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Amazon wildfires set to cause irreversible damage

27.08.2019

By the end of the dry season, the fires in Brazil could spread to other untouched forest areas,
threatening the survival of individual tree species. But it's still too early to assess the full extent of the
damage.

"We don't know how many fire spots will jump from the farmland into the forest," said Paulo Brando, an
expert from the independent Brazilian-based Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM).
"Currently, the satellites can only detect existing fires."

For weeks, the fires in the Amazon rainforest have attracted international attention. Compared to 2018,
the total number of fires increased by 82% between January and August this year. In August alone,
almost 26,000 fires were reported.

Read more: The Amazon: Vital for our planet

'Day of fire'

In the state of Para, where most of the fires are burning, prosecutors are investigating a group of farmers
who organized a so-called 'day of fire.' On August 10 they reportedly set a number of fires on forest land
— allegedly to show their support for President Jair Bolsonaro. As a result, satellite images observed an
increase in fire sources.

The fires were first reported in local newspaper Folha do Progresso in the "Novo Progresso" community
in the state's south. "We have to show the president that we want to work, and that's only possible with
clearing and we need fire to clear away the deforested areas," the newspaper quoted one of the
organizers.
Read more: Opinion: Action, not outcry will save the Amazon

According to the investigating prosecutor, Paulo de Tarso, most of the fires were lit on state-owned
nature reserves. These areas are constantly under threat by landowners, speculators and mine
operators. The prosecution is also investigating reduced control by the state and the lack of support and
equipment provided by the government-run Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable
Natural Resources (IBAMA).

A NASA Earth Observatory map showing active fire detections in South America. The fires in the northern
states of Para and Amazonas in Brazil are notably concentrated in bands along the highways closer to
communities

"In addition to this, large sums of money that Brazil receives through the Amazon Fund to combat
deforestation have been waived," said de Tarso in reference to the suspension of financial aid from
Norway and Germany due to Bolsonaro's lax environmental policies. During the G7 summit in Biarritz,
the far-right leader once again rejected offers of emergency aid to help extinguish the Amazon wilfires.

Areas which have already been damaged by deforestation are particularly vulnerable to forest fires.
"Deforestation and illegal exploration for natural resources in primeval forests create clearings and
fragment the woodland," explained Paulo Barreto from the Amazon Institute of People and the
Environment (IMAZON) in Belem. "The trees which then grow in this area are dry and ignite more easily."

The dense canopy helps protect the soil and dry undergrowth beneath, preventing it from igniting so
easily

The forest is also under increasing pressure during dry years, forcing the trees to transform in order to
survive. "To reduce water consumption, the trees shed their leaves," said Barreto. "Without the
protection of healthy treetops, more sun reaches the soil and the dry undergrowth. This means the fires
will spread from the areas which have already been slashed and burned to the denser jungle." Overall, a
combination of dry leaves, higher temperatures and a fragmented rainforest increases the risk of
wildfires.
Read more: Amazon fires: Can international pressure help put them out?

Drastic consequences

According to a recent study by IPAM, forest mortality can affect up to 90% of trees in dry years,
especially on the edge of the forests. "The landscape is changing radically," said IPAM's Brando. "We're
seeing grazing lands penetrate the forest and a major decline in biodiversity."

01:48 mins.

DW NEWS | 24.08.2019

Amazon fires spark urgent calls for action

The study is based on a nine-year observation period. "We've seen persistent degradation, we've
witnessed the death of large trees and the lifespan of the trees has been significantly reduced," said
Brando.

In areas where the vegetation has at least somewhat recovered after a fire, the study showed that the
rainforest still won't be able to release water into the atmosphere and absorb carbon for at least seven
years. Research in the region also reveals the serious impact the fires have on biodiversity. Even if a part
of the forest recovers, it won't necessarily have the same variety of tree species.

The climate has also changed compared to a few decades ago. According to Brando, the average
temperature in the Amazon is already one degree warmer than it was 60 years ago and the dry season is
now three weeks longer compared to 40 years ago. The impact of the wildfires "is not a linear process,"
he said. "The more we change the climate, the greater the chance these changes will be severe."

THE AMAZON BURNS, BOLSONARO FEELS THE HEAT

Brazil's burning

1 | 6 Show Caption

Nadia Pontes (im)

DW RECOMMENDS

ENVIRONMENT | 27.08.2019

1 The Amazon: Vital for our planet

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WORLD | 26.08.2019

2 G7 summit in Biarritz winds down after three days of talks

EUROPE | 25.08.2019

3 Amazon fires spark European rift at G7 over Mercosur trade deal

AMERICAS | 02.08.2019

4 Brazil's research chief sacked after deforestation row with Bolsonaro

AMERICAS | 23.08.2019

5 Opinion: Action, not outcry will save the Amazon

Vanessa Fischer

WORLD | 26.08.2019

6 Brazil's Bolsonaro and France's Macron go head to head

ENVIRONMENT | 21.08.2019

7 Brazil forest fires rage as farmers push into the Amazon

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ENVIRONMENT | 23.08.2019

8 Amazon fires: Can international pressure help put them out?

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AMERICAS | 10.08.2019

9 Amazon deforestation prompts Germany to suspend Brazil forest projects

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Home Page Essay About Save The Rainforest!

Essay about Save the Rainforest!

