The Amazon fire: We didn’t really care, did we?

‘Save Earth’, ‘Save Nature’ and ‘Save Amazon’ are some of the recent slogans we got to see in hashtags and placards. The credit for our sudden concern on nature and Amazon goes to the massive fire which recently devoured the rainforest. The Amazon houses about 10% of the known species in the world and accommodates 20% of its freshwater. It has been recognised as an important repository of biodiversity and natural resources.

However, it is being destroyed since the 20th Century at a tremendous rate to make way for farmlands, livestock, mining, and above all, for its timber. Most of the time, the forest cover is cleared using what is called the slash-and-burn process. Huge amounts of biomass are removed by pulling down the trees using bulldozers and giant tractors during the wet season. Nearly two-thirds of the Amazon forest is in Brazil and Brazil’s role in the deforestation of Amazon has been tremendous since the 1970s. Some regions of Brazil including the states of Para, Mato, Grosso and Rondon are named ‘The Deforestation arc’ as they are the regions which are the most prone to deforestation. For the farmers living in these regions, their livelihood is dependent on rearing and ranching cattle. Hence, they torch the forest cover once they run out of land for grazing. A Brazilian government data indicates that more than 60 per cent of deforested land ends up as cattle pasture.

Generally, forest fire happens during the dry season which provides favourable atmosphere for the sparkles to blow into a massive fire. It is a renewal process that happens to maintain a balance in the ecosystem by destroying the old-aged trees and paving way for new sprouts to flourish. However, this is not the case with Amazon and the factors which caused the fire was triggered by humans. It is estimated that human beings are the reason behind about 99% of forest fire either on purpose or by accident. The number of such forest fire incidents are alarmingly high for the year 2019. This increase in the frequency of the fires was first reported by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research in June/July 2019 through satellite monitoring system and the news eventually drew international attention.

In early August, local farmers in the Amazonian state of Para placed an ad in the local newspaper calling for a Queimada or “Day of Fire” on August 10, 2019. Shortly, there was an increase in the number of wildfires in the region. August 26 2019, NASA confirmed that the number of fires was higher than previous years. The increased rate of fire raised concerns from various parts of the world as precious flora and fauna were being burned to ashes because of human greed. The Brazilian government did not even bother to bat an eye on the issue until International leaders put pressure on the country.

A small dive into the politics and the demography of the country provides us with valuable information on the issue. Brazil is the largest exporter of beef in the world. In the year 2018 alone, it has exported about 1.64 billion tons of Beef. As beef export plays a major role in the economic growth of the country, the Brazilian president Jair Bolsanaro has taken a pro-business stance since he assumed power. He has even weakened environmental protection laws and has encouraged deforestation to avail more area for the grazing of cattle. Once the leaders of other countries forced to take action by threatening to cut all ties with the country, he started taking measures for putting the fire off. Though the intensity of the fire has been greatly reduced, parts of the forest are still burning but the mainstream media has got other things to focus on at the moment.

An interesting thing to note in this case is, it isn’t the greedy companies nor the evil corporate, as they are often portrayed who is destroying the natural resources for satisfying their greed. These are the farmers living around the Amazon regions who find it difficult to earn bread for every single day of life. Poverty is what has been pushing the majority of lives to depend on and destroy nature. The Government, instead of taking necessary steps to ensure their welfare and preserving the forest, has encouraged the further felling of trees.

Amazon, which happens to be Brazil’s natural wealth, benefits the entire world. Of course, it has huge economical value, but no one should be allowed to make money off it by exploiting it. When nature is already finding it difficult to cope up with the changes we have brought upon the climate, activities like this will only bring forth the apocalypse closer than we can ever imagine. In a fierce battle for livelihood and economic growth, nature has become a victim. And when she decides to turn aggressive, things will end in a catastrophe!