A few days ago, news broke that the Brazilian rainforest had been burning for three weeks. The precedent has been set by the President of Brazil, who claims that Brazil does not owe the world anything and it is the right of the country to utilize its resources to stimulate the economy. He has stated: “We can’t do a deal in which some of the goals are unattainable. Brazil does not owe the world anything when it comes to environmental protection.”
The backbone of their economy is the agricultural industry, specifically raising cattle as a source of beef, which needs resources such as land for grazing. Beef is one of the largest exports of Brazil, with countries like Russia, Hong Kong, China, Chile and Egypt topping the list. The President said, “Let’s use the riches that God gave us for the well-being of our population”. Mr. Bolsonaro also added, addressing any would-be prospectors: “You won’t get any trouble…”.
The Devastation in A Nutshell
Following the go-ahead during his tenure, thousands of fires have ravaged the Amazon rainforest, damaging the many wonders it houses including trees, fauna, and tropical vegetation. Since the 15th of August, more than 9500 fires have been ignited, spreading out across Brazil and dominating the Amazon basin.
This year alone, scientists have recorded more than 74000 fires in Brazil – double the record of 40000 recorded in 2018. According to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, this increase marks an advancement of 83% in wildfires over the same period of 2018.
Moreover, the Amazon has witnessed an increase in levels of deforestation over the last year mainly because of infrastructure projects, farming, and mining. Deforestation and fires are interlinked, as farmers tend to set the forest on fire to clear room for livestock pastures and crop fields. The fire is not always controlled. Data from Brazilian satellites shows that about 3 football fields worth of trees in the Amazon are falling every minute. The rate of deforestation is up by 39% from last year.
Deforestation on its own is responsible for releasing half a billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The destruction also means that at least 400 indigenous tribes that live in the rainforest are in danger of being displaced.
The Significance of the Rainforest
According to David Sirota, a political commentator, the role of the Amazon can be summed up in the following analogy: “We’re all on a spaceship hurtling through a vacuum. The Amazon rainforest is our spaceship’s life support system. Our spaceship’s life support system is on fire.”
The analogy clearly emphasizes the pivotal role of the Amazon in making the Earth habitable. It houses and makes possible processes such as water cycles, weather patterns, and the inter-exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen. The Amazon rainforest also acts as a buffer against the impending doom of climate change, as the trees absorb carbon dioxide, restoring balance and keeping it out of the atmosphere.
The rainforest is also home to more than 10% of the Earth’s biodiversity and houses potential for advancement in medicine as there are many unstudied Amazon plants growing across the terrain. The Amazon Rainforest makes up one-third of the planet’s main forests, as well as 20% of the unfrozen freshwater, due to its eponymous river and its tributaries.
Climate Change and the ‘Dieback Scenario’
Erosion of the rainforest is one of the ways the climate change can be put into overdrive. Scientists have been issuing warnings about such for years. The Amazon constitutes as a reservoir of carbon as it houses soils, plants and animals. The degradation of the forest due to fires, deforestation and the resultant climate change will flip the tables as the rainforest will become a source of heat-trapping gases as opposed to soaking up carbon dioxide. See US China trade war.
This will trigger a doomsday of sorts for the world’s biggest and most significant rainforest. The process has been dubbed ‘dieback’ and would lead to the Amazon morphing into an African-savanna-type landscape. As capitalistic values erode away the rainforest, the dieback could be realised.
In Science Advance, Thomas Lovejoy and Carlos Nobre, a pair of researchers wrote, “We believe that negative synergies between deforestation, climate change, and widespread use of fire indicate a tipping point for the Amazon system to flip to non-forest ecosystems in eastern, southern and central Amazonia at 20-25% deforestation.”
Similarly, a research ecologist, Craig Allen at US Geological Survey stated in a report, “it is possible that “widespread forest collapse via drought” could transform the world’s tropical moist forests from a net carbon sink into a large net source during this century (Lewis, 2005).”
Grounding Weather Patterns
The World Resources Institute stated in a 2018 report that tropical deforestation can upset the water cycle so much that the effects of the disruption can impact and threaten agriculture across the world. The report stated: “Tropical forest loss is having a larger impact on the climate than has been commonly understood.”
The Amazonian rainforest has a massive role in grounding rain patterns because the moisture trapped by its trees and vegetation travels as clouds for hundreds and thousands of miles when it is released.
Various climate models have shown that the moisture content in the Amazon can impact rainfall patterns, cycle, and density as far as the USA. If the Amazon was completely ravaged, precipitation in the US coastal Northwest would be down by 20%, snowfall in Sierra Nevada by 50% and rainfall in Texas by nearly 25%.
The mapping of the effects clearly demonstrates that large scale deforestation in the Amazon is detrimental to life as we know it. The report states that copious amounts of deforestation can “pose a substantial risk to agriculture in key breadbaskets halfway around the world in parts of the US, India, and China.”.
Since the Amazon river accounts for more than 15% of freshwater that enter the oceans, it can be inferred that the Amazon rainforest plays a vital role in ocean currents. While scientists do not have a complete understanding of how changes in the river will impact the meteorological system, it is generally understood that changes in the ocean’s balance of salt and freshwater can speed up or slow down ocean currents which are responsible for weather regulation across the world.
Moreover, the devastation of the rainforest can also impact the biology of Atlantic Ocean as the Amazon river transports debris from the forest to the ocean. The debris contains nutrients that feed phytoplankton which is the starting point of the ocean’s food chain.
New Possibilities, Newer Horizons
The Amazon basin makes up nearly 40% of South American land expanse and is spread over 9 countries: Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, Guyana (France) and Bolivia. 60% of the Amazon rainforest is in Brazil.
2.1 million km squares of the forest are the protected areas which house vast amounts of biodiversity unique to the forest. According to the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, ‘a quarter of the world’s species including some 30,000 species of plants, 2,500 of fish, 1,500 of birds, 500 of mammals, 550 of reptiles and 2.5 million insects’ are found in these areas.
As the 2000s stepped in, scientists have stumbled on more than 220 species of animals and plants in the rainforest. A new species is uncovered in the Amazon every two or three days.
The ecologist Thomas Lovejoy stated: “Every species in this incredibly biodiverse system represents solutions to a set of biological challenges — any one of which has transformative potential and could generate global human benefits. This rich wealth of species brims with promise, awaiting discovery.”
The plants of Amazonia have been used to manufacture a variety of drugs including the first anti-malarial drug quinine and anti-cancer drugs. However, it is widely understood that scientists have only covered a meager 0.5% of the world’s budding plants for their medicinal potential.
The Importance of Amazonian Species
The wide variety of species found in the Amazon are essential for the other functions of the rainforest as well. The South American trees that act as the lungs of the earth and balance the atmosphere also rely on primates and other large birds to consume their fruits and disperse large seeds inside the forest.
The thick vines of these very trees also provide support to the structures of the trees that release water vapor into the atmosphere. Moreover, a rich array of animals pollinate the plants, nourish the soil with their waste and disperse seeds.
Lovejoy stated: “Amazon biodiversity also plays a critical role as part of global systems, influencing the global carbon cycle and thus climate change. ”
Saving the Rainforest
Given the importance of the rainforest, it is understandable that thousands of people are rallying to save the Amazon Rainforest. Organizations such as Rainforest Action Network, Rainforest Foundation, and Rainforest Alliance have long been established and work tirelessly to save the Amazon. It is important to support these organizations fiscally and take action on a micro-level by reducing paper, wood, beef and oil consumption and holding businesses accountable.
