As the Amazon rainforest enters its third month of extraordinary wildfires, the world is looking on with concern. Sometimes called the "lungs of the Earth," the Amazon is a hotbed of biodiversity, of the world's known species. It is home to several million plants, animals, insects, and single-cell organisms, many of which we have yet to discover. It also , which is important for slowing down climate change. The forest is with areas in Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana鈥攂ut the majority is in Brazil, where it accounts for 40% of the country's total landmass. The rainforest is home to .
The rampant fires taking place in the Amazon threaten these things, from the to the forest's ability to and, of course, who call the Amazon home. But while the wildfires are currently听getting the most media coverage, several other activities and phenomena also threaten the Amazon. The fires result from听a larger pattern of exploitation and degradation that has been taking place in the Amazon for years and which has ramped up since the election of Brazil's far-right president, , in January 2019.
Meanwhile, groups like the are working to convince Brazilian government officials to reinstate rules that would protect the Amazon from damaging agricultural practices, illegal logging, and other dangers, while also supporting organizations with boots on the ground in Brazil in their efforts to protect this valuable resource.
爆料TV referred to various recent news reports and studies to authoritatively determine 10 of the greatest threats to one of our most important and biodiverse pieces of the planet. Keep reading to see what鈥攁nd who鈥攊s responsible for putting the Amazon most at risk.
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There are a record number of wildfires burning in the Amazon rainforest. Brazil鈥檚 National Institute for Space Research (INPE) has reported听 in 2019 to date. That is over the same period in 2018. These fires threaten biodiversity, as certain species cannot escape the fires. And as the Amazon burns, it releases carbon听into the atmosphere, further .
It鈥檚 impossible to talk about current threats to the Amazon rainforest without discussing Jair Bolsonaro. Inaugurated as Brazil鈥檚 president in January 2019, Bolsonaro is a who supports opening up the Amazon to increased deforestation and mining. He the head of Brazil鈥檚 INPE for sharing deforestation data that Bolsonaro did not approve of and has living in the Amazon.
in the Amazon since Bolsonaro took office, with the rate reaching nearly 4,000 square kilometers in July, according to the . The INPE further found that deforestation in June 2019 was than in June 2018. Bolsonaro supports the industries, such as logging and agriculture, which are cutting down or burning the rainforest鈥檚 trees. Under the Paris Climate Accord (which the country is still signed on to), Brazil has committed to by 2030.
One of the main drivers of deforestation is agriculture. For example, swaths of the Amazon are being razed to make room for cattle grazing. Brazil provides of the world鈥檚 beef, and all the cows need pasture鈥攏ot a forest. Roughly of deforested Amazon in Brazil are currently听pasture for cattle. To make that kind of space, agribusiness burns large swaths of land to clear it. Soy is also a culprit: Brazil has devoted nearly to soy production and is the world鈥檚 second-largest producer of the crop. The fires have sparked about how meat consumption is partially responsible for agribusiness slashing and burning the forest.
Another business venture tearing through the rainforest is illegally mining for gold. Gold isn't just for jewelry; it's used in iPhones, speakers, laptops and many more everyday technological items鈥攁nd a lot of it comes from the Amazon. Since the 1980s, over of rainforest in the Madre de Dios region of Peru has been razed or poisoned because of听gold mining, and nearly in rainforests throughout all of South America. 听is used for much of this gold mining, and the toxic metal then seeps into the water and soil.
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Over comes from hydropower, and the country is the producer in the world. While advocates of hydroelectric dam projects in Brazil say that they are essential for the country鈥檚 development, many of them are built on the Amazon River, with major impacts. A found that these dams can adversely affect fish reproduction, nutrient distribution in soil, and can cause flooding in some areas.
Small-scale fishing has historically been an important food source for many communities living along the Amazon River. But as small fishing operations have morphed into larger ones, overfishing has been endangering populations of species. Researchers found that are being hunted for food and for use as bait. Another study has shown that the has been fished nearly to extinction.
While the legal wildlife trade in the Amazon is a , illegal trafficking also occurs which, while harder to quantify monetarily, has a large impact on the local ecosystem. Some听trafficked items include plants like and the eggs of exotic birds, such as the hyacinth macaw. Along with habitat loss, egg poaching is threatening the hyacinth macaw鈥檚 numbers, which are estimated today at
The construction of roads and highways in the Amazon allows for previously hard-to-reach places to become deforested. According to Peru鈥檚 Environmental Investigation Agency, 95% of deforestation happens from a road. Brazil鈥檚 , built in 1972, has allowed loggers, miners, and colonizers to destroy large areas of forest. A new road in the Peruvian Amazon, approved in 2017, could cause the deforestation of , according to satellite mapping by Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project.
Bolsonaro's administration has been openly hostile to the Amazon's many indigenous communities, which has prompted . Emyra Waja虄pi, an indigenous leader, was murdered by miners in northern Brazil and more recently, a Brazilian government official who advocated for indigenous protections, . In addition, their protected communities in the Amazon are being encroached upon as miners and farmers go further into the forest and they are currently听experiencing disastrous impacts from the . Besides the loss of land and outright violence, more isolated indigenous communities could be in danger of epidemics if to which they have no immunity.
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