COVID-19 increases threat to Amazon forests
Until about a month ago, social media feeds around the world were full of pictures of clear skies, clean rivers and lakes, and absolutely pristine nature. Much of the conventional, if not scientific, wisdom was that months of lockdown around the world had healed nature to a large degree and could perhaps even offset global warming, or at least a start had been made.
Thus, the news coming from Brazil’s space agency last week that the number of fires in the Amazon basin in the month of June had been the highest since 2007 set alarm bells ringing. The fires are caused by people clearing land for farming and cattle grazing or companies logging the forests for their precious timber. Strict protection laws to curb forest clearing have been drastically diluted by President Jair Bolsonaro since he came to power last year.
The fires in the Amazon are not just Brazil’s headache; they are a global concern. Of the roughly 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide emitted around the world each year, the Amazon basin absorbs more than 2 billion tons from the atmosphere, acting as the planet’s single biggest sink and making it critical for mitigating global warming.
The fires in these forests not only reduce the capacity for absorption, but also pump millions more tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
The increase in fires could be a precursor to a sharp jump over the next three months, partially due to continued government indifference but also due to the economic hardships caused by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Brazil has the second-highest number of infections in the world, behind only the US, with 1.7 million cases and more than 68,000 deaths. The economic impact of the pandemic on Brazil, as well as the entire South American continent, is expected to be severe.
The economic crisis facing the country will hurt the Amazon forests in two different but extremely harmful ways. One is that, to recoup their losses, Brazilians may turn to ravaging the wealth of the Amazon basin by illegally felling trees for timber or even poaching the rich wildlife there. The other, perhaps more potent, risk is that Bolsonaro may egg on companies and cooperatives of farmers to go the whole hog on the forest in a bid to kick-start the Brazilian economy.
For now, with his thoughtless policies and actions, Bolsonaro — who this week tested positive for the virus himself — has proven to be completely unable to handle the pandemic. Even while the infections keep shooting up, he has eased most of the restrictions on the movement of people. Thus, the crisis can only worsen from here on; not only in terms of health care but also economically, pushing millions of Brazilians to the verge of starvation.
By and large, the international community can be expected to be a silent observer, as it has been since Bolsonaro came to power. And even if the wider world did raise its voice, there is little it can do, as US President Donald Trump is certain to continue to support his pal Bolsonaro. With the US aligned with him, the odds are that the Brazilian president will get away with pretty much whatever he wants, and it will be his countrymen that pay the heaviest price.