq5B16Qf6AKoa0" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlUcuOwyAM_Jpyo-KVhBw47GV_I3KCk6INEIGzVffrl7TIsiVb4xkPCxBuubzckSuxK030OtAlfNYdibCws2KZgndq6MU4Cuad8dJ2loU6rQUxQtgdlRPZcc57WIBCTm-AGTR7OAOgZi1BW2uNVdBL0Ukwg5UKhRXmwwqnD5gWdPiL5ZUTst09iI5601839d1iRY8F9ktZQnrm8nNfcmyDLTdIipiIX8PWUULJVkTfUlMWDw7HkUMi9BziDLWCz4VT5nOBv7DzgjVsqXJY28VcGh5zose1igV3bRO97KUyveju8o7duliLflRej8vY3uDbaVKuQ2f1oG9GxE3d6zlXguUtkxV3AMXlR17T7fLs3W6WTa3GMwV6TZhg3tF_3KTPn7z9nTZM7fimfwJyslfamsZlx1F97Gt266HXRtuBNV6fGyq5B16Qf6AKoa0&source=gmail&ust=1624126289590000&usg=AFQjCNG4fbW4ceIUGRM8TK6GTa8B48sLLA">the Bolsonaro-friendly ambassador appointed by Trump remained in place</a>. Todd Chapman, the now-former ambassador to Brazil, had “made headlines by cozying up to Bolsonaro’s administration, particularly by hosting the president at a July 4 barbecue at his residence in the midst of the pandemic,” the Federal News Network reported. His resignation last week “could signal more U.S. pressure on Brazil regarding environmental issues,” it added.This is a story that will continue to unfold. Until then, I recommend reading the <a href="https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJxNkU2OwyAMhU9TdokCJAQWLGYz14j4cVKmBCJwpurth7SbkZBBtp-e-ewMwpbLSx-5IrnCgq8DdIJnjYAIhZwVyhK8ZrMYlBqI16OncpIk1GUtALsJUWM5gRynjcEZDDm9BePMyV1LyqUV1k3GKSWnlQrK3DoLLpzg1tqPqzl9gORAwy-UV05Aor4jHvXGv27su53n89mXHGNIW8XW0Lu8t_SRY8Dg6r9nt4LBs8CV-zGhdDbHmpMpuSsmpDW3Ena-hXK6a9qOUjlQplo_CZoNjA7iGnMUw9TTHqbVSQleMc9V-4RSs5ejpHSdJ8lnfhuHfWN9PW1F4x7XYKTow-DuHvSqbhejd7ohWtq9nynga4FkbAT_oYefHbx5LhskKG03fjGoqWBcjs1LKsU-uBpe3hCOXM6k-frcVEnf4ZL8AYSWncI" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJxNkU2OwyAMhU9TdokCJAQWLGYz14j4cVKmBCJwpurth7SbkZBBtp-e-ewMwpbLSx-5IrnCgq8DdIJnjYAIhZwVyhK8ZrMYlBqI16OncpIk1GUtALsJUWM5gRynjcEZDDm9BePMyV1LyqUV1k3GKSWnlQrK3DoLLpzg1tqPqzl9gORAwy-UV05Aor4jHvXGv27su53n89mXHGNIW8XW0Lu8t_SRY8Dg6r9nt4LBs8CV-zGhdDbHmpMpuSsmpDW3Ena-hXK6a9qOUjlQplo_CZoNjA7iGnMUw9TTHqbVSQleMc9V-4RSs5ejpHSdJ8lnfhuHfWN9PW1F4x7XYKTow-DuHvSqbhejd7ohWtq9nynga4FkbAT_oYefHbx5LhskKG03fjGoqWBcjs1LKsU-uBpe3hCOXM6k-frcVEnf4ZL8AYSWncI&source=gmail&ust=1624126289590000&usg=AFQjCNGiy7C_OH2F93Hh_g96dHmqs4x8MA">Rolling Stone </a><a href="https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJxNkU2OwyAMhU9TdokCJAQWLGYz14j4cVKmBCJwpurth7SbkZBBtp-e-ewMwpbLSx-5IrnCgq8DdIJnjYAIhZwVyhK8ZrMYlBqI16OncpIk1GUtALsJUWM5gRynjcEZDDm9BePMyV1LyqUV1k3GKSWnlQrK3DoLLpzg1tqPqzl9gORAwy-UV05Aor4jHvXGv27su53n89mXHGNIW8XW0Lu8t_SRY8Dg6r9nt4LBs8CV-zGhdDbHmpMpuSsmpDW3Ena-hXK6a9qOUjlQplo_CZoNjA7iGnMUw9TTHqbVSQleMc9V-4RSs5ejpHSdJ8lnfhuHfWN9PW1F4x7XYKTow-DuHvSqbhejd7ohWtq9nynga4FkbAT_oYefHbx5LhskKG03fjGoqWBcjs1LKsU-uBpe3hCOXM6k-frcVEnf4ZL8AYSWncI" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJxNkU2OwyAMhU9TdokCJAQWLGYz14j4cVKmBCJwpurth7SbkZBBtp-e-ewMwpbLSx-5IrnCgq8DdIJnjYAIhZwVyhK8ZrMYlBqI16OncpIk1GUtALsJUWM5gRynjcEZDDm9BePMyV1LyqUV1k3GKSWnlQrK3DoLLpzg1tqPqzl9gORAwy-UV05Aor4jHvXGv27su53n89mXHGNIW8XW0Lu8t_SRY8Dg6r9nt4LBs8CV-zGhdDbHmpMpuSsmpDW3Ena-hXK6a9qOUjlQplo_CZoNjA7iGnMUw9TTHqbVSQleMc9V-4RSs5ejpHSdJ8lnfhuHfWN9PW1F4x7XYKTow-DuHvSqbhejd7ohWtq9nynga4FkbAT_oYefHbx5LhskKG03fjGoqWBcjs1LKsU-uBpe3hCOXM6k-frcVEnf4ZL8AYSWncI&source=gmail&ust=1624126289590000&usg=AFQjCNGiy7C_OH2F93Hh_g96dHmqs4x8MA">feature about Bolsonaro’s climate sabotage</a> published last week, which deems him “the most dangerous climate denier in the world.” It’s a succinct and well-reported summary of the threat Bolsonaro poses to everyone’s future, and why that threat is coming to an alarming head right now as a dry season exacerbated by fossil fuels approaches.I also recommend reading about how deforestation in the Amazon has been accelerating lately, and how a climate-fueled dry season is making the problem worse. You don’t have to go anywhere to do that; I’m re-posting an article about it from Mongabay below.One more thing: We talk about the U.S. a lot at the newsletter. But Brazil’s role in our collective climate future cannot be overstated. The country is home to more than half of the Amazon, which covers 4 percent of the Earth’s surface and is home to one in ten of Earth’s species. The carbon-absorbing trees in that forest are a big reason fossil fuels haven’t already turned the planet into an unlivable hotbox. <a href="https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlkE2OhCAQhU_T7Nrwp8CCxWzmGqaEaiWjYrCcjnP6wZYQqlLk5b36AhCOuZx-yzux6-np3NCv-N5nJMLCjh1Ln6KXpuPOcRa9jsK2lqW9fxXEBdLsqRzItmOYUwBKef0ItFFs8pxDHDoXjQlWKuAoWw0dWuAOQHO4XeGICdeAHn-xnHlFNvuJaNsf6ushv-utkQreFk3IS51AoRRmrJ1ohVOqNmFOS13pGXNeMD7fiaZ80HMo8JdmlrzkUvBOdELqjreNaLB9BWsxOhmVC64eE622QrxMa5VRD82XUTb7MewE4edyZsVvQEv4EdfveO3_Gddsfa3LsSY6e1xhmDHeZOjm-2HVj7hiqSFjD-RFJ5XV1cs6J28UFZ0yndLKGlZ9Y66q1U94Sf4B_nWP3A" target="blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlkE2OhCAQhU_T7Nrwp8CCxWzmGqaEaiWjYrCcjnP6wZYQqlLk5b36AhCOuZx-yzux6-np3NCv-N5nJMLCjh1Ln6KXpuPOcRa9jsK2lqW9fxXEBdLsqRzItmOYUwBKef0ItFFs8pxDHDoXjQlWKuAoWw0dWuAOQHO4XeGICdeAHn-xnHlFNvuJaNsf6ushv-utkQreFk3IS51AoRRmrJ1ohVOqNmFOS13pGXNeMD7fiaZ80HMo8JdmlrzkUvBOdELqjreNaLB9BWsxOhmVC64eE622QrxMa5VRD82XUTb7MewE4edyZsVvQEv4EdfveO3_Gddsfa3LsSY6e1xhmDHeZOjm-2HVj7hiqSFjD-RFJ5XV1cs6J28UFZ0yndLKGlZ9Y66q1U94Sf4B_nWP3A&source=gmail&ust=1624126289590000&usg=AFQjCNHddTBLZS7M_Q895WK5Bqr0FseJlA">Without them, we’re fucked</a>.I know that all seems very depressing. But if we don’t know about it, we don’t care. And if we don’t care, nothing gets done.<div>=</div></div><div>=</div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/amazon/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/amazon/</a></div><div>
</div><div><div>no lnx twt</div><div>
</div><div>'We're destroying our life-support systems': Study suggests the Amazon now ?contributes to warming</div><div>
</div><div>Jessica Corbett and Common Dreams March 14, 2021</div><div>   </div><div>While recent research has raised alarm that tropical forests including the Amazon could soon stop serving as carbon sinks, a first-of-its-kind study from 30 experts that takes into account other greenhouse gases suggests the world's largest rainforest may already be contributing to the warming of the planet.</div><div>
</div><div>The new analysis, published Thursday in the journal Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, considers not only carbon dioxide (CO2) and its impact on the global climate but also that of methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N20), black carbon, biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs), aerosols, evapotranspiration, and albedo.</div><div>
</div><div>"What the authors do that's important is to expand the conversation beyond carbon dioxide, which is what 90% of public conversation is centered around," Patrick Megonigal, associate director of research at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, told National Geographic.</div><div>
</div><div>"CO2 is not a lone actor," added Megonigal, who was cited in but not involved with the research, which was funded by the National Geographic Society. "When you consider the whole cast of other characters, the outlook in the Amazon is that the impacts of human activities will be worse than we realize."</div><div>
</div><div>As 15-year-old climate activist Alexandria Villaseñor put it in a tweet about the study: "We're destroying our life-support systems. We're running out of time."</div><div>
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</div><div>The study notes that "after a transient period of reduced deforestation and increased optimism, rising agricultural conversion and illegal logging activities are again accelerating Amazonian forest loss. This resurgence has renewed concerns that the region is rapidly approaching a catastrophic 'tipping point.'"</div><div>
</div><div>Data from the Rainforest Foundation Norway revealed Monday that human activities have destroyed 34% of old-growth tropical rainforests and degraded 30% worldwide. Over half of that destruction since 2002 has been in the Amazon and neighboring South American rainforests. Under Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro—whose country is home to the majority of the Amazon—deforestation hit a 12-year high in 2020.</div><div>
</div><div>"Cutting the forest is interfering with its carbon uptake; that's a problem," Kristofer Covey, lead author of the new study and a professor of environmental studies at Skidmore College, told National Geographic. "But when you start to look at these other factors alongside CO2, it gets really hard to see how the net effect isn't that the Amazon as a whole is really warming global climate."</div><div>
</div><div>The study says that despite some uncertainty, "we conclude that current warming from non-CO2 agents (especially CH4 and N2O) in the Amazon Basin largely offsets—and most likely exceeds—the climate service provided by atmospheric CO2 uptake. We also find that the majority of anthropogenic impacts act to increase the radiative forcing potential of the basin."</div><div>
</div><div>"Given the large contribution of less-recognized agents," the paper continues—noting that Amazonian trees alone emit about 3.5% of all global CH4—focusing strictly on carbon uptake and storage "is incompatible with genuine efforts to understand and manage the biogeochemistry of climate in a rapidly changing Amazon Basin."</div><div>
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</div><div>Covey and his colleagues told National Geographic that reversing the damage that's already been done will require halting emissions from fossil fuels around the world and reining in Amazon deforestation, "along with reducing dam building and increasing efforts to replant trees."</div><div>
</div><div>The Amazon is among the most biodiverse places on the planet. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the importance of conserving and restoring rainforests not only because of the climate emergency but also to prevent future zoonotic disease outbreaks.</div><div>
</div><div>As the pandemic—officially declared a year ago Thursday—has killed more than 2.6 million people and sickened over 119 million worldwide, experts from across the globe have repeatedly called on humanity to heal its "broken relationship with nature."</div><div>
</div><div>FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</div><div>'We do not want to disappear': Indigenous peoples go to court to ... ›</div><div>How indigenous peoples won a landmark victory to protect the ... ›</div><div>Can humanity survive without the Amazon rainforest? - Alternet.org ›</div></div><div>=</div><div><h1 class="widgetheadline h1" style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">F<a class="widgetheadline-text custom-post-headline" href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/rainforest/" aria-label="'Frightening' new data reveals humanity's destruction of the world's rainforests" data-type="text" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; word-break: break-word; outline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 25px;">rightening' new data reveals humanity's destruction of the world's rainforests</a></h1><div class="social-author clearfix" style="margin-top: 10px; display: inline-block; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="social-authorname" href="https://www.alternet.org/author/jessica-corbett" data-type="text" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.4; display: inline; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">Jessica Corbett</a> <a class="social-authorname" href="https://www.alternet.org/author/common-dreams" data-type="text" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.4; display: inline; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">Common Dreams</a></div> <div class="social-date" style="margin-top: 8px; display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> March 08, 2021</div><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body css-listicle-body-2650980482" style="margin-top: 10px; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; text-overflow: ellipsis; overflow: hidden; display: -webkit-box; -webkit-line-clamp: 4; line-height: 31px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body-description">New data from a Norwegian nonprofit is generating fresh concerns about humanity's destruction of the natural world, revealing Monday that people have ravaged about two-thirds of original tropical rainforest cover globally.The Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN) analysis...</div></div></div><div><div>   =</div><div>ew 12/20</div><div>Nemonte Nenquimo filed a lawsuit against the Ecuadoran government and successfully safeguarded 202,000 hectares of Indigenous territories and Amazon rainforest from oil exploration and extraction.Nenquimo, 33, is an Indigenous Waorani woman from the Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador. In 2015, she co-founded an Indigenous-led coalition called the <a href="https://www.alianzaceibo.org/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70);">Ceibo Alliance</a> and was elected president of an organization that represents the Waorani of Ecuador's Pastaza province.Ecuador is among the most biodiverse places in the world, but its forests and people have been increasingly threatened by logging, road construction, oil exploration and other extractive industries. In 2018, in an effort to bring oil company investments into the nation, Ecuador's minister of hydrocarbons announced 2.8 million hectares (7 million acres) of land constituting primary rainforest would be auctioned off for oil concessions.In 2019, Nenquimo and other Waorani leaders filed a lawsuit against three government ministries in Ecuador for falsely claiming they had consent from the Waorani to sell their lands at auction. She also bolstered Indigenous community independence by installing solar and rainwater catchment systems in villages and supporting cottage industries such as chocolate production. Nenquimo helped secure funds for Indigenous filmmakers to tell their stories and played a lead role in a community mapping project charting the Waoroni territory around 16 communities.In April 2019, Nenquimo and the Waorani won the court case against the Ecuadoran ministries, and the ruling was upheld in the court of appeals, safeguarding 202,000 hectares of Indigenous territories and Amazon rainforest from oil exploration and extraction. This case set an important legal precedent for Indigenous rights in Ecuador.Nenquimo was named one of <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/09/times-list-of-100-most-influential-people-in-2020-includes-indigenous-waorani-leader/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70);">TIME magazine's list of 100 most influential people of 2020</a>, and continues to work as a leader of her people and the environmental movement in Ecuador.</div><div></div></div><div>=<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/trump-defeat-2648880103">https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/trump-defeat-2648880103</a>White House has ordered agencies not to cooperate with Biden's presidential transition team, and President Donald Trump continues to refuse to accept defeat in the 2020 election, which means Biden cannot receive security briefings or access government funds for the transition. But while the standoff continues in the U.S., other countries are already preparing for a new administration. For more on how the historic U.S. election is playing out internationally, we speak with analysts from around the world, including Maria Luísa Mendonça, director of the Network for Social Justice and Human Rights in Brazil, where far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has not acknowledged Biden's victory. "The progressive movements in Brazil can also be inspired by that election here," says Mendonça. "I think that the U.S. can play a much more positive role in Latin America."<h5 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Transcript</h5>This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.AMY GOODMAN: As President Donald Trump continues to refuse to accept President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election, the White House has ordered agencies not to cooperate with Biden's presidential transition team. Joe Biden is not yet receiving daily intelligence briefings, five days after he was declared the winner. At this point after Trump's victory in 2016, Trump was receiving those daily briefings. The holdup hinges on the little-known-to-the-public General Services Administration, which officially begins the transition and has refused to sign the paperwork to do so. Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma said Wednesday he will intervene if Biden is not receiving the briefings by Friday.This comes as the State Department is refusing to pass on messages to Biden from world leaders, and Biden's transition team is coordinating Biden's calls without State Department support. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has refused to acknowledge Biden's win and said there would be a "smooth transition to a second Trump administration."Today, we'll get response to the historic U.S. election from around the world, from Brazil to South Africa, from Turkey to United Kingdom. First, we go to Brazil, where staunch Trump ally President Jair Bolsonaro has not acknowledged Biden's victory. On Tuesday, as Brazil's COVID death toll passed 162,000, second only to the United States, Bolsonaro again downplayed the virus and attacked concerned Brazilians, using an offensive term for the LGBTQ community.<blockquote style="margin: 1em 40px 1em -5px; border-left: 4px solid rgb(11, 13, 101); line-height: 32px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; width: 602.543px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">PRESIDENT JAIR BOLSONARO: [translated] Everything now is the pandemic. We have to put a stop to that. I'm sorry for all those who have died. I'm sorry. All of us are going to die one day. Everyone is going to die. You are going to die one day. There is no point in escaping from that, escaping from reality. We have to stop being a country of sissies. I'm giving the press a full plate.
