Burning Lungs

Image Courtesy: NASA Earth Observatory

Fellow Earthians,

The tiny orange dots that can be seen are not city lights; they are fires burning their way through the Amazon, world's largest rainforest.

Image Courtesy: GETTY

This year, the number of fires in Brazil alone has gone up by 85% from last year. So far, more than 80,000 fires have been detected by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE), the highest on record since 2013. And these are not minor fires; the resultant smoke is visible from space.

Brazil's environmental minister, Ricardo Salles, attributed the fires to dry weather, wind, and heat. However, CNN meteorologist, Haley Brink, clarified that the fires were human-induced and could not possibly have been started by natural causes like lightning strikes. In the words of Christian Poirier, program director of non-profit organisation Amazon Watch, "The vast majority of these fires are human-lit." 

Image Courtesy: Daily Express

This April, President Bolsonaro cut the budget for IBAMA, Brazil's environmental agency, by 24%. Consequently, the organisation did not have the resources to monitor the rainforest and impose fines on those starting fires illegally. It's a no-brainer why the Brazilian government cut IBAMA's budget; all around the world, economic growth is prioritized over sustainability. And what is the result? The world's largest biodiversity is dying.

Human greed, our greed, is why the Amazon is burning.

Image Courtesy: Unsplash

Is this the future of the Amazon?

I wasn't exaggerating when I said the Amazon is dying. The Amazon is dying. Scientists fear that the fires, along with other man-made forces may trigger a significant change in Amazon's weather system. If and when this happens, the Amazon would cross a tipping point and begin to self-destruct.

If this is left unchecked (as the fires seem to be), half or more of the rainforest could erode into a savanna. Thomas Lovejoy, a prominent environmental scientist, reckons this "tipping point" will be reached at 20% - 25% deforestation. According to the Brazilian government, current deforestation stands at 19.3%.

The Amazon is too big to go silently. As of now (I mean, before  20% of the forest was burnt, cut or otherwise destroyed), the Amazon produced 6% of the world's oxygen, and absorbed a lot of the excess carbon-dioxide released. These facts are fast becoming a thing of the past. As the trees and plants perish, billions of tons of carbon-dioxide that were stored for centuries are being released. This will make it nearly impossible to control climate change.

Image Courtesy: Wikipedia

Image Courtesy: Wikipedia

If the Amazon dies, not only will the world lose its largest air purifier, but also thousands of species will lose their only home. The animals you see are facing the heat. If this isn't murder, if this isn't genocide, then what is?

Image Courtesy: Wikipedia

Image Courtesy: Wikipedia

We are not burning just the Amazon; we are also burning our best shot at a better tomorrow.