979 Words 4 Pages

Show More We are supposed to be good stewards of this earth while we are still living on it. God gave us
this planet to inhabit and have dominion over everything on and in it. That means that we are
responsible for keeping it clean, for protecting it from harm or depletion and we have to preserve and
replenish the earth. It is sad to say but humans have played their part in deteriorating the earth. We
have polluted and killed the very thing that takes care of us. If you ride by any lake or river you find trash
and debris around it. In the “The Call of the Wild” the author says that we have committed war against
the earth by the dumping of poisons and explosives upon it (337). Unfortunately, plastics are the things
that are doing the most harm …show more content…

Without a healthy ecosystem we have more lung diseases from breathing in toxic air, fewer food choices
and a host of other problems. Industrialization is one of the main causes of the ecosystem breaking
down, because we are constantly cutting down trees to build things or herd cattle. Less than a 150 years
ago the earth was covered with forests and wild lands, which supported most of the ecosystems on
earth above the oceans surface. The ecosystem has been exploited for land development and
agribusiness and as a result our planet is fragile. As we read in “Eco-Defense” the American wilderness is
undergoing an attack by bulldozers, earth movers, chainsaws and dynamite. This is done just so
Americans can bash their way through the forests, mountains and rangelands for the sake of short term
profits (344). The rainforests are equally important to maintaining mother earth. The tropical rainforests
are one our largest single most terrestrial source of air that we breathe. The tropical rainforests cover
only 2% of the Earth's land surface, but they are home to two-thirds of all the living species on the
planet. Another reason why the rainforest is so important is because we now get more than half of our
medicinal compounds from plants indigenous to the tropical rainforest. Did you know that the tropical
rainforests maintain an almost perfect

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The Huffington Post

THE BLOG

12/11/2013 09:11 GMT | Updated 23/01/2014 18:58 GMT

How You Can Help Save the Amazon Rainforest From Deforestation

The Amazon rainforest is the largest gathering of trees on the planet, covering 5,500,000 square
kilometers. The area is vast, spread across nine countries: the majority in Brazil (60%), followed by 13%
in Peru 10% in Colombia and other small variants in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and
French Guiana.

Frontier

Frontier is an international non-profit volunteering NGO.

Within the 10 minutes it takes to read this article it has been estimated that a section of forest the size of
two hundred football pitches would have been destroyed. The Amazon is the most biodiverse section of
tropical rainforest in the world with an estimated 390 billion individual trees, representing over half of
Earths remaining rain forests. In the 450 years of European colonization in South America, an extremely
small percentage of the Amazon was touched. During the past 40 years, 20 % of the Amazon has been
demolished. This staggering percentage will only increase, and is a revealing picture of the destruction
occurring. If this rate of deforestation continues, then forest health can only get worse and the damage
to biodiversity more apparent.
How You Can Help Save the Amazon Rainforest From

Image courtesy of Frontier's Peru Amazon Rainforest Conservation project.

The Amazon rainforest is the largest gathering of trees on the planet, covering 5,500,000 square
kilometers. The area is vast, spread across nine countries: the majority in Brazil (60%), followed by 13%
in Peru 10% in Colombia and other small variants in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and
French Guiana.

The Amazon creates roughly half of its own rain fall from self-producing moisture; if there is a continuous
increase in deforestation then the affects will not only have consequences on the rainforest's
ecosystems, but also on the worlds weather. If deforestation continues almost half of the world's animal
and plant species' existence will be in question. The Rainforest Action Network have said that from 2000
to 2006 a land mass of 93,000 square miles was destroyed, equivalent to the size of the UK. This
overwhelming rate of deforestation means that the possibilities the forest holds for curing diseases and
creating medicines also die with the forest.

Beneath all the wild biodiversity there are hundreds of tribesmen that have lived off the land for
hundreds of years, following in the footsteps of their ancestors. There are around 400 tribes living in the
Amazon, each speaking with a different tongue but facing the same difficulties when it comes to land.
Land for tribes equates to life. They rely on their land to live, hunt, and rest, so their situation is
problematic as deforestation acts as destruction of this land. Tribes of Indians living in Brazil have no land
ownership rights and, like many tribes, are facing annihilation and are dying trying to save their home
from corporate invasiveness.

What does deforestation mean for them? Tribesmen are endangered peoples who are under threat just
like their habitat; organizations like Survival International are dedicated to helping them. Ninety tribes
are thought to have completely disappeared during the 20th century, with many being wiped out due to
foreign invasion bringing diseases the tribes were not accustomed to.

Carbon dioxide is produced naturally and through human sources. For years, we have been pumping CO2
into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. The Amazon has, in return, reduced this carbon imprint
because trees naturally absorb CO2 in exchange for oxygen. The protection of the rain forest then, is
extremely important to ensure the maintenance of the already overpopulated CO2 levels in the
atmosphere. This is only exaggerated by the fact that when trees are cut down and burned, there is an
added effect through the release of CO2.

Deforestation of the Amazon is a very serious problem that we need to face as an international
community in order to overcome it. Raising awareness for the importance of preserving biodiversity on
both a local and global scale is the starting point. It is then a case of looking globally for alternatives of
deforestation, more sustainable methods of deforestation, and projects that involve reforestation. The
rainforest is a source of life, not only for those that live directly from its land, but for the whole world
which benefits from its influences on the climate and reducing of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The
Amazon is still a mystery to us, proven by the fact we are still, in 2013, discovering new plant and animal
species in the tropical wonderland. It is truly a magical place and by making everyone aware of the
dangers of its destruction, then as a collective we can try to do something about it.

Author Ed Hawes is the Online Journalism Intern for Frontier, an international non-profit volunteering
NGO that runs 320 conservation, community, and adventure projects in 57 countries across the globe.
Find out more about volunteering opportunities in Amazon conservation. You can read more articles on
Frontier's Gap Year Blog and get the latest project and volunteering news from the Frontier Official
Facebook page.

Follow Ed on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ed_hawes

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