</blockquote>AMY GOODMAN: The word Bolsonaro actually used was far more derogatory than the one that we translated here.Well, for more, we're joined by Maria Luísa Mendonça. She is director of the Network for Social Justice and Human Rights in Brazil, a visiting scholar at the City University of New York Graduate Center.Maria Luísa, welcome back to Democracy Now! If you can talk about the significance of the Biden victory and the close relationship between Jair Bolsonaro and President Trump, what the ending of that alliance can mean, and what Jair Bolsonaro is doing right now in Brazil, especially when it comes to COVID?MARIA LUÍSA MENDONÇA: Yes, that was a very important victory for Brazilians, because the progressive movements in Brazil can also be inspired by this election here. It's important to remember that the result of this election in the U.S. is because of the work of grassroots movements here that elected Biden.And now Bolsonaro in Brazil is even more isolated. And I think that he also plays this game of a fake nationalism when he defends that there should be no regulation, no environmental regulation, and the environmental destruction in the Amazon, in the Brazilian savanna, is increasing. But that is a fake nationalism, because the fires and the destruction of the Amazon really benefits large multinational cooperations, mining, agribusiness, financial corporations.So, I think that it's important also for the social movements in the U.S. to make sure that Biden will have a different foreign policy in relation to Latin America, because we have to remember that Bolsonaro is actually a result of a parliamentary coup against President Dilma Rousseff in 2016 that opened the space for this far-right government. So I think the U.S. can play a much more positive role in Latin America, and we need to hold the administration accountable now.And I think — but, in general, there is a global far-right movement that Bolsonaro and Trump are part of. And I think that the election here in the U.S., the result of the election, will have a positive impact not just in the U.S., but in other parts of the world.NERMEEN SHAIKH: Maria —MARIA LUÍSA MENDONÇA: And then, in terms of the — yes.NERMEEN SHAIKH: No, please, go ahead.MARIA LUÍSA MENDONÇA: Yeah, in terms of the coronavirus response, Trump and Bolsonaro have very similar policies. They really don't believe in science. They don't promote any type of protection. They put the population at risk. They don't express any solidarity for the suffering of the millions of people who have been infected and so many people who have died.So, also, Bolsonaro even has played down the vaccine. You know, he is doing everything he can to postpone a vaccine in Brazil. And Brazil actually has a very good infrastructure for mass vaccination. Historically, the country always had very mass vaccination campaigns. And Bolsonaro is even trying to avoid that, you know, the Brazilian science advance the implementation of the vaccine in Brazil.NERMEEN SHAIKH: Maria Luísa, can you talk a little bit more about that, the fact that Bolsonaro has just rejected a vaccine that Brazilian scientists — it's a vaccine from China, but Brazilian scientists have also been working on that vaccine. Why did Bolsonaro do that? I mean, it doesn't make any sense for Bolsonaro to be opposed to these vaccines, given especially the death toll in Brazil, second only to the U.S. Over 160,000 people have died now of COVID.MARIA LUÍSA MENDONÇA: Yes, exactly. Brazil has very good scientists that have a lot of experience with mass vaccination. But that's all ideological. You know, the Bolsonaro position is based on xenophobia, racism and ignoring science. And that, in a way, is similar to Trump, as well. They both have promoted drugs that have no evidence of being effective for the treatment of coronavirus. And, you know, he's putting the Brazilian society at risk, because even ignoring the effects of a vaccine is something very extreme. And that's the result, of course, of the influence of the evangelical movement in his government. And so, this is not based on science. It's just based on far-right ideology.NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Maria Luísa, could you say a little more about the relationship between Trump and Bolsonaro? I mean, not only has Bolsonaro not yet congratulated Biden, but his son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, wore a hat with the logo "Trump 2020" leading up to the election. And in the days following the election, as the vote count was happening here in the U.S., he questioned publicly on social media how Biden's votes were going up so quickly. That's a highly extraordinary move for someone in a foreign — in another government to make about internal elections elsewhere.MARIA LUÍSA MENDONÇA: Yeah, this is also a very big change in terms of the tradition of foreign policy in Brazil. Brazil has had a tradition of being independent, of not interfering in foreign affairs. So, you know, the Brazilian diplomacy has had this tradition historically, and now this position of Bolsonaro and his sons of basically allying with Trump and making Brazil be so dependent on whatever Trump talks about. They have the same discourse. And they also are part of this global organization that is — one of the leaders is Steve Bannon, for example. So, the discourse is very similar between Bolsonaro and Trump. The policies are very similar. So, of course, there is a coordinating effort that is global to advance those views. But that goes against the history of Brazilian foreign policy.So, I think that now with a change in administration here in the U.S., that can even influence perhaps the position of mainstream media in Brazil, that plays a key role also in manipulating information. And so, you know, I think, hopefully, the decision here, whatever happens here, will have — with the Biden administration and if Biden really has a different type of policy for Latin America, that will have an impact and will advance progressive forces in Brazil, as well.AMY GOODMAN: Very quickly, Maria Luísa, I wanted to play one more clip of the Brazilian president indirectly swiping at Joe Biden during an event on Tuesday. Bolsonaro's comments come after Biden criticized the far-right leader's handling of deforestation in the Amazon.<blockquote style="margin: 1em 40px 1em -5px; border-left: 4px solid rgb(11, 13, 101); line-height: 32px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; width: 602.543px; background: rgb(245, 245, 245);">PRESIDENT JAIR BOLSONARO: [translated] I recently heard a presidential candidate from a country say that if I don't put out the fire in the Amazon, he is going to raise trade barriers against Brazil. How do we deal with all of that? Diplomacy is not enough. When there is no more saliva, then there must be gunpowder. But they have to know that we own the Amazon. That's what the world is like. Nobody has what we have.
</blockquote>AMY GOODMAN: So, that's Bolsonaro saying "there must be gunpowder." You know, as we watched in the western United States as the fires enveloped parts of California, Oregon and Washington, they're actually dwarfed by the fires in the Amazon, the lungs of the world. If you, in 30 seconds, can talk about what he is getting at, and what you think is most critical for Biden to do?MARIA LUÍSA MENDONÇA: Yeah, I think it's very important for us to boycott four Brazilian commodities that are the main cause of deforestation and destruction — timber, sugar, soy and beef from Brazil — because these policies, the destruction of the Amazon, is really benefiting large agribusiness corporations, including U.S. agribusiness corporations. So, it's not about protecting the Brazilian society. It's protecting large agribusiness corporations, timber companies and mining companies. So, we need to have solidarity, you know, the environmental movements in Brazil and here. We need to build an international environmental movement and make sure that the world also can help Brazil by boycotting these four commodities.AMY GOODMAN: Maria Luísa Mendonça, we want to thank you for being with us, director of the Network for Social Justice and Human Rights in Brazil.</div><div><div>=</div><div><a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2020/9/24/headlines/climate_crisis_drives_record_fires_in_brazil_western_united_states">https://www.democracynow.org/2020/9/24/headlines/climate_crisis_drives_record_fires_in_brazil_western_united_states</a></div><div>
</div><div>brazil’s National Center for the Prevention of Forest Fires reports over 7 million acres of the world’s largest wetland have burned in unprecedented fires exacerbated by the climate crisis. The Pantanal fires have consumed 50% more land this year than have burned along the West Coast of the United States.In California, the Creek Fire has become the largest single-source fire in state history, burning nearly 300,000 acres in Fresno and Madera counties. Five of California’s six largest fires in recorded history are still raging, including the record-shattering August Complex fire, which is now at 860,000 acres with 40% containment.<div class="topics" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 30px; width: 635px; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="label" style="box-sizing: border-box; vertical-align: bottom; text-transform: uppercase; display: inline-block; margin-right: 10px; font-weight: 900;">TOPICS:</div><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top; display: inline;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline-block;"><a data-ga-action="Headlines: Topic" href="https://www.democracynow.org/topics/wildfires" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; border: 0px; vertical-align: top;">Wildfires</a></li><li class="bullet" style="box-sizing: border-box; width: 4px; height: 4px; background-color: rgb(236, 238, 239); margin: 7px 5px 2px; display: inline-block; list-style-type: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline-block;"><a data-ga-action="Headlines: Topic" href="https://www.democracynow.org/topics/climate_change" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; border: 0px; vertical-align: top;">Climate Crisis</a></li><li class="bullet" style="box-sizing: border-box; width: 4px; height: 4px; background-color: rgb(236, 238, 239); margin: 7px 5px 2px; display: inline-block; list-style-type: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline-block;"><a data-ga-action="Headlines: Topic" href="https://www.democracynow.org/topics/brazil" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; border: 0px; vertical-align: top;">Brazil</a></li><li class="bullet" style="box-sizing: border-box; width: 4px; height: 4px; background-color: rgb(236, 238, 239); margin: 7px 5px 2px; display: inline-block; list-style-type: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: none; vertical-align: top; display: inline-block;"><a data-ga-action="Headlines: Topic" href="https://www.democracynow.org/topics/california" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; border: 0px; vertical-align: top;">California</a></li></ul></div></div><div>
</div><div>=</div></div><div>
</div><div>11/18<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07214-2">https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07214-2</a><div class="articlebody serif cleared" style="margin: 0px 0px 50px; padding: 0px;"> A landmark climate-change lawsuit brought by young people against the US government can proceed, the Supreme Court said on 2 November. The case, Juliana v. United States, had been scheduled to begin trial on 29 October in Eugene, Oregon, in a federal district court. But those plans were scrapped last month after President Donald Trump's administration asked the Supreme Court to intervene and dismiss the case.The plaintiffs, who include 21 people ranging in age from 11 to 22, allege that the government has violated their constitutional rights to life, liberty and property by failing to prevent dangerous climate change. They are asking the district court to order the federal government to prepare a plan that will ensure the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere falls below 350 parts per million by 2100, down from an average of 405 parts per million in 2017.By contrast, the US Department of Justice argues that “there is no right to ‘a climate system capable of sustaining human life’” — as the Juliana plaintiffs assert.Although the Supreme Court has now denied the Trump administration's request to the dismiss the case, the path ahead is unclear. In <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/110218zr2_8ok0.pdf" data-track="click" data-label="https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/110218zr2_8ok0.pdf" data-track-category="body text link" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">its 2 November order</a>, the Supreme Court suggested that a federal appeals court should consider the administration's arguments before any trial starts in the Oregon district court.Lawyers for the young people said they would push the district court to reschedule the trial next week.“The youth of our nation won an important decision today from the Supreme Court that shows even the most powerful government in the world must follow the rules and process of litigation in our democracy,” said Julia Olson, co-counsel for the plaintiffs, in a statement reacting to the Supreme Court decision.<h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px 0px 8px;">A new generation</h2>Although climate change is a global problem, lawyers around the world have brought climate-change-related lawsuits against local and national governments and corporations since the late 1980s. These suits have generally sought to force the sort of aggressive action against climate change that has been tough to achieve through political means.Many of the cases have failed, but in 2015, a citizen’s group called the Urgenda Foundation <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/landmark-court-ruling-tells-dutch-government-to-do-more-on-climate-change-1.17841" data-track="click" data-label="https://www.nature.com/news/landmark-court-ruling-tells-dutch-government-to-do-more-on-climate-change-1.17841" data-track-category="body text link" style="text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">won a historic victory against the Dutch government</a>. The judge in that case ordered the Netherlands to cut its greenhouse-gas emissions to at least 25% below 1990 levels by 2020, citing the possibility of climate-related damages to “current and future generations of Dutch nationals” and the government’s “duty of care … to prevent hazardous climate change”. A Dutch appeals court <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07007-7" data-track="click" data-label="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07007-7" data-track-category="body text link" style="text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">upheld the verdict</a> last month.Over the past few years, <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/europe-braces-for-more-climate-litigation-1.17877" data-track="click" data-label="https://www.nature.com/news/europe-braces-for-more-climate-litigation-1.17877" data-track-category="body text link" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">the Dutch case has emerged as a model</a> for climate lawsuits in other countries, says Gillian Lobo, a lawyer who specializes in climate-change-related cases at ClientEarth in London. More recently, she says, the Juliana lawsuit has inspired its own copycats — some of which have progressed further than Juliana itself. “It is a global phenomenon,” Lobo says.One case modelled on the Juliana lawsuit has already produced a striking victory. In January, 25 young people sued the Colombian government for their right to a healthy environment, in a case called Demanda Generaciones Futuras v. Minambiente.The Colombian Supreme Court found in the plaintiffs’ favour in April. Not only did it order the government to take steps to reduce deforestation and climate change, it also ruled that the ColombianAmazon rainforest is “a subject of rights” that is entitled to “protection, conservation, maintenance and restoration”.<h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px 0px 8px;">Fuzzy future</h2>The young plaintiffs in the Juliana case allege that they have already suffered harm as a result of climate change. Seventeen-year-old Jaime and her family left their home on the Navajo Nation Reservation in Cameron, Arizona, in 2011 because the natural springs on which they depended for water were drying up.Fifteen-year-old Jayden’s home in Louisiana was severely damaged by flooding in 2016, and 19-year-old Vic’s school in White Plains, New York, closed temporarily in 2012 <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/natural-hazards-new-york-vs-the-sea-1.12419" data-track="click" data-label="https://www.nature.com/news/natural-hazards-new-york-vs-the-sea-1.12419" data-track-category="body text link" style="text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">after Hurricane Sandy hit</a>.US climate hawks hope that the Juliana plaintiffs will ultimately prevail, but President Donald Trump’s administration is mounting a multipronged defence. The Justice Department denies that the district court in Oregon has jurisdiction over the broad sweep of federal policies at issue, and that the rights to life, liberty and property set out in the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution translate into the right to a stable climate.In any case, the department argues, no meaningful redress is possible, given that drastically reducing emissions in the United States might not move the needle on climate change much if other countries’ greenhouse-gas output grows. This echoes the argument made in 2007 by the Supreme Court's chief justice, John Roberts, when he dissented from the court’s decision in a pivotal climate case, Massachusetts vs. Environmental Protection Agency. The court’s ruling, which Roberts protested, forced the agency to regulate carbon emissions as a pollutant.Andrea Rodgers, co-counsel for the Juliana plaintiffs, says that the Trump administration hasn’t challenged the fact that humans are changing the climate. “They haven’t presented experts to contest what our scientists are saying about ice melt or sea-level rise or terrestrial impacts or how climate change happens or ocean acidification,” she says.To win, Rodgers says, “we have to show that the United States government is liable, but also that there is a remedy that the judge can order”. The United States has seen its greenhouse-gas emissions drop in recent years, as the country shifts its energy mix away from coal and towards renewable sources, but as of 2016, it remains the second-largest emitter after China.James Hansen, a climatologist at Columbia University in New York City and a long-time climate activist, is an expert witness in the case — but he is also a plaintiff, representing “future generations” not yet born. (His 20-year-old granddaughter, Sophie Kivlehan, is also a plaintiff.)Hansen has been fighting for action on climate change since he first testified on the subject before the US Senate in 1988. He says that if the Juliana plaintiffs lose their case, he will simply try another way. “We need to win as soon as possible,” Hansen says, “but if we lose, we don’t give up — we come back with a stronger case.”</div>Nature 563, 163-164 (2018)<div class="emphasis" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">doi: 10.1038/d41586-018-07214-2</div><div></div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ew mongabay 920</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/indigenous-women-protect-amazon-2647376402.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.ecowatch.com/indigenous-women-protect-amazon-2647376402.html</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div></div><div></div><div><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-fire-invisible-damage-2647014608.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-fire-invisible-damage-2647014608.html</a></div><div>
