OUR FUTURE UP IN SMOKE
»Amazon close to tipping point as thousands of acres set alight »Brazil’s government puts world at risk of environmental disaster
THE Amazon rainforest is being torched at the highest rate in 12 years and is hurtling towards a climate tipping point that puts the entire planet in danger.
We travelled to the Amacro region of Brazil, the new epicentre for this rainforest destruction, to witness first hand the scale of the crisis which right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro has allowed to spiral out of control.
Here, huge chunks of this precious ecosystem – the “lungs of the world” – are torched daily by land-grabbers.
Deforestation and fires have hit record levels this year – despite agreements signed at Cop26 in Glasgow – fuelled by the policies of Bolsonaro, who goes to the polls on Sunday in a critical election for the planet’s future.
Environmentalists desperately hope Bolsonaro, who came to power in 2019, is ousted. Cristiane Mazzetti, of Greenpeace Brazil, said: “There is no hope for the Amazon under Bolsonaro.”
Deforestation in 2021 was the highest in 15 years and this year it is following a similar trend.
Cristiane said: “The increase in fires and deforestation is the result of a destruction oriented agenda that empowers those who invade the forest and clear them illegally.”
We see the consequence of Bolsonaro’s disregard for the environment in the western state of Rondonia.
On a flight with Greenpeace Brazil, campaigner Romulo Batista, who has monitored the fires for more than 10 years, tells me he has never seen such large areas of destruction.
As the plane dips, photographer Adam Gerrard feels the heat of the flames on his arms as he documents the scorched landscape.
The following day we drive through Rondonia, passing mile after mile of hacked tree stumps and torched forests. In some parts, the ground is still smouldering.
Armed land-grabbers, known as grileiros, are responsible for many of the fires, burning thousands of acres to make room for cattle, then crops such as soya for animal feed. The region of Amacro, an acronym for Amazonas, Acre and Rondonia states, has had the most deforestation in the past year.
One-third of all deforestation is by land-grabbers seizing public lands, including indigenous territories, something encouraged by Bolsonaro.
He believes that the territories are an obstacle to agribusiness, once declaring: “There cannot be one more inch of indigenous reserve.”
Adriano Karipuna, 29, is the leader of the Karipuna Indigenous Land, living in a village 120 miles from the state capital of Porto Velho, a three-hour journey by boat and then another hour by car.
Between 2017 and 2018, 1500 acres of Karipuna territory was cleared.
Even though the territory was recognised, and supposedly awarded the highest degree of protection by the government in 1998, it has been invaded by land-grabbers.
Adriano said that he and his people lived with death threats from loggers and now more than 80 per cent of their land has been invaded.
He said: “When I was young the river was full of fish and we would see lots of animals, like jaguars.
“But now the animals are disappearing, the river is drying up and the climate has become much hotter.”
During our visit, smoke billowed from an area equal to 11,000 football pitches, the single largest part of the rainforest to be destroyed this year.
As a result, the world’s largest rainforest, a vital carbon store that slows global warming, is teetering on
The river is drying up and the climate has become much hotter ADRIANO KARIPUNA INDIGENOUS LEADER
the edge of a tipping point. Once triggered, the rainforest would become grassland over a few decades at most, releasing huge amounts of carbon and accelerating global heating.
Cristiane said: “This accelerated destruction is pushing the rainforest close to a point where it would fail as a rainforest.
“Reaching this point would be catastrophic for the global climate.
“The Amazon is vital to mitigating climate change but when the forest is burned and cleared, instead of being a carbon sink, it starts releasing carbon.”
Almost 20 per cent of the Amazon rainforest has already been destroyed.
Despite pledging to end deforestation by 2030 at Cop26 last year, Brazil is now one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the world, with more than 40 per cent of its emissions from deforestation.
Fearful of a change in government, criminals are ramping up their land grab and deforestation in 2022 is on target to be the worst in 15 years.
In the first six months of this year, almost 4000 sq km – an area five times the size of New York City – has been cleared.
In August, more than 33,000 fire hotspots, at least 1km long, were recorded, the highest in 12 years. And on August 22, satellite monitoring detected 3358 fires, the most for any 24-hour period since September 2007. By last Sunday, the number of fires registered in the Amazon since the beginning of this year exceeded all those recorded in the whole of 2021. There are fears Bolsonaro plans to stay in power whatever happens, and will carry on weakening environmental laws, stripping protected areas of their status and encouraging farmers to clear forests. He has also pledged to rebuild a motorway through the centre of the Amazon rainforest, opening up virgin areas to logging. Greenpeace says Brazil’s government has threatened to challenge planned deforestation laws at the World Trade Organisation.
The UK, the EU and US want to ban products linked to illegal deforestation but Brazil says the law has a “discriminatory bias” against tropical forest countries.
Paul Morozzo, of Greenpeace UK, said: “It’s truly disturbing to witness the destruction of the Amazon.
“Proposed legislation to stop deforestation-linked products entering the UK is weak and yet a survey found more than half of Brits had reduced meat and dairy, or would be willing to, for climate reasons.”
As his Karipuna people face being banished from even more of their lands, Adriano urged UK firms to analyse supply chains. He said that what might appear to be a legal product, most likely is responsible for “death, destruction and deforestation”.