{"id":17667,"date":"2019-08-23T01:31:34","date_gmt":"2019-08-23T01:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=17667"},"modified":"2019-08-24T01:45:49","modified_gmt":"2019-08-24T01:45:49","slug":"the-amazon-is-burning-4-essential-reads-on-brazils-vanishing-rainforest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/the-amazon-is-burning-4-essential-reads-on-brazils-vanishing-rainforest\/","title":{"rendered":"The Amazon is burning: 4 essential reads on Brazil’s vanishing rainforest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Catesby Holmes<\/a>, The Conversation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Nearly 40,000 fires<\/a> are incinerating Brazil\u2019s Amazon rainforest, the latest outbreak in an overactive fire season that has charred 1,330 square miles of the rainforest this year.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t blame dry weather for the swift destruction of the world\u2019s largest tropical forest, say environmentalists. These Amazonian wildfires are a human-made disaster<\/a>, set by loggers and cattle ranchers who use a \u201cslash and burn\u201d method to clear land. Feeding off very dry conditions, some of those fires have spread out of control.<\/p>\n

Brazil has long struggled to preserve the Amazon, sometimes called the \u201clungs of the world\u201d because it produces 20% of the world\u2019s oxygen<\/a>. Despite the increasingly strict environmental protections of recent decades, about a quarter of this massive rainforest is already gone \u2013 an area the size of Texas.<\/p>\n

While climate change endangers the Amazon<\/a>, bringing hotter weather and longer droughts, development may be the greatest threat<\/a> facing the rainforest.<\/p>\n

Here, environmental researchers explain how farming, big infrastructure projects and roads drive the deforestation that\u2019s slowly killing the Amazon.<\/p>\n

1. Farming in the jungle<\/h2>\n

\u201cDeforestation is largely due to land clearing for agricultural purposes<\/a>, particularly cattle ranching but also soybean production,\u201d writes Rachel Garrett, a professor at Boston University who studies land use in Brazil.<\/p>\n

Since farmers need \u201ca massive amount of land for grazing,\u201d Garrett says, they are driven to \u201ccontinuously clear forest \u2013 illegally \u2013 to expand pastureland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twelve percent of what was once Amazonian forest \u2013 about 93 million acres \u2013 is now farmland.<\/p>\n

Deforestation in the Amazon has spiked since the election last year of the far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. Arguing that federal conservation zones and hefty fines for cutting down trees hinder economic growth, Bolsonaro has slashed Brazil\u2019s strict environmental regulations.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no evidence to support Bolsonaro\u2019s view, Garrett says.<\/p>\n

\u201cFood production in the Amazon has substantially increased since 2004,\u201d Garrett says.<\/p>\n

The increased production has been pushed by federal policies meant to discourage land clearing, such as hefty fines for deforestation and low-interest loans for investing in sustainable agricultural practices. Farmers are now planting and harvesting two crops \u2013 mostly soybean and corn \u2013 each year, rather than just one.<\/p>\n

Brazilian environmental regulations helped Amazonian ranchers, too.<\/p>\n

Garrett\u2019s research found that improved pasture management in line with stricter federal land use policies led the number of cattle slaughtered annually per acre to double.<\/p>\n

\u201cFarmers are producing more meat \u2013 and therefore earning more money \u2013 with their land,\u201d she writes.<\/p>\n

2. Infrastructure development and deforestation<\/h2>\n

President Bolsonaro is also pushing forward an ambitious infrastructure development plan that would turn the Amazon\u2019s many waterways into electricity generators.<\/p>\n

The Brazilian government has long wanted to build a series of big new hydroelectric dams, including on the Tapaj\u00f3s River, the Amazon\u2019s only remaining undammed river. But the indigenous Munduruku people, who live near around the Tapaj\u00f3s River, have stridently opposed this idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Munduruku have until now successfully slowed down and seemingly halted many efforts to profit off the Tapaj\u00f3s,\u201d writes Robert T. Walker<\/a>, a University of Florida professor who has conducted environmental research in the Amazon for 25 years.<\/p>\n

But Bolsonaro\u2019s government is less likely than his predecessors to respect indigenous rights. One of his first moves in office was to transfer responsibilities for demarcating indigenous lands from the Brazilian Ministry of Justice to the decidedly pro-development Ministry of Agriculture.<\/p>\n