</div><div>DW</div><div>Martin Kuebler2020 is shaping up to be another destructive year for the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. Deforestation — a grim precursor to the fires used to clear the land for development — has increased significantly, according to observers. And many experts fear the region could see a repeat of the <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/amazon-versus-africa-forest-fires-is-the-world-really-ablaze/a-50229553" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">destructive wildfires of last August and September</a>.<div class="rebellt-item col1" id="rebelltitem1" data-id="1" data-reload-ads="false" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-fire-invisible-damage-2647014608.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1" data-basename="particle-1" data-post-id="2647014608" data-published-at="1597760052" data-use-pagination="False" style="">Satellite data released by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE) on August 1 showed <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/brazil-amazon-rainforest-fires-surge-in-july/a-54405259" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">more than 6,800 fires across the Amazon region in July</a>, an increase of 28% compared with last year. And it's still early — August is generally considered to be the start of the fire season, which typically hits during drier months. More than 10,000 fires were recorded in the first 10 days of this month, up 17% from the same period last year, according to INPE.Last year's deforestation toll on the world's biggest rainforest — 60% of which is in Brazil — was an estimated 10,000 square kilometers (3,800 square miles), roughly the size of Lebanon. That's the highest level since 2008, according to INPE. With increased deforestation comes a greater risk of wildfires, since many of the those that ravaged the rainforest last year spread from land being cleared for illegal mining, agriculture and cattle ranching.</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" id="rebelltitem2" data-id="2" data-reload-ads="false" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-fire-invisible-damage-2647014608.html?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2" data-basename="degradation-below-the-canopy" data-post-id="2647014608" data-published-at="1597760052" data-use-pagination="False" style=""><h3 data-role="headline" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Degradation Below the Canopy </h3>President Jair Bolsonaro — who has repeatedly called for more of the Amazon region to be cleared for economic development — disputed the recent fire data in a speech to other South American leaders on August 11."Tropical rainforest doesn't catch fire. So this story that the Amazon is burning is a lie, and we have to fight it with real numbers," he told the meeting of the Leticia Pact, a group launched last year to protect the rainforest.Bolsonaro challenged the leaders to fly over the rainforest from Boa Vista to Manaus, a distance of some 750 kilometers (460 miles), and see for themselves. "They won't find any spot of fire, nor a quarter of a hectare deforested," he said.While these forests may still appear untouched when viewed from above, the green landscape seen from a plane or satellite can be deceptive. A typical wildfire burning through the understory — the vegetation growing beneath the forest's main canopy — of a virgin rainforest can wipe out small shrubs, plants and between 40 to 50% of all trees."A considerable part of the Amazon forest has been consecutively degraded, and it's invisible to our eyes," said Ane Alencar, director of science at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), a Brazilian non-governmental organization. "In fact, the quality of these forests has been degraded due to these forest fires."</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" id="rebelltitem3" data-id="3" data-reload-ads="true" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-fire-invisible-damage-2647014608.html?rebelltitem=3#rebelltitem3" data-basename="particle-3" data-post-id="2647014608" data-published-at="1597760052" data-use-pagination="False" style="">When much of the undergrowth and smaller trees are eliminated, it makes it difficult to maintain the moist understory microclimate that helps protect rainforests from fires. These microclimates are already suffering, with the average temperature in the Amazon basin having risen by at least 0.5 degrees Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit) since 1980, according to climate data from USAID. The dry season has become longer and severe droughts are now more frequent, with three reported since 2005.The damage doesn't end with the initial blaze, either. Larger trees, which may be harmed in a fire but survive thanks to the moist environment, could finally succumb to the trauma years later. "Initially, it's the small trees which die because they are most vulnerable to the heat stress, but over time it's actually the larger trees which die and fall over, taking with them many other trees," said Jos Barlow, a British conservation science professor who has worked in Brazil since 1998."This opens up additional gaps in the canopy, allowing sunlight to reach the understory and further dry it out."</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" id="rebelltitem4" data-id="4" data-reload-ads="false" data-is-image="True" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-fire-invisible-damage-2647014608.html?rebelltitem=4#rebelltitem4" data-basename="particle-4" data-post-id="2647014608" data-published-at="1597760052" data-use-pagination="False" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The recovery of mycorrhizal networks — underground systems of soil fungi that help trees to exchange nutrients and water — after a wildfire is still unclear and a subject of research, though it's known that the uppermost layer of very fine roots also suffers in the initial blaze. Some studies, <a href="https://fireecology.springeropen.com/articles/10.4996/fireecology.130237746" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">including a 2017 article in Fire Ecology</a>, have suggested that the "resiliency of soil fungi likely contributes to the overall rapid ecosystem recovery following fire." For forest ecosystems, however, rapid can still mean several decades, <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/3/eaau3114.full" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">according to a 2019 report in the journal Science Advances</a> — at the earliest.</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" id="rebelltitem5" data-id="5" data-reload-ads="true" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-fire-invisible-damage-2647014608.html?rebelltitem=5#rebelltitem5" data-basename="wildfires-increasing-in-recent-years" data-post-id="2647014608" data-published-at="1597760052" data-use-pagination="False" style=""><h3 data-role="headline" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Wildfires Increasing in Recent Years </h3>Another danger, said Barlow, is that more and more fires are reigniting areas already damaged by fire, particularly along the edges of the rainforest near new roads, clear-cut fields and pastures, both legal and illegal. This could permanently change the landscape."If you have recurrent fires of two or three burns, then you move into an alternative ecosystem where you have almost no large [trees] at all, dominated by scrubby species and bamboo and grasses," said Barlow.Paulo Massoca, a Brazilian researcher and doctoral candidate at Indiana University Bloomington studying rainforest regrowth, said recurrent fires act as a sort of "filter," gradually eliminating plants that are not adapted to frequent fires and selecting the most resistant species, leaving "a fraction of the whole pool of plants in the region.""After repeated burnings, soils get impoverished, plants grow slower, and vines/lianas and other non-woody plants, in addition to trees, settle in the area," he told DW, adding that this wide-ranging change in the ecosystem "slows and hinders the capacity of secondary forests damaged by repeated fire events to grow back and accumulate carbon."It doesn't help that the Amazon soil, already poor, loses even more valuable nutrients after a fire. In a rainforest, the nutrients provided by dead organic matter are quickly reabsorbed by living plant life, leaving little on the ground."Burnings both kill the plants that sustain the topsoil and eliminate the topsoil that supports the plants," said Massoca. "Fires immediately release the nutrients and carbon stored in the topsoil, which are either washed out after the first rain or released to the atmosphere."Those suspended soot particles in the vast clouds of smoke then billow up over healthy forests, potentially affecting cloud formation and rainfall patterns, according to Divino Vicente Silverio, a biologist at the Amazon Rural Federal University in Belem, northern Brazil.In an <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02537-0" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">August 2019 interview with Nature magazine</a>, he said this atmospheric aerosol burden could lead to changes in how forests cycle water, creating drier conditions and disrupting weather patterns in the Amazon and even farther afield.</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" id="rebelltitem6" data-id="6" data-reload-ads="false" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-fire-invisible-damage-2647014608.html?rebelltitem=6#rebelltitem6" data-basename="there-are-no-natural-fires-in-the-amazon" data-post-id="2647014608" data-published-at="1597760052" data-use-pagination="False" style=""><h3 data-role="headline" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">'There Are No Natural Fires in the Amazon' </h3>Nearly all the fires in the Amazon can be linked to human activity. Trees cleared to make way for economic development are cut down and left to dry and then set alight — a technique known as slash and burn. Additional fires are set to eliminate weeds from existing pastures and clear out old agricultural areas. And, as happened in 2019, those fires can spread to surrounding forests."There are no natural fires in the Amazon," said Alencar of IPAM. "Even if it's very, very dry, we need to have somebody using the match."Faced with criticism over the government response to the 2019 fires, President Bolsonaro has banned agricultural burning in the Amazon forest and <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/brazils-next-fire-disaster-in-the-pantanal-wetlands/a-51199164" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Pantanal wetlands</a> until November, the end of the dry season, and deployed troops to prevent illegal deforestation.In his speech at the meeting of the Leticia Pact last week he said the government efforts had been effective, pointing out that forest clearances had dropped in July by more than 25% when compared with July 2019, the first decline in 15 months."We are making big, enormous efforts to fight fires and deforestation, but even so, we are criticized," he said.Experts, however, have accused Bolsonaro of cherry-picking the data. INPE says deforestation increased by 25% year-on-year in the first half of the year, and that at least 3,000 square kilometers (1,200 square miles) had been cut down by June. Alencar said if the current rate continues, 2020 would be Brazil's worst year for deforestation in more than a decade.In states with historically high deforestation rates — Mato Grosso, Para and Rondonia — the number of fires detected so far in 2020 is already higher than in the same period in 2019. Alencar said the increase so early in the season shows that the government response has been ineffective — and she believes it's already too late."For this fire season, it seems that we lost the battle against deforestation," she told DW. "We had two days, July 30 and August 1 … with more than 1,000 hot pixels, which are a measurement of fire activity in the region. And those were very high for that period."Added to that are NASA observations that show a potentially active Atlantic hurricane season, like 2005 and 2010, which contributed to major drought in the southwestern Amazon as storms sucked moisture from the forest."They are predicting that it's likely to have the same pattern happening this year, which is going to be catastrophic if it's true," said Alencar.</div></div><div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/brazil-amazon-wildlife-criminal-networks-2646841421.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/brazil-amazon-wildlife-criminal-networks-2646841421.html</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="">=</div><div style="">aha hmmn // Brazil buffer flips to emitter?! i had not thought of wildfire as factor in deforestation (it grows back?)</div><div style=""><div>
</div><div><a href="https://grist.org/climate/arctic-fires-released-more-carbon-in-two-months-than-scandinavia-will-all-year/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://grist.org/climate/arctic-fires-released-more-carbon-in-two-months-than-scandinavia-will-all-year/</a></div><div>
</div><div>8/20</div><div>Almost exactly a year ago, we <a href="https://grist.org/article/the-arctic-is-having-unprecedented-wildfires-heres-why-that-matters/" droid="Droid" serif="serif" cambria="Cambria" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" px="px" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" inherit="inherit" text-decoration-skip-ink="text-decoration-skip-ink" auto="auto" border-bottom="border-bottom" rem="rem" solid="solid" transition="transition" border-color="border-color" s="s" ease-out="ease-out" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" important="important" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">reported</a> that June and July wildfires in the Arctic had released as much carbon as Belgium does in an entire year — an <a href="https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/cams-monitors-unprecedented-wildfires-arctic" droid="Droid" serif="serif" cambria="Cambria" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" px="px" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" inherit="inherit" text-decoration-skip-ink="text-decoration-skip-ink" auto="auto" border-bottom="border-bottom" rem="rem" solid="solid" transition="transition" border-color="border-color" s="s" ease-out="ease-out" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" important="important" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">unprecedented</a> summertime burn that would amplify the region’s climate change–fueled fever. But everything, apparently, is worse in 2020, including the climate toll of <a href="https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/index.php/another-active-year-arctic-wildfires" droid="Droid" serif="serif" cambria="Cambria" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" px="px" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" inherit="inherit" text-decoration-skip-ink="text-decoration-skip-ink" auto="auto" border-bottom="border-bottom" rem="rem" solid="solid" transition="transition" border-color="border-color" s="s" ease-out="ease-out" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" important="important" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">this year’s Arctic fires</a>, which makes 2019 seem like a warm-up.</div></div><div>=</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style=""></div><div style="">shillenberger revkin say no worries on brazil fires b/c worse in 80's</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">=</div><div style="">820</div><div style="">https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-fire-brazil-2646869688.html</div><div style="">
</div><div style=""><div class="widgetbrief">The number of forest fires in Brazil's Amazon rainforest increased 28% in July in comparison to last year, the country's National Institute for Space Research reported Saturday.</div><div class="content-container"><div class=" rebellt-item is--desktop col1" id="rebelltitem1" data-id="1" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-fire-brazil-2646869688.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1" data-published-at="1596457828" data-basename="particle-1" data-post-id="2646869688">Brazil holds around 60% of the Amazon basin region and environmentalists say this area is vital to containing the impact of climate change.The state agency recorded 6,803 fires in the Amazon last month, compared to 5,318 in the same month of 2019.Environmentalists were alarmed by the figure, particularly because August traditionally marks the beginning of the fire season in the region. Many now fear that a repeat of the large surge in fires that devastated the area last August could occur this year again.</div><div class=" rebellt-item is--desktop col1" id="rebelltitem2" data-id="2" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-fire-brazil-2646869688.html?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2" data-published-at="1596457828" data-basename="particle-2" data-post-id="2646869688">"More than 1,000 fires in a single day is a 15-year record and shows the government's strategy of media-spectacle operations is not working on the ground," Greenpeace spokesman Romulo Batista said in a statement.The fires have been largely set to clear land illegally for farming, ranching and mining. Activists accuse Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro of encouraging the deforestation, as he has been in favor of opening up the rainforest to agriculture and industry.The first six months of 2020 were already the worst on record for deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, with 3,069 square kilometers (1,185 square miles) cleared, according to INPE data, an area larger than the nation of Luxembourg.</div><div class=" rebellt-item is--desktop col1" id="rebelltitem3" data-id="3" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-fire-brazil-2646869688.html?rebelltitem=3#rebelltitem3" data-published-at="1596457828" data-basename="government-measures-not-enough" data-post-id="2646869688"><h3 data-role="headline">Government Measures Not Enough</h3>On July 16, the Brazilian government banned burning in the Pantanal wetlands and the Amazon forest for four months.President Bolsonaro also issued an order in May for the military to coordinate environmental actions in the Amazon.But experts say the fire numbers indicate the government's response has not been effective. The deforestation index also remained high this year until July, compared to the last couple of years, according to Carlos Nobre, a researcher at the Advanced Studies Institute in the State University of Sao Paulo.</div><div class=" rebellt-item is--desktop col1" id="rebelltitem4" data-id="4" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-fire-brazil-2646869688.html?rebelltitem=4#rebelltitem4" data-published-at="1596457828" data-basename="particle-4" data-post-id="2646869688">"We can conclude, with data until the end of July, that the effectiveness of government actions to reduce fires and deforestation is low," he said.Experts also say that this year's dry season will be even more prone to fires than last year. U.S. space agency NASA warned last month that warmer ocean surface temperatures in the North Atlantic have creating the conditions for a more extreme drought in the Amazon."Human-set fires used for agriculture and land clearing more prone to growing out of control and spreading," NASA warned. "Conditions are ripe."
