With the mass devastation currently underway in the Amazon Rainforest obvious questions are being asked when it comes to who or what is ultimately at fault for this catastrophe?
Yes, it is a “rainforest” so one might expect mass wildfires as we see in the western continental United States to be kept to a minimum however the reality is that rainforests, like the Amazon, still have dry seasons and are still susceptible to fires. As a matter of fact, the Amazon is currently in the dry season now so this is just one of those bad years (to say the very least) and we can chalk this one up to mother nature… Right?
Unfortunately, even with our current issues with climate change the current problems with the Amazon Rainforest are more direct than indirect. This is attributed to the Jair Bolsonaro regime, their dangerous skepticism when it comes to the environment and how they’ve taken steps to privitize the Amazon.
According to a widely disseminated article in a small newspaper, Folha do Progresso there’s been suspicion that farmers in the Amazon have been undertaken a policy in support of Bolsonaro called the “Day of Fire” in which organizers would aim to set a record for fires in the Brazil rainforest for 2019.
Now although the “Day of Fire” speculation has never been directly proven, there’s plenty of evidence out there that support Bolsonaro’s regime and its policies being ultimately responsible for the devastation.
For instance, Bolsonaro’s environmental minister Ricardo Salles had already investigated for malfeasance stemming from is time as Environmental Secretary in the government of São Paulo state. While there Salles was accused of pressuring subordinates to weaken environmental protections for the Tietê River.
Additionally, Salles has spoken out in terms of making the Amazon profitable as the only means to save it which makes absolutely zero sense from any logical standpoint. Namely because despite there not being anything substantial (yet) when it comes to the “Day of Fire” speculation there’s certainly plenty to back up intentionally set fires by ranchers, farmers, and mining companies exploiting the land while Bolsonaro’s government looks the other way.
Ranchers and farmers routinely use fire in tropical agriculture to clear land for planting and cattle pastures, but the practice had slowed before Bolsonaro took office in January. Brazil’s space research agency reported this week that fires have increased 84 percent this year compared to the dry season last year. On Monday, smoke from rampant fires plunged Sao Paulo into darkness in the afternoon.
Many news outlets have said the 74,000 fires Brazil has seen this year
Christian Poirier, a program director for the nonprofit Amazon Watch, said that farmers were clearly emboldened by Bolsonaro to burn forests. “The fires currently ravaging the Amazon are directly related to President Bolsonaro’s anti-environmental rhetoric, in which he errantly frames forests and forest protections as impediments to Brazil’s economic growth. Farmers and ranchers understand the president’s message as a license to commit arson with wanton impunity, in order to aggressively expand their operations into the rainforest.”
That emboldened attitude from the farmers and corporations looking to exploit the land very well could be as a result of that aforementioned anti-environmental rhetoric coming from Bolsonaro. Actions though speak louder than words which is exactly the case for the Brazilian president who cut IBAMA’s (Brazil’s environmental agency) by 24 percent hampering the agency’s ability to monitor and combat
Although the right may relish in the notion that these mass fires weren’t caused directly by global warming or climate change, it certainly doesn’t make this situation any better when it comes to a far-right government in Brazil either enabling or simply putting their heads in the sand when it comes to big corporations exploiting the land and causing mass, irreversible devastation.