DWAt Least 500 Jaguars Lost Their Lives or Habitat in Amazon Fires ›Amazon Rainforest Reaches Point of No Return - EcoWatch ›Record Number of Fires Burning in Amazon Rainforest - EcoWatch ›Amazon Rainforest Fire Season Starts With Outlook for Record Burn ... ›The Brazilian Amazon is still burning. Who is responsible? - The ... ›Amazon fires: What's the latest in Brazil? - BBC News </div></div></div><div style=""></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/bolsonaro-amazon-deforestation-court-2646172097.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/bolsonaro-amazon-deforestation-court-2646172097.html</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jun. 13, 2020</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="">Ajit Niranjan DWCivil society groups and public prosecutors in Brazil are taking President Jair Bolsonaro's government to court for failing to <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/amazon-brazil-rainforest-bolsonaro-deforestation-fires/a-52242526" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">protect the Amazon rainforest</a>, adding pressure to an administration already under fire for mismanaging the coronavirus pandemic.Lawsuits filed last week challenge the government on two fronts: reducing inspections of exported timber — while demoting the environment agency expert whose team advised against it — and freezing climate funds to preserve forests that other countries also rely on to offset their carbon emissions.<div class="rebellt-item col1" id="rebelltitem1" data-id="1" data-reload-ads="false" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/bolsonaro-amazon-deforestation-court-2646172097.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1" data-basename="particle-1" data-post-id="2646172097" data-published-at="1592072164" data-use-pagination="False" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">They are among a series of legal challenges that have been launched in Brazil after a tumultuous year-and-a-half of Bolsonaro rule. His administration has overseen a rise in deforestation, attacked the rights of people indigenous to the Amazon and relaxed rules to prevent illegal <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/amazon-deforestation-eu-firms-linked-to-illegal-logging-in-brazil/a-48442226" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">logging</a>, <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/mass-deforestation-how-trade-fells-trees-in-brazil-and-indonesia/a-48280649" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">ranching</a> and <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/brazils-amazon-rainforest-has-become-the-wild-west-for-illegal-gold-miners/a-52623368" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">mining</a>.Bolsonaro is a climate change denier who considers the environment to be a kind of enemy, said Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of Brazil-based think tank Climate Observatory, which provided the legal analysis behind the lawsuits. "It's very hard to believe Bolsonaro will change his behavior or mindset. What we really need to do is neutralize the attacks on the environment."</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" id="rebelltitem2" data-id="2" data-reload-ads="false" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/bolsonaro-amazon-deforestation-court-2646172097.html?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2" data-basename="particle-2" data-post-id="2646172097" data-published-at="1592072164" data-use-pagination="False" style="">In recent weeks, the Brazilian government has been rebuked by foreign governments, investors and businesses for enabling deforestation — and by courts and protestors at home for <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/where-could-brazils-criminal-investigation-of-jair-bolsonaro-lead/a-53284984" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">political interference</a> and its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.Brazil's supreme court ordered the government on Monday to resume publishing <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/supreme-court-rules-brazil-must-share-virus-data/a-53754069" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">coronavirus statistics</a> after it purged the health ministry website of COVID-19 case numbers and death tolls. The virus has killed more than 37,000 people in Brazil, which has the second-most coronavirus cases in the world behind only the U.S. "The manipulation of statistics is a maneuver of totalitarian regimes," said supreme court judge Gilmar Mendes. "The trick will not exempt responsibility for the eventual genocide."Deforestation, meanwhile, had already last year hit its highest level since 2008. On Tuesday the country's space research agency INPE revised its estimates, saying it they were higher than previously thought. Using satellite data, the scientists calculated that year-on-year <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/brazil-reports-even-more-deforestation-after-revising-data/a-53767938" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon</a> rose by 34 percent between August 2018 and July 2019, felling an area of forest about as big as Jamaica.Georg Witschel, Germany's ambassador to Brazil, told <a href="https://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2020/06/11/desmatamento-na-amazonia-faz-cada-vez-mais-dificil-acordo-ue-mercosul-diz-embaixador-alemao.ghtml" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Brazilian news outlet G1</a> on Thursday that deforestation makes it "increasingly difficult" to ratify the free trade agreement between the EU and South American trade bloc Mercosur.</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" id="rebelltitem3" data-id="3" data-reload-ads="true" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/bolsonaro-amazon-deforestation-court-2646172097.html?rebelltitem=3#rebelltitem3" data-basename="coronavirus-and-deforestation" data-post-id="2646172097" data-published-at="1592072164" data-use-pagination="False" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 data-role="headline">Coronavirus and Deforestation</h3>Brazil's environmental and health crises are closely linked. The coronavirus pandemic had given fresh impetus to land grabbers razing swathes of forests as lockdowns have kept law enforcement officers at home.Now, the fires that typically follow the felling of trees could further strain health systems.Blazing wildfires, like the ones that devastated the Amazon last year, spout pollutants that lower air quality and work their way into people's lungs, exacerbating the same <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-air-pollution-might-raise-risk-of-fatality/a-52977422" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">breathing diseases</a> that leave people more vulnerable to the coronavirus. A joint peak in forest fires and COVID-19 cases could overwhelm hospitals without "incisive intervention by the State to curb illegal acts," according to a report published in May by INPE.That could collapse health systems in several Amazonian states that are already operating at the limit, the authors wrote. "If the turning point of the epidemiological curve of COVID-19 does not occur immediately, in May 2020, there will certainly be an overlap of fires with the pandemic."This could spell disaster for indigenous peoples and uncontacted tribes, said Sarah Shenker, a campaigner with Survival International. "In Brazil, there are more than 100 uncontacted tribes and they could be wiped out if invaders are not removed from their territory."Even before the current coronavirus crisis, scientists warned that <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/how-deforestation-can-lead-to-more-infectious-diseases/a-53282244" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">forest loss makes pandemics more likely</a> by increasing the chance that diseases jump from animals to humans. A study published in the journal PNAS in October found that deforestation of the Amazon significantly increases transmission of malaria, a different type of disease.</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" id="rebelltitem4" data-id="4" data-reload-ads="false" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/bolsonaro-amazon-deforestation-court-2646172097.html?rebelltitem=4#rebelltitem4" data-basename="preserving-the-climate" data-post-id="2646172097" data-published-at="1592072164" data-use-pagination="False" style=""><h3 data-role="headline" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Preserving the Climate</h3>The Amazon rainforest — 60 percent of which lies in Brazil — is one of the world's great carbon sinks. Preserving its trees and plants is crucial to meeting international targets that <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/co2-emissions-gap-un-report-warns-of-collective-failure-to-act/a-51407286" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">limit global warming</a> to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.Lawsuits that take years to complete are not going to produce results fast enough, said Ricardo Galvao, a former director of INPE who was <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/brazils-research-chief-sacked-after-deforestation-row-with-bolsonaro/a-49874119" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">fired by Bolsonaro</a> in August.To curb deforestation in the Amazon, said Galvao, the best tools are "positive actions that show [that] exploring the forest, rather than destroying it, gives economic returns." For instance, international organizations like the UN could certify products from sustainably managed forests and countries could lower import taxes on such "green-stamped" goods.</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" id="rebelltitem5" data-id="5" data-reload-ads="true" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/bolsonaro-amazon-deforestation-court-2646172097.html?rebelltitem=5#rebelltitem5" data-basename="particle-5" data-post-id="2646172097" data-published-at="1592072164" data-use-pagination="False" style="">Brazil has a legal commitment to reduce deforestation in the Amazon to a rate equivalent to about 3,900 square kilometers per year from 2020 onwards. In 2012, measures to protect the Amazon had brought deforestation down to 4,600 square kilometers, close to the target, but by 2019, it had rebounded to 9,800 square kilometers.The Brazilian government, which in May brought in the military to <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/brazil-deploys-military-to-protect-amazon-rainforest/a-53398270" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">protect the forest</a>, has disputed its image as an environmental pariah. "We are the country that most preserves the environment in the world," said Bolsonaro on World Environment Day last week. "Unjustly, [we are] the most attacked."Data from Brazil's Institute of Socioeconomic Studies show government spending on forest inspection dropped from R$17.4 million (US$3.5 million, €3.1 million) to R$5.3 million from the first five months of 2019 to the same period in 2020, while funding for activities under Brazil's national climate change plan were cut from R$436 million last year to R$247 million this year.Ibama, the Brazilian environment agency, did not respond to a request for comment.Big tracts of the rainforest have no recorded owner, making it easier to illegally grab land, and a lack of law enforcement can even mean that farmers who comply with regulations struggle to compete with those who don't.Working with sustainable farmers and fixing land ownership structures could help Brazil slow deforestation during the coronavirus pandemic and recession, said Monica De Los Rios, Brazil coordinator at the nonprofit Earth Innovation Institute. "This is the most critical moment in the history of the Amazon."</div></div><div>
</div><div><div><div>=</div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/06/bolsonaro-using-virus-against-indigenous-people-leader/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/06/bolsonaro-using-virus-against-indigenous-people-leader/</a></div><div>
</div><div>afp via an 620</div><div>
</div><div><p class="map" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; top: -8px; line-height: 2;">rio de Janeiro (AFP) - The impact of the new coronavirus has spared no one in Brazil, including in the Amazon rainforest, where iconic indigenous leader Raoni Metuktire accuses President Jair Bolsonaro of using the pandemic to eradicate his people.<p class="map" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; top: -8px; line-height: 2;">Known for his colorful feather headdresses and the large disc inserted in his lower lip, chief Raoni is one of the most famous defenders of the Amazon and the indigenous peoples who live there.<p class="map" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; top: -8px; line-height: 2;">Now in his 90s, he has traveled the world raising awareness about the threat posed by deforestation.<p class="map" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; top: -8px; line-height: 2;">But he is riding out the coronavirus pandemic in his village in the heart of the rainforest, where he spoke to AFP by video call.<p class="map" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; top: -8px; line-height: 2;">The chief, a member of the Kayapo ethnicity, did not mince words as he criticized Bolsonaro for the far-right president's treatment of Brazil's indigenous peoples and handling of the pandemic.<p class="map" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; top: -8px; line-height: 2;">"Bolsonaro wants to take advantage of this disease. He's saying, 'Indians have to die, we have to finish them off,'" he said, speaking through an interpreter.<p class="map" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; top: -8px; line-height: 2;">Bolsonaro has faced criticism for pushing to open protected Amazon lands to farming and mining, which he argues would benefit indigenous communities.<p class="map" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; top: -8px; line-height: 2;">Indigenous leaders and activists are skeptical, however, and have condemned the president for some of his comments, including that indigenous people "are becoming more and more human, just like us."<p class="map" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; top: -8px; line-height: 2;">Bolsonaro has likewise faced criticism for his handling of the pandemic, which he continues to downplay even as the number of deaths soars in Brazil.<p class="map" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; top: -8px; line-height: 2;">Indigenous peoples in the Amazon are particularly vulnerable to diseases from the outside world.<p class="map" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; top: -8px; line-height: 2;">There are mounting fears for their safety as the virus surges in Brazil, which has now registered more than 34,000 deaths, the third-highest toll worldwide, after the United States and Britain.<p class="map" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; top: -8px; line-height: 2;">The Amazon region is one of the hardest-hit, including its indigenous inhabitants, who have a COVID-19 mortality rate twice as high as non-indigenous Brazilians.<p class="map" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; top: -8px; line-height: 2;">At least 211 indigenous Brazilians have been killed and 2,178 infected by the virus, according to the Brazilian Indigenous Peoples' Association (APIB).<p class="map" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; top: -8px; line-height: 2;">Human-rights officials from the United Nations and Organization of American States warned Thursday the virus poses a "grave risk" to Amazon indigenous communities.<p class="map" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; top: -8px; line-height: 2;">"This disease called coronavirus is very dangerous. It has starting killing my people, in every region," Raoni said.<p class="map" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; top: -8px; line-height: 2;">But Bolsonaro, he added, "doesn't care about us."<p class="map" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; top: -8px; line-height: 2;">Despite the "shoddy health services" available to his people, the president has done nothing to improve them, he said.<h1 class="mah1" id="h-no-0" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 40px 0px 16px; padding: 0px 0px 8px 16px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgba(143, 148, 153, 0.3); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; clear: both; line-height: 1.5; position: relative;">Blocked aid</h1><p class="map" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; top: -8px; line-height: 2;">Raoni, who has lobbied world leaders and campaigned with the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Cameron and Sting, said he planned to stay in his village, Metuktire, in Brazil's Mato Grosso state, until the danger has receded....</div></div><div>=</div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">covid 2x deforest</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/rainforest-deforestation-coronavirus-2646072407.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/rainforest-deforestation-coronavirus-2646072407.html</a></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body js-update-url css-listicle-body-2646072407 expanded" data-elid="2646072407" data-post-url="https://www.ecowatch.com/rainforest-deforestation-coronavirus-2646072407.html" data-authors="Deutsche Welle" data-headline="Rainforest Deforestation More Than Doubled Under Cover of Coronavirus" style="margin-top: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><div class="body-description" style="clear: both;"><div class="widget__brief" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As the COVID-19 virus was spreading around the world, deforestation in the world's rainforests rose at an alarming rate, the German arm of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said <a href="https://blog.wwf.de/wald-corona/?ga=2.191480681.232588903.1590074315-1039827102.1590074315&gac=1.225442152.1590074315.Cj0KCQjwzZj2BRDVARIsABs3l9KYLYW7DJ-84K-sdx0sDJY69EZh37S104nIwYCPVCrWdVGSVGSARTgaAqs5EALw_wcB" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">in a study published on Thursday</a>.</div><div class="content-container">The study, which analyzed satellite data of 18 countries compiled by the University of Maryland, found that deforestation rose by 150% this March compared 2017-2019 average for the same calendar month.<div class=" rebellt-item is--desktop col1" id="rebelltitem1" data-id="1" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/rainforest-deforestation-coronavirus-2646072407.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1" data-published-at="1590255145" data-basename="particle-1" data-post-id="2646072407" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Around 6,500 square kilometers (2,510 square miles) of rainforest were felled in March alone — an area seven times the size of Berlin, the WWF said."This indicates that we're dealing with a coronavirus effect on the exploding rates of deforestation," Christoph Heinrich, the head of nature conservation with WWF Germany, said in a statement.</div><div class=" rebellt-item is--desktop col1" id="rebelltitem2" data-id="2" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/rainforest-deforestation-coronavirus-2646072407.html?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2" data-published-at="1590255145" data-basename="indonesia-forests-hit-hardest" data-post-id="2646072407"><h3 data-role="headline" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Indonesia Forests Hit Hardest</h3>The forests most heavily hit by deforestation in March were in Indonesia, with more than 1,300 square kilometers lost.The Democratic Republic of Congo saw the second-largest forest loss with 1,000 square kilometers followed by Brazil with 950 square kilometers.The Brazilian non-profit research institute Imazon told news agency DPA that deforestation was up in April as well. The institute recorded a loss of 529 square kilometers in the Amazon in April, a rise of 171% compared to last year.</div><div class=" rebellt-item is--desktop col1" id="rebelltitem3" data-id="3" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/rainforest-deforestation-coronavirus-2646072407.html?rebelltitem=3#rebelltitem3" data-published-at="1590255145" data-basename="tied-to-covid-19" data-post-id="2646072407" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 data-role="headline">Tied to COVID-19</h3>The WWF says there's ample evidence to suggest the boom in rainforest deforestation is being fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic.With stay-at-home orders and strict lockdowns in place in countries around the world, authorities haven't been able to patrol nature preserves and indigenous territories as often — a situation that criminal organizations and illegal loggers have been using to their advantage.The virus has also prompted massive job losses in many countries, leaving many newly-unemployed people increasingly desperate for sources of income.</div><div class=" rebellt-item is--desktop col1" id="rebelltitem4" data-id="4" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/rainforest-deforestation-coronavirus-2646072407.html?rebelltitem=4#rebelltitem4" data-published-at="1590255145" data-basename="particle-4" data-post-id="2646072407" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The WWF noted that the legal timber trade is a substantial source of income for several African countries but is virtually on ice amid various coronavirus shutdowns. The broken supply chains have led to concerns that the forests are losing their value and forest conservation efforts are losing their foothold.Along the Mekong River in southeast Asia, tourists have disappeared and with them a substantial source of income for local merchants selling forest products like honey, nuts or berries. Many have left the cities and returned to their home villages and are cutting down trees for firewood or a source of income.The WWF said governments providing financial and technological support to locals could help reduce the rise in deforestation.</div></div></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div></div><div>
</div><div><div> </div><div>520</div><div>We’re one step closer to saving the last orangutans from palm oil destruction, and that’s thanks to you.

After more than 5 years of campaigning, PepsiCo has changed its palm oil sourcing policy, and agreed to use its influence with other companies to end rainforest destruction and human rights abuses. This is a MASSIVE VICTORY. And Pat, it’s thanks to SumOfUs members like you.

PepsiCo is the world’s second-largest food and beverage company. By moving this snack food giant, you moved an entire sector! Last year, during the company’s shareholder meeting, we presented more than a million signatures gathered over 5 years asking PepsiCo to cut ties with conflict palm oil. In response to your efforts and continued pressure, this year PepsiCo announced an industry-leading policy and a series of actions to tackle rainforest destruction, worker abuse, and exploitation of communities for cheap palm oil.</div><div>
</div><div>=</div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div></div><div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainforest_Foundation_Fund" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainforest_Foundation_Fund</a></div><div>
</div><div>...</div><dl style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px;">AMERICAS: 2011?<dl style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px;"><ul w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" skins.vector.styles="skins.vector.styles" images="images" bullet-icon.svg="bullet-icon.svg" f1="f1" margin="margin" em="em" px="px" padding="padding" style="list-style-image: url("><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belize" title="Belize" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">Belize</a></li></ul><dl style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px;">--Working with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_peoples" title="Maya peoples" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">Mayan</a> community and their NGO the Maya Leaders Alliance to obtain official recognition of nearly 500,000 acres of traditional lands and then to carry out the demarcation qualification process.</dd></dl></dd></dl></dd></dl><dl style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px;"><dl style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px;"><ul w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" skins.vector.styles="skins.vector.styles" images="images" bullet-icon.svg="bullet-icon.svg" f1="f1" margin="margin" em="em" px="px" padding="padding" style="list-style-image: url("><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolivia" title="Bolivia" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">Bolivia</a></li></ul><dl style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px;">--Supporting a project administered by the NGO Comunidad Viva to guarantee clean water access for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayoreo" title="Ayoreo" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">Ayoreo</a> Community of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Puesto_Paz&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Puesto Paz (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">Puesto Paz</a>.</dd></dl></dd></dl></dd></dl><dl style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px;"><dl style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px;"><ul w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" skins.vector.styles="skins.vector.styles" images="images" bullet-icon.svg="bullet-icon.svg" f1="f1" margin="margin" em="em" px="px" padding="padding" style="list-style-image: url("><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil" title="Brazil" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">Brazil</a></li></ul><dl style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px;">--Working with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiriyo" class="mw-redirect" title="Tiriyo" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">Tiriyo</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kaxuyana&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Kaxuyana (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">Kaxuyana</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayapi" class="mw-redirect" title="Wayapi" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">Wayapi</a> indigenous groups of northeastern Brazil to build the capacity of their representative organization, Apitikatxi, and to ensure that public policy respect the indigenous peoples' rights to maintain their cultures and traditions.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainforest_Foundation_Fund#cite_note-10" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[10]</a></dd></dl></dd></dl></dd></dl><dl style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px;"><dl style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px;"><dl style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px;">--Supporting the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paiter_people" class="mw-redirect" title="Paiter people" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Surui</a> indigenous peoples in implementing a strategy for protecting their lands, the Surui Reserve, from illegal logging, thereby protecting the highly biodiverse Amazonian rainforest found on those lands. Also working with them to ensure proper implementation of their community's participation in a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reducing_Emissions_from_Deforestation_and_Forest_Degradation" class="mw-redirect" title="Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">REDD</a> program.</dd></dl></dd></dl></dd></dl><dl style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px;"><dl style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px;"><ul w="w" skins="skins" vector="Vector" resources="resources" skins.vector.styles="skins.vector.styles" images="images" bullet-icon.svg="bullet-icon.svg" f1="f1" margin="margin" em="em" px="px" padding="padding" style="list-style-image: url("><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuador" title="Ecuador" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 102);">Ecuador</a></li></ul><dl style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px;">--Supporting a project to assist the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Orellana_people&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Orellana people (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Orellana</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sucumbia&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Sucumbia (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Sucumbia</a> indigenous peoples whose communities and environments are being negatively affected by oil exploitation – the project works to expose environmental abuse and defend indigenous rights to land, health, livelihood, and clean environment.</dd></dl></dd></dl></dd></dl><dl style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px;"><dl style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px;"><dl style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px;">--The Fund is working in partnership with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNICEF" title="UNICEF" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">UNICEF</a> Ecuador to work to provide clean water to the communities affected by the oil industries' activities in and around their lands, which have caused serious water pollution.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainforest_Foundation_Fund#cite_note-11" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[11]</a></dd></dl></dd></dl></dd></dl><dl style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px;"><dl style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px;"><dl style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px;">--The Change Chevron Project, monitored by the Rainforest Action Network, works to put public and political pressure on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevron_Corporation" title="Chevron Corporation" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Chevron</a> to rectify the environmental damage its activities in the Ecuadorian Rainforest have caused.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainforest_Foundation_Fund#cite_note-12" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[12]</a></dd></dl></dd></dl></dd></dl></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-brazil-gold-mining-2645732733.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-brazil-gold-mining-2645732733.html</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">illegal </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div></div><div><div>= </div><div> "Just when I thought the destruction couldn't get any worse, it has," says <a href="https://fru.to/en/palestrante/antonio-donato-nobre-en/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Nobre, one of Brazil's leading scientists</a> who has studied the Amazon — its unique flora and fauna, and its influence on both the local and global climate — for more than 40 years.<div class="rebellt-item col1" data-basename="particle-1" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-point-of-no-return-2645509920.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1" data-id="1" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"In terms of the Earth's climate, we have gone beyond the point of no return. There's no doubt about this."For decades, he has fought against deforestation. There have been considerable ups and downs in that time, but he points out that Brazil was once a world-leader in controlling deforestation."We developed the system that's now being used by other countries," he told Climate News Network in an interview during his lecture tour of the UK."Using satellite data, we monitored and we controlled. From 2005 to 2012, Brazil managed to reduce up to 83% of deforestation."</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-basename="dramatic-increase" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-point-of-no-return-2645509920.html?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2" data-id="2" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem2"><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dramatic Increase</h3>Then the law on land use was relaxed, and deforestation increased dramatically — by as much as 200 percent between 2017 and 2018.It's all become much worse since Jair Bolsonaro became Brazilian president at the beginning of last year, Nobre says."There are some dangerous people in office," he says. "The Minister of Environment is a <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-brazil-politics-minister/brazils-incoming-environment-minister-found-guilty-of-improper-conduct-idUKKCN1OJ2U1" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">convicted criminal.</a> The Minister of Foreign Affairs is a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/15/brazil-foreign-minister-ernesto-araujo-climate-change-marxist-plot" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">climate sceptic</a>."Nobre argues that Bolsonaro doesn't care about the Amazon and has contempt for environmentalists.His administration is encouraging the land grabbers who illegally take over protected or indigenous tribal land, which they then sell on to cattle ranchers and soybean conglomerates.For indigenous tribes, life has become more dangerous. "They are being murdered, their land is being invaded," Nobre says.In August last year, the world watched as large areas of the Amazon region — a <a href="https://climatenewsnetwork.net/tropical-forests-may-be-heating-earth-by-2035/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">vital carbon sink</a> sucking up and recycling global greenhouse gases — went up in flames.Nobre says the land grabbers had organised what they called a "day of fires" in August last year to honour Bolsonaro.</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-basename="particle-3" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-point-of-no-return-2645509920.html?rebelltitem=3#rebelltitem3" data-id="3" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem3">"Thousands of people organized, through WhatsApp, to make something visible from space," he says. "They hired people on motorbikes with gasoline jugs to <a href="https://climatenewsnetwork.net/bolsonaros-legal-bonfire-fuels-amazon-inferno/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">set fire to any land they could</a>."The impact on the Amazon is catastrophic, Nobre says. "Half of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/amazon-rainforest" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Amazon rainforest</a> to the east is gone — it's losing the battle, going in the direction of a savanna."When you clear land in a healthy system, it bounces back. But once you cross a certain threshold, a tipping point, it turns into a different kind of equilibrium. It becomes drier, there's less rain. It's no longer a forest."As well as storing and recycling vast amounts of greenhouse gas, the trees in the Amazon play a vital role in harvesting heat from the Earth's surface and transforming water vapour into condensation above the forest. This acts like a giant sprinkler system in the sky, Nobre explains..When the trees go and this system breaks down, the climate alters not only in the Amazon region but over a much wider area.</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-basename="time-running-out" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-point-of-no-return-2645509920.html?rebelltitem=4#rebelltitem4" data-id="4" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem4"><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Time Running Out</h3>"We used to say the Amazon had two seasons: the wet season and the wetter season," Nobre says. "Now, you have many months without a drop of water."Nobre spent many years living and carrying out research in the rainforest and is now attached to <a href="http://www3.inpe.br/50anos/english/presentation.php" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Brazil's National Institute for Space Research</a> (INPE).The vast majority of Brazilians, he says, are against deforestation and are concerned about climate change — but while he believes that there is still hope for the rainforest, he says that time is fast running out.Many leading figures in Brazil, including a group of powerful generals, have been shocked by the international reaction to the recent spate of fires in the Amazon and fear that the country is becoming a pariah on the global stage.Nobre is angry with his own government, but also with what he describes as the massive conspiracy on climate change perpetrated over the years by the oil, gas and coal lobbies.Ever since the late 1970s, the fossil fuel companies' scientists have known about the consequences of the build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere."They brought us to this situation knowingly," Nobre says. "It's not something they did out of irresponsible ignorance. They paid to bash the science."Jessica Rawnsley is a UK-based environmental journalist. She has written stories on the Extinction Rebellion movement and police tactics connected with demonstrations. She has a particular interest in campaigning groups and their influence on government climate policies.

===Antonio Donato Nobre is passionate about the Amazon region and despairs about the level of"Just when I thought the destruction couldn't get any worse, it has," says <a href="https://fru.to/en/palestrante/antonio-donato-nobre-en/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Nobre, one of Brazil's leading scientists</a> who has studied the Amazon — its unique flora and fauna, and its influence on both the local and global climate — for more than 40 years.<div class="rebellt-item col1" data-basename="particle-1" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-point-of-no-return-2645509920.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1" data-id="1" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem1">"In terms of the Earth's climate, we have gone beyond the point of no return. There's no doubt about this."For decades, he has fought against deforestation. There have been considerable ups and downs in that time, but he points out that Brazil was once a world-leader in controlling deforestation."We developed the system that's now being used by other countries," he told Climate News Network in an interview during his lecture tour of the UK."Using satellite data, we monitored and we controlled. From 2005 to 2012, Brazil managed to reduce up to 83% of deforestation."</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-basename="dramatic-increase" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-point-of-no-return-2645509920.html?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2" data-id="2" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem2"><h3>Dramatic Increase</h3>Then the law on land use was relaxed, and deforestation increased dramatically — by as much as 200 percent between 2017 and 2018.It's all become much worse since Jair Bolsonaro became Brazilian president at the beginning of last year, Nobre says."There are some dangerous people in office," he says. "The Minister of Environment is a <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-brazil-politics-minister/brazils-incoming-environment-minister-found-guilty-of-improper-conduct-idUKKCN1OJ2U1" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">convicted criminal.</a> The Minister of Foreign Affairs is a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/15/brazil-foreign-minister-ernesto-araujo-climate-change-marxist-plot" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">climate sceptic</a>."Nobre argues that Bolsonaro doesn't care about the Amazon and has contempt for environmentalists.His administration is encouraging the land grabbers who illegally take over protected or indigenous tribal land, which they then sell on to cattle ranchers and soybean conglomerates.For indigenous tribes, life has become more dangerous. "They are being murdered, their land is being invaded," Nobre says.In August last year, the world watched as large areas of the Amazon region — a <a href="https://climatenewsnetwork.net/tropical-forests-may-be-heating-earth-by-2035/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">vital carbon sink</a> sucking up and recycling global greenhouse gases — went up in flames.Nobre says the land grabbers had organised what they called a "day of fires" in August last year to honour Bolsonaro.</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-basename="particle-3" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-point-of-no-return-2645509920.html?rebelltitem=3#rebelltitem3" data-id="3" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem3">"Thousands of people organized, through WhatsApp, to make something visible from space," he says. "They hired people on motorbikes with gasoline jugs to <a href="https://climatenewsnetwork.net/bolsonaros-legal-bonfire-fuels-amazon-inferno/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">set fire to any land they could</a>."The impact on the Amazon is catastrophic, Nobre says. "Half of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/amazon-rainforest" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Amazon rainforest</a> to the east is gone — it's losing the battle, going in the direction of a savanna."When you clear land in a healthy system, it bounces back. But once you cross a certain threshold, a tipping point, it turns into a different kind of equilibrium. It becomes drier, there's less rain. It's no longer a forest."As well as storing and recycling vast amounts of greenhouse gas, the trees in the Amazon play a vital role in harvesting heat from the Earth's surface and transforming water vapour into condensation above the forest. This acts like a giant sprinkler system in the sky, Nobre explains..When the trees go and this system breaks down, the climate alters not only in the Amazon region but over a much wider area.</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-basename="time-running-out" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-point-of-no-return-2645509920.html?rebelltitem=4#rebelltitem4" data-id="4" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem4"><h3>Time Running Out</h3>"We used to say the Amazon had two seasons: the wet season and the wetter season," Nobre says. "Now, you have many months without a drop of water."Nobre spent many years living and carrying out research in the rainforest and is now attached to <a href="http://www3.inpe.br/50anos/english/presentation.php" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Brazil's National Institute for Space Research</a> (INPE).The vast majority of Brazilians, he says, are against deforestation and are concerned about climate change — but while he believes that there is still hope for the rainforest, he says that time is fast running out.Many leading figures in Brazil, including a group of powerful generals, have been shocked by the international reaction to the recent spate of fires in the Amazon and fear that the country is becoming a pariah on the global stage.Nobre is angry with his own government, but also with what he describes as the massive conspiracy on climate change perpetrated over the years by the oil, gas and coal lobbies.Ever since the late 1970s, the fossil fuel companies' scientists have known about the consequences of the build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere."They brought us to this situation knowingly," Nobre says. "It's not something they did out of irresponsible ignorance. They paid to bash the science."Jessica Rawnsley is a UK-based environmental journalist. She has written stories on the Extinction Rebellion movement and police tactics connected with demonstrations. She has a particular interest in campaigning groups and their influence on government climate policies.

...'This is a Sick Statement': Brazil's Bolsonaro, Under Pressure for Anti ... ›<div class="around-the-webheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase; visibility: hidden; margin-top: 20px !important; margin-bottom: -5px !important;"><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none;"><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://mashable.com/article/amazon-rainforest-fires-tipping-point-deforestation/" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">The Amazon rainforest has a point of no return ›</a></li></ul></div></div></div><div class="tags" style="margin: 20px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/amazon-rainforest" style="text-decoration-line: none; margin: 4px 2px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1; border-radius: 20px; border: 2px solid rgb(232, 232, 232); padding: 6px 11px;">amazon rainforest</a> <a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/rainforests" style="text-decoration-line: none; margin: 4px 2px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1; border-radius: 20px; border: 2px solid rgb(232, 232, 232); padding: 6px 11px;">rainforests</a> <a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/forests" style="text-decoration-line: none; margin: 4px 2px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1; border-radius: 20px; border: 2px solid rgb(232, 232, 232); padding: 6px 11px;">forests</a> <a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/deforestation" style="text-decoration-line: none; margin: 4px 2px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1; border-radius: 20px; border: 2px solid rgb(232, 232, 232); padding: 6px 11px;">deforestation</a> <a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biodiversity" style="text-decoration-line: none; margin: 4px 2px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1; border-radius: 20px; border: 2px solid rgb(232, 232, 232); padding: 6px 11px;">biodiversity</a> <a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/jair-bolsonaro" style="text-decoration-line: none; margin: 4px 2px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1; border-radius: 20px; border: 2px solid rgb(232, 232, 232); padding: 6px 11px;">jair bolsonaro</a> <a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/brazil" style="text-decoration-line: none; margin: 4px 2px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1; border-radius: 20px; border: 2px solid rgb(232, 232, 232); padding: 6px 11px;">brazil</a></div></div><div></div><div>new sci report net emitter carbon by _</div><div>
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</div><div></div><div><a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-people-may-be-the-amazons-last-hope-130941">https://theconversation.com/indigenous-people-may-be-the-amazons-last-hope-130941</a></div><div>
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</div><div></div><div><a href="https://secure.earthjustice.org/site/R?i=ntYlzkOm1PlsNWyJMPYRJA">https://secure.earthjustice.org/site/R?i=ntYlzkOm1PlsNWyJMPYRJA</a></div><div>
</div><div>activist</div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">amazonwatch 1219</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span open="Open" sans="Sans" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" text-align="text-align" justify="justify" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="">We have been holding back industrial development and resource extraction in the Amazon all decade: from <strong open="Open" sans="Sans" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" text-align="text-align" justify="justify" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="">stopping the Tapajos mega-dam<span open="Open" sans="Sans" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" text-align="text-align" justify="justify" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style=""> on the last free-flowing Amazon River tributary in Brazil, to <strong open="Open" sans="Sans" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" text-align="text-align" justify="justify" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="">backing Sarayaku's precedent-setting legal victory<span open="Open" sans="Sans" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" text-align="text-align" justify="justify" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style=""> when the Inter-American Court ruled that Ecuador had violated their rights by allowing oil drilling on their land, to <strong open="Open" sans="Sans" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" text-align="text-align" justify="justify" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="">winning the historic $9.5 billion judgement against Chevron<span open="Open" sans="Sans" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" text-align="text-align" justify="justify" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style=""> for deliberately polluting the Ecuadorian Amazon, to <strong open="Open" sans="Sans" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" text-align="text-align" justify="justify" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="">standing with the U’wa people of Colombia<span open="Open" sans="Sans" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" text-align="text-align" justify="justify" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style=""> who successfully dismantled the Magallanes gas project on their sacred lands.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div></div><div></div><div><a href="https://theconversation.com/statistic-of-the-decade-the-massive-deforestation-of-the-amazon-128307">https://theconversation.com/statistic-of-the-decade-the-massive-deforestation-of-the-amazon-128307</a></div><div>
</div><div>This year, I was on the judging panel for the Royal Statistical Society’s International Statistic of the Decade.</div>Much like <a href="https://languages.oup.com/word-of-the-year/2019/" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Oxford English Dictionary’s “Word of the Year” competition</a>, the international statistic is meant to capture the zeitgeist of this decade. The judging panel accepted nominations from the statistical community and the public at large for a statistic that shines a light on the decade’s most pressing issues.On Dec. 23, we announced the winner: the <a href="https://www.statslife.org.uk/" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">8.4 million</a> soccer fields of land deforested in the Amazon over the past decade. That’s 24,000 square miles, or about 10.3 million American football fields.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">This statistic, while giving only a snapshot of the issue, provides insight into the <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-brazils-rainforests-the-worst-fires-are-likely-still-to-come-122840" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">dramatic change to this landscape</a> over the last 10 years. Since 2010, mile upon mile of rainforest has been replaced with a wide range of commercial developments, <a href="https://wwf.panda.org/our_work/forests/deforestation_fronts2/deforestation_in_the_amazon/" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">including cattle ranching, logging and the palm oil industry</a>.This calculation by the committee is based on <a href="http://www.obt.inpe.br/OBT/assuntos/programas/amazonia/deter" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">deforestation monitoring</a> results from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, as well as <a href="https://img.fifa.com/image/upload/khhloe2xoigyna8juxw3.pdf" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">FIFA’s regulations</a> on soccer pitch dimensions.<h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Calculating the cost</h2><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">There are a number of reasons why this deforestation matters – financial, environmental and social.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">First of all, <a href="https://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/amazon_people.html" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">20 million to</a> <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/places/amazon" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">30 million people live in</a> the Amazon rainforest and depend on it for survival. It’s also the home to <a href="https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-animals-live-in-the-amazon-rainforest.html" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">thousands of species of plants and animals</a>, many at risk of extinction.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Second, <a href="https://www.livescience.com/57266-amazon-river.html" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">one-fifth of the world’s fresh water</a> is in the Amazon Basin, supplying water to the world by releasing water vapor into the atmosphere that <a href="https://eos.org/articles/deforestation-could-exacerbate-drought-in-the-amazon" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">can travel</a> thousands of miles. But unprecedented droughts have plagued Brazil this decade, <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/deforestation-lead-drought/" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">attributed to the deforestation</a> of the Amazon.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><a href="https://www.as-coa.org/articles/brazil-update-historic-drought-takes-toll-agriculture" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">During the droughts</a>, in Sao Paulo state, some farmers say they lost over one-third of their crops due to the water shortage. The government promised the coffee industry almost US$300 million to help with their losses.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Finally, the Amazon rainforest is responsible for storing over <a href="https://interactive.pri.org/2018/10/amazon-carbon/science.html" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">180 billion tons</a> of carbon alone. When trees are cleared or burned, <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/amazon-rainforest-is-taking-up-a-third-less-carbon-than-a-decade-ago" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">that carbon is released</a> back into the atmosphere. Studies show that <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/9/26/17897614/climate-change-social-cost-carbon" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">the social cost of carbon emissions is about $417 per ton</a>.Finally, as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0175-0" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">a November 2018 study shows</a>, the Amazon <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bje7wd/the-amazon-is-worth-more-money-left-standing-study-shows" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">could generate</a> over $8 billion each year if just left alone, from sustainable industries including nut farming and rubber, as well as the environmental effects.<h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Financial gain?</h2>Some might argue that there has been a financial gain from deforestation and that it really <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2019/08/26/why-everything-they-say-about-the-amazon-including-that-its-the-lungs-of-the-world-is-wrong/#6e56c7b35bde" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">isn’t a bad</a> thing. Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, went so far as to say that saving the Amazon is an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/17/climate/brazil-election-amazon-environment.html" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">impediment to economic growth</a> and that “where there is indigenous land, there is wealth underneath it.”In an effort to be just as thoughtful in that sense, let’s take a look. Assume each acre of rainforest converted into farmland is worth about $1,000, which is <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/09/2012913112137744956.html" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">about what U.S. farmers have paid</a> to buy productive farmland in Brazil. Then, over the past decade, that farmland amounts to about $1 billion.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">The deforested land <a href="https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/amazon/land-use/cattle-ranching" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">mainly contributes</a> to cattle raising for slaughter and sale. There are a little over 200 million <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2019/july/brazil-once-again-becomes-the-world-s-largest-beef-exporter/" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">cattle in Brazil</a>. Assuming the <a href="https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb1167344.pdf" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">two cows per acre</a>, the extra land means a gain of about $20 billion for Brazil.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Chump change compared to the economic loss from deforestation. The farmers, commercial interest groups and others looking for cheap land all have a clear vested interest in deforestation going ahead, but any possible short-term gain is clearly <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bje7wd/the-amazon-is-worth-more-money-left-standing-study-shows" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">outweighed by long-term loss</a>.<h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Rebounding</h2>Right now, <a href="http://terrabrasilis.dpi.inpe.br/app/dashboard/alerts/legal/amazon/aggregated/en" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">every minute</a>, over three football fields of Amazon rainforest are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-losing-3-football-fields-worth-of-rainforest-per-minute-2019-8" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">being lost</a>.What if someone wanted to replant the lost rainforest? Many charity organizations are raising money to do just that.At the cost of over <a href="https://www.eniday.com/en/technology_en/largest-reforestation-project-rainforest/" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">$2,000 per acre</a> – and that is the cheapest I could find – it isn’t cheap, totaling over $30 billion to replace what the Amazon lost this decade.Still, the studies that I’ve seen and my calculations suggest that trillions have been lost due to deforestation over the past decade alone.<div></div><div>yikes OMFG note models not good at tip pt</div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/top-scientists-warn-of-an-amazon-tipping-point/2019/12/20">https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/top-scientists-warn-of-an-amazon-tipping-point/2019/12/20</a></div><div>
</div><div>dec. 20, 2019 at 12:14 p.m. PST</div><div class="article-body"><div class="teaser-content"><section><div>Deforestation and other fast-moving changes in the Amazon threaten to turn parts of the rainforest into savanna, devastate wildlife and release billions of tons carbon into the atmosphere, two renowned experts warned Friday.</div><div>“The precious Amazon is teetering on the edge of functional destruction and, with it, so are we,” Thomas Lovejoy of George Mason University and Carlos Nobre of the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, both of whom have studied the world’s largest rainforest for decades, wrote in an editorial in the journal Science Advances.“Today, we stand exactly in a moment of destiny: The tipping point is here, it is now.”</div></section></div><div class="remainder-content"><section><div>Combined with recent news that the thawing Arctic permafrost may be beginning to fill the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, and that Greenland’s ice sheet is melting at an accelerating pace, it’s the latest hint that important parts of the climate system may be moving toward irreversible changes at a pace that defies earlier predictions.The speed of the transformation in some key systems, such as Greenland’s ice and the Arctic’s permafrost, has “indeed been underestimated by climate science,” said Stefan Rahmstorf, the head of Earth system analysis at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. “And that’s partly because we cannot really capture them well in our models.”</div><div>
</div><div>In interviews, Lovejoy and Nobre said they decided to sound a dire alarm about the Amazon after witnessing the acceleration of troubling trends. The combination of rising temperatures, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/08/21/amazonian-rainforest-is-ablaze-turning-day-into-night-brazils-capital-city/?tid=lk_inline_manual_7" style="text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">crippling wildfires </a>and ongoing land clearing for cattle ranching and crops has extended dry seasons, killed off water-sensitive vegetation and created conditions for more fire....

The Amazon is 17 percent deforested, but for the large portion of it inside Brazil, the figure is closer to 20 percent. The fear is that soon there will be so little forest that the trees, which not only soak up enormous quantities of rainwater but also give off mist that aids agriculture and sustains innumerable species, won’t be able to recycle enough rainfall.At that point, much of the rainforest could decline into a drier savanna ecosystem. Rainfall patterns would change across much of South America. Several hundred billion tons of carbon dioxide could wind up in the atmosphere, worsening climate change. And such a feedback loop would be tough to reverse.</div><div>That point of no return, commonly referred to by scientists as a tipping point, “is much closer than we anticipated,” Nobre said in an interview.</div><div>The troubling news comes on top of other alarming developments regarding the Earth’s climate.</div><div>This month, nearly 100 scientists <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/12/10/greenland-ice-losses-have-septupled-are-pace-sea-level-worst-case-scenario-scientists-say/?tid=lk_inline_manual_15" style="text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">detailed how the Greenland ice sheet’s </a>losses have accelerated in recent decades, growing from 33 billion tons lost per year in the 1990s to a current average of 254 billion tons annually.</div><div><div>“Greenland is losing ice faster than expected, partly because climate models aren’t good at predicting extreme melting events, but also because many of the ice sheet’s smaller glaciers have started to speed up, too,” said Andrew Shepherd, a glaciologist at the University of Leeds in Britain who led the latest study. “So the [worst]-case scenario now becomes business as usual."</div><div>Separately, a report this month from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration laid out evidence suggesting that the global Arctic already has become a net emitter of carbon dioxide because of the thawing permafrost. That would be a profound shift for a region that includes vast stretches of Alaska, Canada, Siberia and Greenland, and which has<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/climate-environment/climate-change-siberia/?tid=lk_inline_manual_20" style="text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);"> long stored massive amounts of carbon </a>in its frozen soil.</div><div>At the same time, a global die-off of coral reefs in 2016 and 2017, which included the loss of nearly half of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, shocked scientists.</div><div><div>“Compared to coral bleaching in 1998 and 2002, the 2016 event was much more extreme — hotter, far more extensive, and deadlier,” said Terry Hughes, an expert on the reef and the director of the ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University in Australia. “The reef has changed forever."While the speed of the changes involving the Amazon, permafrost and ice sheets has surprised experts, models that scientists created decades ago regarding the average global temperature have largely held true.</div><div>The world has experienced about 1 degree Celsius, or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, of warming since the late 19th century, largely because of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity.</div><div><div>But much of the Arctic has already warmed by 2 degrees Celsius and some regions even more.</div><div>The Amazon also is warming at an accelerated rate. An analysis by The Washington Post of global temperature changes found that almost the entirety of Brazil has warmed by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, since the late 1800s.</div><div>Higher temperatures and deforestation are drying out parts of the Amazon and posing a fundamental threat to the rainforest.In the southern Amazon dry season in particular, temperatures are already 3 degrees Celsius higher than in the 1980s, and the dry season is getting longer, exceeding four months in some regions, Nobre said.</div><div><div>Particularly worrying, he said, is a recent study showing how trees are faring in more than 100 locations across the Amazon. Led by Adriane Esquivel Muelbert of the University of Leeds, researchers found forest transition has begun — trees accustomed to dry conditions are more likely to grow now while trees that require more moisture are disproportionately dying in places where climate changes are the greatest.</div><div>Paulo Brando, a tropical ecologist and professor at the University of California at Irvine who has long studied the Amazon, said it is tricky to try to determine the tipping point."The definition of ‘tipping point’ can be quite broad,” Brando said, so it is difficult to say whether the Amazon has reached what scientists would call a point of irreversible change. But this much is clear, he added: “We’re not moving away from that tipping point. We’re probably driving very fast toward that direction.”</div><div><div>The impact of changes to the Amazon reach far beyond South America. The rainforest stores an immense amount of carbon in its enormous trees, and if they die, that carbon is released.</div><div>In a radically different part of the world, scientists last week described something eerily similar.</div><div>Ted Schuur, an expert on northern permafrost at Northern Arizona University, wrote in NOAA’s 2019 Arctic Report Card that recent studies suggest that the thawing of the permafrost — a repository for millennia of dead plant and animal remains — is likely to be contributing carbon dioxide to the atmosphere as those once-frozen materials begin to decompos.For the “science community at large,” Schuur said in an email, “this is a ‘surprising’ confirmation that the data show the Arctic currently acting as a carbon source.”</div><div><div>Schurr’s reasoning is based heavily on a groundbreaking study led by Susan Natali of the Woods Hole Research Center, research that is in many ways parallel to the new Amazon study. It pools the results from large numbers of scientists across the Arctic to show that in winter, permafrost soils are already emitting a lot of carbon. And those releases are probably enough to offset what happens in the growing season, when Arctic plant growth absorbs carbon.</div><div>The models that scientists have used to try to determine how the Arctic region is processing carbon were too conservative when it came to losses in winter in particular, Natali said. As a result, the potential for a transition of the Arctic from a “sink” that takes up carbon to a “source” that emits it may have been underestimated."The models, they project that to be happening quite a ways out in the future, but I would say it’s happening now,” Natali said.</div><div>Occasional extreme heat events in the Arctic can cause abrupt hillside collapses or “thaw slumps,” which rapidly expose very old and deep permafrost to the open air. Meanwhile, worsening Arctic fires can quickly remove insulating soil and vegetation layers from large stretches of permafrost, suddenly exposing it to the sun.</div><div>“It’s like you’re opening the top of a cooler,” Natali said.</div><div>In combination, the Amazon and Arctic news underscores that even as humans are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/12/03/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-will-hit-yet-another-record-high-this-year-experts-project/?tid=lk_inline_manual_51" style="text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">largely failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions</a>, the Earth may increase such emissions yet further.</div><div>Still, it is possible to slow the transformation of the Amazon through reforestation, researchers said.</div><div>“A tipping point is a way to talk about a moment of system shift or system change,” Lovejoy said. “In this case, it’s not going to be instantaneous, and that’s good news. It allows you to do something about it.”</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></section></div></div><div></div></div><div><div></div><div>ref</div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/12/eaba2949">https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/12/eaba2949</a></div><div>
</div><div>Amazon tipping point: Last chance for action</div><header class="articleheader" style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 699px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="articleexpandable-area collapsed" style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 699px;"><div class="article byline byline--article" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px;"><div class="highwire-markup" style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div id="content-block-markup" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: background-color 1s ease-in-out 1s;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><div class="contributors" style="box-sizing: inherit;" xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><ol class="contributor-list" id="contrib-group-1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 15px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; transition: background-color 1s ease-in-out 1s; white-space: nowrap; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis;"><li class="contributor" id="contrib-1" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: background-color 1s ease-in-out 1s; display: inline; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Thomas E. Lovejoy and </li><li class="last" id="contrib-2" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: background-color 1s ease-in-out 1s; display: inline; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Carlos Nobre</li></ol></div></div></div></div></div> See all authors and affiliations</header><div class="meta-line" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 15px 0px 0px; width: 699px; line-height: 1.1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><cite style="box-sizing: inherit;">Science Advances </cite> 20 Dec 2019: Vol. 5, no. 12, eaba2949 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aba2949</div></div><div></div><div>yikes</div><div><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/top-scientists-warn-of-an-amazon-tipping-point/2019/12/20">https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/top-scientists-warn-of-an-amazon-tipping-point/2019/12/20</a></div><div>
</div><div>dec. 20, 2019 at 12:14 p.m. PST</div><div class="article-body" style=""><div class="teaser-content"><section><div>Deforestation and other fast-moving changes in the Amazon threaten to turn parts of the rainforest into savanna, devastate wildlife and release billions of tons carbon into the atmosphere, two renowned experts warned Friday.</div><div>“The precious Amazon is teetering on the edge of functional destruction and, with it, so are we,” Thomas Lovejoy of George Mason University and Carlos Nobre of the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, both of whom have studied the world’s largest rainforest for decades, wrote in an editorial in the journal Science Advances. “Today, we stand exactly in a moment of destiny: The tipping point is here, it is now.”</div></section></div><div class="remainder-content"><section><div>Combined with recent news that the thawing Arctic permafrost may be beginning to fill the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, and that Greenland’s ice sheet is melting at an accelerating pace, it’s the latest hint that important parts of the climate system may be moving toward irreversible changes at a pace that defies earlier predictions.The speed of the transformation in some key systems, such as Greenland’s ice and the Arctic’s permafrost, has “indeed been underestimated by climate science,” said Stefan Rahmstorf, the head of Earth system analysis at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. “And that’s partly because we cannot really capture them well in our models.”</div><div>
</div><div>In interviews, Lovejoy and Nobre said they decided to sound a dire alarm about the Amazon after witnessing the acceleration of troubling trends. The combination of rising temperatures, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/08/21/amazonian-rainforest-is-ablaze-turning-day-into-night-brazils-capital-city/?tid=lk_inline_manual_7" style="text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">crippling wildfires </a>and ongoing land clearing for cattle ranching and crops has extended dry seasons, killed off water-sensitive vegetation and created conditions for more fire.How we know that global warming is real]</div><div>The Amazon is 17 percent deforested, but for the large portion of it inside Brazil, the figure is closer to 20 percent. The fear is that soon there will be so little forest that the trees, which not only soak up enormous quantities of rainwater but also give off mist that aids agriculture and sustains innumerable species, won’t be able to recycle enough rainfall.At that point, much of the rainforest could decline into a drier savanna ecosystem. Rainfall patterns would change across much of South America. Several hundred billion tons of carbon dioxide could wind up in the atmosphere, worsening climate change. And such a feedback loop would be tough to reverse.</div><div>That point of no return, commonly referred to by scientists as a tipping point, “is much closer than we anticipated,” Nobre said in an interview.</div><div>The troubling news comes on top of other alarming developments regarding the Earth’s climate.</div><div>This month, nearly 100 scientists <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/12/10/greenland-ice-losses-have-septupled-are-pace-sea-level-worst-case-scenario-scientists-say/?tid=lk_inline_manual_15" style="text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">detailed how the Greenland ice sheet’s </a>losses have accelerated in recent decades, growing from 33 billion tons lost per year in the 1990s to a current average of 254 billion tons annually.</div><div><div>“Greenland is losing ice faster than expected, partly because climate models aren’t good at predicting extreme melting events, but also because many of the ice sheet’s smaller glaciers have started to speed up, too,” said Andrew Shepherd, a glaciologist at the University of Leeds in Britain who led the latest study. “So the [worst]-case scenario now becomes business as usual."</div><div>Separately, a report this month from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration laid out evidence suggesting that the global Arctic already has become a net emitter of carbon dioxide because of the thawing permafrost. That would be a profound shift for a region that includes vast stretches of Alaska, Canada, Siberia and Greenland, and which has<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/climate-environment/climate-change-siberia/?tid=lk_inline_manual_20" style="text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);"> long stored massive amounts of carbon </a>in its frozen soil.</div><div>At the same time, a global die-off of coral reefs in 2016 and 2017, which included the loss of nearly half of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, shocked scientists.</div><div><div>“Compared to coral bleaching in 1998 and 2002, the 2016 event was much more extreme — hotter, far more extensive, and deadlier,” said Terry Hughes, an expert on the reef and the director of the ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University in Australia. “The reef has changed forever."While the speed of the changes involving the Amazon, permafrost and ice sheets has surprised experts, models that scientists created decades ago regarding the average global temperature have largely held true.</div><div>The world has experienced about 1 degree Celsius, or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, of warming since the late 19th century, largely because of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity.</div><div><div>But much of the Arctic has already warmed by 2 degrees Celsius and some regions even more.</div><div>The Amazon also is warming at an accelerated rate. An analysis by The Washington Post of global temperature changes found that almost the entirety of Brazil has warmed by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, since the late 1800s.</div><div>Higher temperatures and deforestation are drying out parts of the Amazon and posing a fundamental threat to the rainforest.In the southern Amazon dry season in particular, temperatures are already 3 degrees Celsius higher than in the 1980s, and the dry season is getting longer, exceeding four months in some regions, Nobre said.</div><div><div>Particularly worrying, he said, is a recent study showing how trees are faring in more than 100 locations across the Amazon. Led by Adriane Esquivel Muelbert of the University of Leeds, researchers found forest transition has begun — trees accustomed to dry conditions are more likely to grow now while trees that require more moisture are disproportionately dying in places where climate changes are the greatest.</div><div>Paulo Brando, a tropical ecologist and professor at the University of California at Irvine who has long studied the Amazon, said it is tricky to try to determine the tipping point."The definition of ‘tipping point’ can be quite broad,” Brando said, so it is difficult to say whether the Amazon has reached what scientists would call a point of irreversible change. But this much is clear, he added: “We’re not moving away from that tipping point. We’re probably driving very fast toward that direction.”</div><div><div>The impact of changes to the Amazon reach far beyond South America. The rainforest stores an immense amount of carbon in its enormous trees, and if they die, that carbon is released.</div><div>In a radically different part of the world, scientists last week described something eerily similar.</div><div>Ted Schuur, an expert on northern permafrost at Northern Arizona University, wrote in NOAA’s 2019 Arctic Report Card that recent studies suggest that the thawing of the permafrost — a repository for millennia of dead plant and animal remains — is likely to be contributing carbon dioxide to the atmosphere as those once-frozen materials begin to decompos.For the “science community at large,” Schuur said in an email, “this is a ‘surprising’ confirmation that the data show the Arctic currently acting as a carbon source.”</div><div><div>Schurr’s reasoning is based heavily on a groundbreaking study led by Susan Natali of the Woods Hole Research Center, research that is in many ways parallel to the new Amazon study. It pools the results from large numbers of scientists across the Arctic to show that in winter, permafrost soils are already emitting a lot of carbon. And those releases are probably enough to offset what happens in the growing season, when Arctic plant growth absorbs carbon.</div><div>The models that scientists have used to try to determine how the Arctic region is processing carbon were too conservative when it came to losses in winter in particular, Natali said. As a result, the potential for a transition of the Arctic from a “sink” that takes up carbon to a “source” that emits it may have been underestimated."The models, they project that to be happening quite a ways out in the future, but I would say it’s happening now,” Natali said.</div><div>Occasional extreme heat events in the Arctic can cause abrupt hillside collapses or “thaw slumps,” which rapidly expose very old and deep permafrost to the open air. Meanwhile, worsening Arctic fires can quickly remove insulating soil and vegetation layers from large stretches of permafrost, suddenly exposing it to the sun.</div><div>“It’s like you’re opening the top of a cooler,” Natali said.</div><div>In combination, the Amazon and Arctic news underscores that even as humans are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/12/03/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-will-hit-yet-another-record-high-this-year-experts-project/?tid=lk_inline_manual_51" style="text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">largely failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions</a>, the Earth may increase such emissions yet further.</div><div>Still, it is possible to slow the transformation of the Amazon through reforestation, researchers said.</div><div>“A tipping point is a way to talk about a moment of system shift or system change,” Lovejoy said. “In this case, it’s not going to be instantaneous, and that’s good news. It allows you to do something about it.”</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></section></div></div><div></div><div><a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/forests/money-to-burn-how-iconic-banks-and-investors-fund-the-destruction-of-the-worlds-largest-rainforests/">https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/forests/money-to-burn-how-iconic-banks-and-investors-fund-the-destruction-of-the-worlds-largest-rainforests/</a></div><div>
</div><div>see global wit</div><div>
</div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/forests/money-to-burn-how-iconic-banks-and-investors-fund-the-destruction-of-the-worlds-largest-rainforests/" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/forests/money-to-burn-how-iconic-banks-and-investors-fund-the-destruction-of-the-worlds-largest-rainforests/</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div>no lnx many </div><div>Forest burning - Reuters</div><div>Article / Sept. 23, 2019</div><div>
</div><div>MONEY TO BURN</div><div>More than 300 banks and investors back six of the world’s most harmful agribusinesses to the tune of $44bn</div><div>
</div><div>Barclays, HSBC and Santander among high street names behind companies implicated in rainforest destruction.</div><div>Iconic investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley also among key financiers.</div><div>The burning of the Brazilian Amazon this summer illustrated in the most graphic way possible humanity’s war on the planet.</div><div>
</div><div>But such scenes play out every year in rainforests all around the world to make way for big agribusiness, away from the horrified stare of global television audiences. These forests are earth’s front-line defence against climate breakdown. One famous study published in 2017 estimated that forests and other ecosystems could make up more than a third of the total carbon mitigation by 2030 needed to limit global heating to a 2° Celsius rise.</div><div>
</div><div>Yet between 2001 and 2015, over 300 million hectares of tree cover was destroyed: nearly the size of India. About a quarter of this loss was driven by the production of commodities such as beef and palm oil, according to a recent study. It also found that in south-east Asia alone, deforestation for growing commodities such as palm oil is responsible for as much as 78% of tree cover loss. This is madness.</div><div>
</div><div>That being the case, it is unsurprising many banks and investors proudly trumpet policies on ethical dealing, promising not to pump money into companies that fell and burn precious rainforests. There is only one problem: the same financial institutions often break their own policies at will, making them barely worth the paper they are printed on. A Global Witness investigation now exposes the sheer size and scale of these financial flows – and reveals how a veritable A to Z of global finance is enabling the destruction of the world’s biggest rainforests.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>The companies razing forests to produce palm oil, beef, and rubber are currently able to secure financing for new projects at commercially attractive rates from banking hubs in the US, Europe and Asia. Global Witness investigated the financing of six huge agribusinesses: three operating in the Amazon, two in the Congo Basin, and one in New Guinea.</div><div>
</div><div>Global Witness has discovered that between 2013 and 2019, they were backed to the tune of $44 billion by over 300 investment firms, banks, and pension funds headquartered across the globe. The household name institutions our exposé highlights will be familiar to anyone who has looked at the skyline of Wall Street or Canary Wharf, read a quality newspaper or opened a current account.</div><div>
</div><div>While some of these institutions have developed their own deforestation policies, there is no penalty if they ignore them – and they often do. Governments’ failure to regulate the financing of deforestation has left the foxes in charge of the hen-house. Members of the public may be shocked to learn the institutions they bank with enable the sort of apocalyptic destruction witnessed in the Brazilian Amazon this summer.</div><div>
</div><div>Ordinary people’s pension funds and investments are channelled into companies revving up the climate crisis, stripping indigenous peoples of their ancestral lands and destroying the forests home to untold numbers of species.</div><div>
</div><div>Over the last decade, many financial institutions have committed to tackling deforestation, so often associated with human rights abuses or corruption. One group of 56 investors To inspect full datasets see bottom of page.jpgmanaging approximately $7.9 trillion in assets has urged the palm oil sector to commit to no-deforestation policies. Some 12 banks adopted the Soft Commodities Compact, aiming to achieve net zero deforestation by 2020 in the soy, palm oil, beef and pulp/paper supply chains of around 400 companies with combined sales of 3.5 trillion euros.</div><div>
</div><div>But there remains little transparency and accountability over how banks put commitments into practice, and signatories now admit they will miss the 2020 target. Meanwhile, the world’s largest financial institutions continue to sink vast sums into companies either levelling forests themselves or via other companies, often in blatant violation of their own deforestation policies and public commitments.</div><div>
</div><div>The NGO Global Canopy assessed 150 financial institutions and found nearly two-thirds had no policy covering four key forest-risk commodities, beef, soy, palm oil and timber. Yet as our investigation shows, even existing policies are widely ignored.</div><div>
</div><div>[</div><div>One of the most biodiverse regions in the world is being cleared, mostly to make room for a single species: cattle. Image credit: Getty Images</div><div>
</div><div>Global Witness can now reveal some of the largest names in global finance – Barclays, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Santander and Standard Chartered among them—provided tens of billions of dollars in financing between 2013 and 2019 to companies either directly or indirectly deforesting the largest rainforests in the world. Leading investment banks including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley are also implicated. And what you are about to read only scratches the surface of a global systems failure.</div><div>
</div><div>WHAT WE DID...</div></div></div><div></div><div><a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/11/25/amazon-bolsonaro-dorothy-stang-brazil/">https://theintercept.com/2019/11/25/amazon-bolsonaro-dorothy-stang-brazil/</a></div><div>
</div><div>Doti ...Stang was a pioneer in popularizing the concept of sustainability in the far reaches of the Amazon. Since the 1980s, she had united female rural leaders, encouraged the organization of settlers into collectives, and taught sustainable forest management to workers with no formal education. She wasn’t content to let people starve while the federal government was the largest landowner in the country, and enormous areas were unused or barely occupied. The PDSs, for her, were a way to guarantee sustenance for impoverished families and protect the environment at the same time.</div>Such was Stang’s dedication to helping the poor that she often sheltered families in the blue-green house where she lived, right beside the church in Anapu, a city in the state of Pará. While she was working on establishing the PDSs, Stang sometimes slept in the corridors of <a data-tooltip="The Brazilian federal agency in charge of agrarian reform and land issues" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; border: 1px solid rgb(254, 192, 195); position: relative; padding: 0.15em 0.25em;">INCRA’s</a> offices to pressure them, INCRA employees say. Despite her advanced age, she would take a bus to meetings in Belém, a distant 372 miles from Anapu, and go by motorcycle to access remote corners of the forest. Noemi Miyasaka, a professor at the Federal University of Pará who had followed Stang’s efforts since 1999, told me, “She was tireless and never gave up.”The missionary’s work was urgent — and remains so — because Pará, a state bigger than Texas and California put together, is the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/04/deforestation-of-brazilian-amazon-surges-to-record-high-bolsonaro" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">deforestation capital</a> of the world’s largest tropical forest. The missionary chose Pará for two settlements, Esperança and Virola-Jatobá, comprising 260 square miles....<div></div><div><div>Climate Crimes</div><div>
</div><div>UNDER LEFT AND RIGHT-WING LEADERS, THE AMAZON HAS BURNED. CAN LATIN AMERICA REJECT OIL, RANCHING, AND MINING?</div><div>Alexander Zaitchik</div><div>The social gains of the pink tide were real, and striking. But they were ephemeral, and the cost to the environment was high.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/12/07/amazon-latin-america-extractivism/">https://theintercept.com/2019/12/07/amazon-latin-america-extractivism/</a></div></div><div><div>=</div><div><a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2019/11/4/paulo_paulino_guajajara_amazon_indigenous_killings">https://www.democracynow.org/2019/11/4/paulo_paulino_guajajara_amazon_indigenous_killings</a></div><div>
</div><div>indigenous forest protector named Paulo Paulino Guajajara was shot dead in the Amazon by illegal loggers on Saturday. It is the latest incident in a wave of violence targeting indigenous land protectors since the election of Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro last year. Guajajara was killed when he and another forest protector were ambushed by a group of illegal loggers inside the Araribóia reservation in the northeastern state of Maranhão. We speak with João Coimbra Sousa, a field coordinator and legal adviser for Amazon Watch, in São Luís in the northeastern state of Maranhão. And in San Francisco, we speak with Christian Poirier, program director at Amazon Watch.</div><div>...</div><div>There are markets that are sustaining these actors, these logging mafias, the worst actors in Brazil’s agribusiness sector, that are exporting commodities to the North. We are buying these products; we are complicit in what’s happening today. And our financial institutions, institutions like JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock, BNP Paribas, Santander in Spain, are fueling this crisis with their money to the worst actors in the soy, in the beef and in the timber industries, for example, that are decimating the Amazon and its peoples today. We have a responsibility in the North.</div><div>=</div></div><div></div><div>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-paraguay-rural-communities-facing-deforestation-see-power-and-profit-in-a-beloved-drink-122749" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">Paraguay, rural communities facing deforestation see power – and profit – in a beloved drink</a></div><header style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 165px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative;"><div class="article--header" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><p class="byline" style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 2px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 1.2; clear: both;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/peter-friederici-320146" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">Peter Friederici</a>, <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Northern Arizona University</div></header><div class="content" data-raw="" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 165px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Yerba mate is a wildly popular South American tea with a growing global market. Can this 'superfood' save Paraguay's tropical forests, too?</div><div></div><div><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://ecowatch.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=214ab5fbb3f6015d74ffab4ec&id=2290528c8d&e=c2e8fdabfa" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">At Least 500 Jaguars Lost Their Lives or Habitat in Amazon Fires</a></div><div>
</div><div>ew 919</div><div></div><div><a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/09/17/brazil-criminal-networks-target-rainforest-defenders">https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/09/17/brazil-criminal-networks-target-rainforest-defenders</a></div><div>
</div><div>SSão Paulo) – Deforestation in the <a href="https://www.hrw.org/americas/brazil" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; transition-property: color, background-color; transition-duration: 0.4s;" freight="Freight" text="Text" w03="W03" w01="W01" garamond="Garamond" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px">Brazilian</a> Amazon is driven largely by criminal networks that use violence and intimidation against those who try to stop them, and the government is failing to protect both the defenders and the rainforest itself, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. </div><p style="margin: 1.55556rem auto; max-width: 900px; width: 900px;" freight="Freight" text="Text" w03="W03" w01="W01" garamond="Garamond" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The 165-page report, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/09/17/rainforest-mafias/how-violence-and-impunity-fuel-deforestation-brazils-amazon" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition-property: color, background-color; transition-duration: 0.4s;">“Rainforest Mafias: How Violence and Impunity Fuel Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon,”</a> documents how illegal logging by criminal networks and resulting forest fires are connected to acts of violence and intimidation against forest defenders and the state’s failure to investigate and prosecute these crimes. <p style="margin: 1.55556rem auto; max-width: 900px; width: 900px;" freight="Freight" text="Text" w03="W03" w01="W01" garamond="Garamond" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“Brazilians who defend the Amazon are facing threats and attacks from criminal networks engaged in illegal logging,” said <a href="https://www.hrw.org/about/people/daniel-wilkinson" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition-property: color, background-color; transition-duration: 0.4s;">Daniel Wilkinson</a>, acting environment and human rights director at Human Right Watch. “The situation is only getting worse under President Bolsonaro, whose assault on the country’s environmental agencies is putting the rainforest and the people who live there at much greater risk.”<p style="margin: 1.55556rem auto; max-width: 900px; width: 900px;" freight="Freight" text="Text" w03="W03" w01="W01" garamond="Garamond" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The criminal networks have the logistical capacity to coordinate large-scale extraction, processing, and sale of timber, while deploying armed men to intimidate and, in some cases, kill those who seek to defend the forest, Human Rights Watch found.<p style="margin: 1.55556rem auto; max-width: 900px; width: 900px;" freight="Freight" text="Text" w03="W03" w01="W01" garamond="Garamond" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">On September 23, 2019 the United Nations will hold a summit meeting to discuss global efforts to mitigate climate change. As its contribution to those efforts, Brazil committed in 2016 to eliminate illegal deforestation in the Amazon by 2030.<p style="margin: 1.55556rem auto; max-width: 900px; width: 900px;" freight="Freight" text="Text" w03="W03" w01="W01" garamond="Garamond" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 170 people, including 60 members of Indigenous communities, and other local residents in the states of Maranhão, Pará, and Rondônia. Researchers also interviewed dozens of government officials in Brasília and throughout the Amazon region, including many who provided inside accounts of how President Jair Bolsonaro’s policies are undermining enforcement efforts. <p style="margin: 1.55556rem auto; max-width: 900px; width: 900px;" freight="Freight" text="Text" w03="W03" w01="W01" garamond="Garamond" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">...<div style=""> =<a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/08/30/amazon-rainforest-fire-blackrock-jbs/">https://theintercept.com/2019/08/30/amazon-rainforest-fire-blackrock-jbs/</a>...FINK, the influential chief executive of BlackRock, which manages more than $6 trillion in investments, wants the public to know that he is using his enormous power to press companies to “serve a social purpose.” Fink — a Democratic donor who <a href="https://twitter.com/jeffhauser/status/1092776845387464704" style="letter-spacing: 0.01em; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">reportedly</a> promised to help Joe Biden get elected president — <a href="https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/investor-relations/2018-larry-fink-ceo-letter" style="letter-spacing: 0.01em; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">wrote</a> to businesses his firm invests in last year to urge them to consider their “impact on the environment” and the threat of climate change.<div data-reactid="212" style="box-sizing: border-box;">“Stakeholders are pushing companies to wade into sensitive social and political issues,” Fink wrote in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/business/dealbook/blackrock-larry-fink-letter.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">a follow-up letter</a> this year, “especially as they see governments failing to do so effectively.”That desire to be seen as an ethical investor has not, however, stopped BlackRock from contributing to the climate crisis by providing significant financing to the world’s biggest meatpacker, JBS, which has been caught <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-environment-cattle/brazils-jbs-accused-of-violating-amazon-rainforest-protection-laws-idUSKBN1722O1" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">year</a> after <a href="https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2019-07-02/jbs-brazilian-butchers-took-over-the-world" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">year</a> buying cattle raised on illegally deforested Amazon land.At least some of the thousands of fires burning huge swathes of the rainforest in Brazil, eroding a crucial safeguard against climate change, appear to have been started by cattle farmers. Cattle ranching is “the largest driver of deforestation in every Amazon country, accounting for 80 percent of current deforestation rates,” <a href="https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/amazon/land-use/cattle-ranching" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">according to researchers</a> at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.As Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/08/27/how-beef-demand-is-accelerating-amazons-deforestation-climate-peril/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">reported this week</a>, cattle ranchers in Brazil “have been pushing their herds into the Amazon, clear-cutting and burning the forest as they go” to meet the surging demand for beef exported by Brazilian agribusiness firms to mainly China, Iran, Egypt, Russia, and the United States.</div><div class="PromoteRelatedPost-promo" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-top: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); 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</a></div><div class="PromoteRelatedPost-promo-link-text" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h6 class="PromoteRelatedPost-promo-link-eyebrow" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; font-kerning: normal;" kern="kern" padding-bottom="padding-bottom" px="px">Related</h6><h4 class="PromoteRelatedPost-promo-link-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; font-kerning: normal; font-feature-settings: " kern="kern">A Top Financier of Trump and McConnell Is a Driving Force Behind Amazon Deforestation</h4></div></div><div data-reactid="214" style="box-sizing: border-box;">About a third of that beef is exported by JBS, the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/ad8aa950-8d9d-11e7-a352-e46f43c5825d" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">spectacularly corrupt</a>Brazilian meat-packing conglomerate BlackRock is heavily invested in. But even as Fink publicly urged business leaders to consider their environmental impact, BlackRock increased its stake in JBS by $41 million between 2016 and 2018, according to research conducted for Friends of the Earth.The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, The Guardian, and Repórter Brasil <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/02/revealed-amazon-deforestation-driven-global-greed-meat-brazil" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">revealed</a> in February that a giant ranching company that was fined for using deforested Amazon land delivered hundreds of heads of cattle raised in the Amazon to other farms the firm owned for fattening. Cattle was later sent from those farms to slaughter at JBS plants.It’s not just private American capital that is funding the destruction of the Amazon. Public money is at work, too. President Donald Trump has been compensating American farmers hurt by his trade war to the tune of billions of dollars, and $62 million of that has gone to JBS, because the company has an American subsidiary.As Colorado’s <a href="https://www.greeleytribune.com/news/another-40m-in-federal-subsidies-awarded-to-jbs-usa-lawmaker-introduces-bill-to-prioritize-american-purchases/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Greeley Tribune reported</a> in May, “JBS USA secured nine contracts for federal purchases of JBS pork since mid-January, totaling nearly 18.5 million pounds of pork for $40.1 million. That’s in addition to previously awarded contracts for nearly 9.8 million pounds of pork for $22.3 million. In total, the company, a subsidy of Brazil-based JBS SA, will receive $62.4 million from the program, which is meant to mitigate trade war impacts to local farmers.”In 2016, Fink was angling to become treasury secretary under Hillary Clinton.Fink was <a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/03/02/larry-fink-and-his-blackrock-team-poised-to-take-over-hillary-clintons-treasury-department/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">on the short list </a>to replace Tim Geithner as President Obama’s treasury secretary, and in 2013, hired Cheryl Mills, a close aide to Clinton, at BlackRock. Just ahead of the 2016 election, <a href="https://fortune.com/2016/11/08/blackrock-larry-fink-blackstone-treasury-secretary/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">he was endorsed for the position by Steve Schwarzman, </a>a top Republican donor and the co-founder and CEO of Blackstone. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/elizabeth-warren-just-gave-hillary-clinton-a-big-warning/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">had promised</a> to work to block any Clinton nominees from BlackRock.BlackRock began as a fund inside of Blackstone, but Fink and Schwarzman had a falling out in the 1990s that led to a split. <a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/08/27/amazon-rainforest-fire-blackstone/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">As The Intercept reported earlier this week,</a> Blackstone is also heavily involved in deforestation of the Amazon, through its financing of highway and port projects that facilitate agribusiness.According to <a href="https://amazonwatch.org/assets/files/2019-complicity-in-destruction-2.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">a recent study by Amazon Watch</a>, a nonprofit monitoring group, AgroSB, the JBS supplier, was fined in 2017 and 2018 by Brazil’s main environmental agency, known by its Portuguese acronym IBAMA. That agency has lost a quarter of its funding since January, when Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain, took office promising to roll back protection for the Amazon to boost agribusiness. Government data <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-environment-ibama-exclusive-idUSKCN1VI14I" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">provided to Reuters</a> by opposition lawmakers showed that the cuts to IBAMA’s budget included a 23 percent reduction in funding for the prevention and control of forest fires.This summer, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/28/world/americas/amazon-fires-brazil.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">the New York Times reported</a>, “Ibama was unable to carry out operations in the state of Pará, where deforestation has been soaring, because the local police officers would not provide backup.”As the Amazon burns, Bolsonaro has <a href="https://noticias.uol.com.br/meio-ambiente/ultimas-noticias/redacao/2019/08/06/bolsonaro-ironiza-criticas-sobre-desmatamento-sou-o-capitao-motosserra.htm" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">mocked environmentalists</a> for nicknaming him “Captain Chainsaw,” disputed data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research showing that deforestation in the Amazon was up 88 percent in June compared to the same month in 2018, promised “to develop this wonderful region called the Amazon,” and even promoted a conspiracy theory that local environmentalists, not ranchers, had started the fires there....</div> =</div><div style=""><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/leaked-documents-bolsonaro-amazon-rainforest-2639991444.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/leaked-documents-bolsonaro-amazon-rainforest-2639991444.html</a>
no lnx vid?Leaked Documents Show Brazil’s Bolsonaro Has Grave Plans for Amazon Rainforest openDemocracy Aug. 23, 2019 02:01PM EST POLITICSWildfires have raging through the Amazon rainforest for weeks.
PixabayBy Manuella Libardi
Leaked documents show that Jair Bolsonaro's government intends to use the Brazilian president's hate speech to isolate minorities living in the Amazon region. The PowerPoint slides, which democraciaAbierta has seen, also reveal plans to implement predatory projects that could have a devastating environmental impact.
The Bolsonaro government has as one of its priorities to strategically occupy the Amazon region to prevent the implementation of multilateral conservation projects for the rainforest, specifically the so-called "Triple A" project.
"Development projects must be implemented on the Amazon basin to integrate it into the rest of the national territory in order to fight off international pressure for the implementation of the so-called 'Triple A' project. To do this, it is necessary to build the Trombetas River hydroelectric plant, the Óbidos bridge over the Amazon River, and the implementation of the BR-163 highway to the border with Suriname," one of slides read.
 One of the slides from the presentation.
democraciaAbierta
In February, ministers Gustavo Bebianno (Secretary General of the Presidency), Ricardo Salles (Environment) and Damares Alves (Women, Family and Human Rights) had planned travel to Tiriós (Pará) to speak with local leaders about the construction of a bridge over the Amazon River in the city of Óbidos, a hydroelectric plant in Oriximiná, and the expansion of the BR-163 highway to the Suriname border. But this meeting was canceled.
A second meeting among government officials, also in February, used a PowerPoint presentation that details the projects announced by the Bolsonaro government for the region. The presentation, which was leaked to democraciaAbierta, argues that a strong government presence in the Amazon region is important to prevent any conservation projects from taking roots.
The slides are clear. Before any predatory plan is implemented, the strategy begins with rhetoric. Bolsonaro's hate speech already shows that the plan is working. The Amazon is on fire. It's been burning for weeks and not even those who live in Brazil were fully aware. Thanks to the efforts of local communities with the help of social networks, the reality is finally going viral.
The online reaction is far from being sensationalist. This year alone, Brazil had 72,000 fire outbreaks, half of which are in the Amazon. The National Institute for Space Research reported that its satellite data showed an 84% increase on the same period in 2018.

Attacking non-governmental organizations is part of the Bolsonaro government's strategy. According to another of the PowerPoint's slide, the country is currently facing a globalist campaign that "relativizes the National Sovereignty in the Amazon Basin," using a combination of international pressure and also what the government called "psychological oppression" both externally and internally.
This campaign mobilizes environmental and Indigenous rights organizations, as well as the media, to exert diplomatic and economic pressure on Brazilian institutions. The conspiracy also encourages minorities — mainly Indigenous and Quilombola (residents of settlements founded by people of African origin who escaped slavery) — to act with the support of public institutions at the federal, state and municipal levels. The result of this movement, they say in the presentation, restricts "the government's freedom of action."
So it is unsurprising that Bolsonaro's response to the fires comes in the form of an attack on NGOs. On Wednesday, August 21, Bolsonaro said he believed non-governmental organizations could be behind the fires as a tactic "to draw attention against me, against the government of Brazil."
Bolsonaro did not cite names of NGOs and, when asked if he has evidence to support the allegations, he said there were no written records of the suspicions. According to the president, NGOs may be retaliating against his government's budget cuts. His government cut 40 percent of international transfers to NGOs, he added.
Part of the government's strategy of circumventing this globalist campaign is to depreciate the relevance and voices of minorities that live in the region, transforming them into enemies. One of the tactics cited in the document is to redefine the paradigms of indigenism, quilombolism and environmentalism through the lenses of liberalism and conservatism, based on realist theories. Those are, according to a slide, "the new hopes for the Homeland: Brazil above everything!"</div><div style="">new 919<h4 class="title" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-weight="font-weight" line-height="line-height" color="color" rgb="rgb" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" font-size="font-size" background-color="background-color" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/?p=4105" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; line-height: 1;">Amazon Destruction Financed by BlackRock, World’s Biggest Investment Firm </a></h4></div><div style=""></div><div style=""><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; background-color: rgb(241, 242, 243);"><li style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: none; padding: 0px 0px 23px; line-height: 1.33;"><a data-ga-action="Widget: Headline" href="https://www.democracynow.org/2019/8/27/headlines/brazil_rejects_g7_amazon_aid_amid_mounting_environmental_disaster" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; border: 0px;">Brazil Rejects G7 Amazon Aid Amid Mounting Environmental Disaster</a></li><li style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: none; padding: 0px 0px 23px; line-height: 1.33;"><a data-ga-action="Widget: Headline" href="https://www.democracynow.org/2019/8/27/headlines/prosecutors_investigate_after_govt_ignored_warnings_about_planned_amazon_fires" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; border: 0px;">Prosecutors Investigate After Gov’t Ignored Warnings About Planned Amazon Fires</a></li></ul></div><div style=""></div><div style=""><a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/08/23/gop-lobbyists-help-brazil-recruit-u-s-companies-to-exploit-the-amazon/">https://theintercept.com/2019/08/23/gop-lobbyists-help-brazil-recruit-u-s-companies-to-exploit-the-amazon/</a></div><div style="">
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</div><div style=""><div data-reactid="207" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> SUMMER, fires are being used to clear wide swaths of the Amazon at an unprecedented rate. One-fifth of the Amazon has already been destroyed in the past 50 years; further industrialization of the rainforest risks destroying another fifth, a loss that <a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/07/06/brazil-amazon-rainforest-indigenous-conservation-agribusiness-ranching/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">would be catastrophic</a> for the global ecosystem.The disaster is widely blamed on interests seeking to clear the world’s largest rainforest for cattle ranching, mining, and export-focused agribusiness. Documents reveal that those interests are being pushed in the U.S. by Republican lobbyists, friendly with President Donald Trump’s administration, who entered into talks with the Brazilian government to promote corporate investment in the Amazon.</div><div class="PromoteRelatedPost-promo" style="box-sizing: border-box; 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</a></div><div class="PromoteRelatedPost-promo-link-text" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h6 class="PromoteRelatedPost-promo-link-eyebrow" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; font-kerning: normal;" kern="kern" padding-bottom="padding-bottom" px="px">Related</h6><h4 class="PromoteRelatedPost-promo-link-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; font-kerning: normal; font-feature-settings: " kern="kern">On the Front Lines of Bolsonaro’s War on the Amazon, Brazil’s Forest Communities Fight Against Climate Catastrophe</h4></div></div><div data-reactid="209" style="box-sizing: border-box;">The crisis in the Amazon comes as Brazil is now governed by an administration openly hostile to environmental concerns and Indigenous communities. President Jair Bolsonaro, a former Army captain once viewed as a fringe figure in Brazilian politics, has been referred to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/amazon-rainforests-are-fire-brazil-s-trump-president-jair-bolsonaro-ncna1045026" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">himself</a> as “Captain Chainsaw” for his drive to promote logging and agribusiness in the Amazon.Shortly after taking office in January, Bolsonaro <a href="https://www.axios.com/amazon-rainforest-bolsonaro-brazil-south-america-fda08c12-0de2-43ce-93f0-d02709b18e7b.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">slashed</a> funding for Brazil’s main environmental agency by 24 percent. And this week, after a report by Brazil’s space research center revealed that fires in the Amazon <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-brazil-environment-wildfires/amazon-burning-brazil-reports-record-forest-fires-idUKKCN1VA1U4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">are up 83%</a> this year, Bolsonaro <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/21/jair-bolsonaro-accuses-ngos-setting-fire-amazon-rainforest" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">blamed the fires on international NGOs</a> rather than his own anti-environmental policies.MEANWHILE, A MEMBER of the Brazilian government has contracted with Washington lobbyists to continue selling land and destroying the forest.In June, Wilson Lima, the governor of the state of Amazonas, a northwestern province in Brazil that governs approximately a third of the Amazon, including the epicenter of the current forest fire crisis, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6319703-6687-Exhibit-AB-20190605-1.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">began work</a> with the Interamerica Group, a Washington, D.C.–based lobbying firm founded by Jerry Pierce Jr. Kellen Felix, a Brazilian national and vice president at Interamerica Group, is also listed in a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6320782-6687-Short-Form-20190605-8.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">disclosure filing</a> for work with the state of Amazonas. Lima, elected last year, is a member of PSC, a conservative party affiliated with the Assembly of God, a rapidly growing Pentecostal church in Brazil.The initial filings, disclosed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act through the Department of Justice, which regulates foreign lobbying, show that Pierce was <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6319702-6687-Short-Form-20190605-6.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">tapped</a> to represent Lima’s government in meetings with federal agencies and Congress.The Interamerica Group has also already filed an <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6319701-6687-Informational-Materials-20190605-1.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">informational packet</a> assembled for U.S. companies on behalf of the Brazilian governor, promoting the Amazon region for its development potential. The packet lists mining, agribusiness, and the “Gas Chemical Industry” as “Opportunities” for American businesses — among the “Challenges” for these potential businesses is to “Ensure Forest Conservation."In response to an inquiry from The Intercept, Pierce said that a final contract has not been signed. “Unfortunately the state of Amazon decided to hold off on contracting our firm for an indefinite period. Perhaps it will revisited in 2020,” Pierce wrote. He did not respond to a question about why his firm was already producing communications on behalf of the Lima government.</div><div data-reactid="211" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Pierce has written extensively on how both Trump and Bolsonaro are a boon for increased American business in Brazil. “Under a President Trump,” Pierce wrote in 2017 <a href="https://www.theinteramericagroup.com/single-post/2016/12/29/the-trump-effect-how-the-new-administration-impacts-brazil" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">blog post</a> on his company’s website, Brazil stands to become “a world leader in industries such as agribusiness, mining, banking, and aviation.” In more recent <a href="https://www.theinteramericagroup.com/single-post/2018/09/14/The-People%E2%80%99s-President-The-Upcoming-Presidential-Election-in-Brazil" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">posts</a>, Pierce celebrates the rise of right-wing Bolsonaro, declaring, “Donald Trump paved the way for a Bolsonaro victory.”Pierce also previously served as an official at the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the administration of George H.W. Bush, and was a prominent fundraiser for President George W. Bush. Under George W. Bush, he achieved “Pioneer” status, an accolade given to supporters who raised at least <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/ex-hud-official-pleads-guilty-to-role-in-fundraising-scheme" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">$100,000</a> for Bush’s campaigns. In 2009, Pierce pleaded guilty to making illegal “conduit contributions,” a term that refers to campaign contributions made under another person’s name. He served <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/storage.citizensforethics.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/22225217/Appendix-to-A-Campaign-to-Defraud_2.22.19.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">three years</a> probation.<a href="https://twitter.com/JerryPierceJr/status/1158870590662557697" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Images</a> on <a href="https://twitter.com/Z_Everson/status/1020682846267113477" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">social media</a> show Pierce, Felix, and other Interamerica Group officials appearing, in Pierce’s description, with members of President Donald Trump’s administration and at conservative movement events, including the <a href="https://twitter.com/JerryPierceJr/status/965960283628990464" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">CPAC </a>convention and with <a href="https://twitter.com/JerryPierceJr/status/1153635457969872896" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Turning Point USA</a>.</div><div data-reactid="221" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Lima is not the only regional official to forge ties with Trump-friendly politicians.The Intercept previously reported that Lima’s predecessor, Gov. Amazonino Mendes, signed a controversial <a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/10/05/rudy-giuliani-amazon-contract-brazil-election/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">$1.6 million</a> contract with Giuliani Safety & Security, a consulting firm affiliated with Rudy Giuliani, now a lawyer for Trump. The state of Amazonas has struggled with persistent poverty, drug smuggling, and crime — problems Mendes promised to solve through the contract with Giuliani’s firm.The discussions with the Interamerica Group are among many American ties to business expansion into the Amazon. In April, the Brazil-American Chamber of Commerce, a trade group representing major banking and commodity interests, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7-ogf1l6Q" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">held an event</a> on how U.S. investors can take advantage of Brazilian agribusiness in the current political climate.</div></div><div style=""><div></div><div>aha-let: separation allows demonization: X hate America; dems are trying to destrpy the cty and then:</div><div><div>Brazil's right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro is giving President Trump a run for his money in the alternative facts department.</div><div>
</div><div>Responding to international outrage following the news that there are record numbers of wildfires burning in the Amazon rainforest, Bolsonaro tried to shift the blame away from his pro-business administration and onto an unlikely culprit: non-governmental organizations.</div><div>
</div><div>"Everything indicates" that NGOs were planning to set fires to the forest, Bolsonaro said on Facebook Live Wednesday, as Reuters reported. When asked if he had proof, he could not provide any, answering that he had "no written plan."</div><div>
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</div><div>Later the same day, he repeated the claims at a steel industry congress in Brasilia, The Guardian reported.</div><div>
</div><div>"On the question of burning in the Amazon, which in my opinion may have been initiated by NGOs because they lost money, what is the intention? To bring problems to Brazil," he said.</div><div>
</div><div>Environmental groups, however, say that the fires are a result of deforestation encouraged by Bolsonaro's policies. He has promised to open the Amazon to mining and agriculture, and that has encouraged farmers to start illegal fires in order to clear land. Local papers report that farmers emboldened by weaker enforcement are even organizing "fire days" in some regions, according to The Guardian.</div><div>
</div><div>"This is a sick statement, a pitiful statement," Greenpeace Brazil Public Policy Coordinator Marcio Astrini told Reuters of Bolsonaro's remarks. "Increased deforestation and burning are the result of his anti-environmental policy."</div><div>
</div><div>The fires came to global attention this week when Brazil's space agency announced that the number of fires burning in the year since Bolsonaro took office were up more than 80 percent when compared with the year before. On Wednesday, the hashtag #PrayforAmazonas was the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter worldwide.</div><div>
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</div><div>Experts attribute the fires to deforestation because this year has not been particularly dry.</div><div>
</div><div>"In the previous years [wildfires] were very much related to the lack of rain, but it has been quite moist this year," ecologist Adriane Muelbert told National Geographic. "That leads us to think that this is deforestation-driven fire."</div><div>
</div><div>Farmers and ranchers start fires to clear forest for soy or grazing land, but the fires then catch and spread. If this continues, ecologist and National Geographic Explorer-at-Large Thomas Lovejoy explained to the nature magazine that it could have devastating consequences for the rainforest, and for the world:</div><div>
</div><div>Lovejoy describes a cyclical system in which deforestation fuels forest loss, making the region drier, spurring even more deforestation. Much of the rain in the Amazon is generated by the rainforest itself, but as trees disappear, rainfall declines. Experts worry that this downward spiral could increasingly dry out the forest and push it to a point of no return, where it more resembles savannah than rainforest.</div><div>
</div><div>"The Amazon has this tipping point because it makes half of its own rainfall," says Lovejoy. That's why, he says, "the Amazon has to be managed as a system."</div><div>Not only would such a change endanger the 40,000 species of plants, 1,300 species of birds, 430 mammals and 400 to 500 indigenous communities that call the Amazon home, it would also make it harder to fight the climate crisis. The world's largest tropical rainforest is an important store of carbon, absorbing millions of tons of emissions per year.</div><div>
</div><div>Given the global stakes, it's no wonder that Bolsonaro has come under international scrutiny for his policies, as The Guardian explained. Both Germany and Norway recently suspended donations to the Amazon Fund, and there is pressure for the EU to block a trade agreement with Brazil and other countries in South America.</div><div>
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