What’s happening with fires in the Amazon, and what’s at stake?
1) Thousands of fires are raging across the Amazon basin, primarily in Brazil. Most of these fires are happening in areas that have already been deforested.
Map from the @guardian
@guardian 2) Unlike areas like the western United States where wildfires are common, the Amazon does not generally just burn. Fires mostly happen where land has been deforested.
Read more from @vice featuring @globalforests data
vice.com/en_us/article/…
@guardian @VICE @globalforests 3) Deforestation across the Amazon takes many forms, but it is rooted in the same thing: Colonization, theft of indigenous territories & resource extraction.
Indigenous people are the best protectors of the rainforest, and the most at risk from its destruction.
4) Deforestation is not something that “happens” - it something that is done, willfully, by humans. In Brazil, corporations, ranchers and farmers are turning rainforest into cattle ranches and soybean fields.
And these commodities are then sold on the global market.
5) In Brazil, deforestation has been on the rise for the past 5 years. But this year, it spiked dramatically, more than 88%.
In July, an area the size of Manhattan was cleared every day.
graph from the @guardian theguardian.com/environment/20…
6) This dramatic attack on the world’s largest rainforest is no accident.
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro is a climate denier who has openly advocated for seizing indigenous held territory for private business.
7) In 2017, while campaigning for president, Bolsonaro vowed:
“If I become President there will not be a centimeter more of indigenous land.”
see more Bolsonaro quotes here: survivalinternational.org/articles/3540-…
8) In 2016, speaking to Congress, Bolsonaro declared:
“In 2019 we’re going to rip up Raposa Serra do Sol [Indigenous Territory in Roraima, northern Brazil]. We’re going to give all the ranchers guns”
9) Racist, colonial actions have consequences.
The Bolsonaro government, hostile to NGOs, has severely undermined indigenous rights and is opening up the Amazon to more deforestation and land grabs than ever before.
10) As @cpeartree of @AmazonWatch stated:
"Farmers and ranchers understand the president's message as a license to commit arson with wanton impunity"
amazonwatch.org/news/2019/0821…
11) And Brazilian newspaper @Brasil_de_Fato reported on specific efforts of ranchers & soy farmers to set the forest ablaze in indigenous and other protected areas.
brasildefato.com.br/2019/08/21/thi…
12) But Bolsonaro didn’t emerge from a vacuum.
His government simply represents some of the most vile aspects of a global economic system dependent on exploitation and extraction. It is this system which must be changed in order to halt deforestation.
13) Therefore the cause - and the effect - of the Brazilian fires is both local and global. If you've read this far, you already know this:
The Amazon represents the lungs of our planet.
14) And the Amazon is nearing a deadly tipping point.
Scientists estimate that if another 20% is deforested, it will trigger a feedback loop called "dieback," whereby the rain cycles disappear, turning jungle to desert.
businessinsider.com/amazon-fires-s…
15) So what is at stake?
The cultures, traditions and worldviews of the Indigenous peoples of the Amazon, the wildlife & ecosystems of some of the most biodiverse areas of the planet, and the mitigating impact of the rainforest in the face of the escalating climate crisis.
16) The severity of this situation calls upon all of us to turn our attention, and keep it, on how to be allies to Amazonian peoples.
17) As @brumelianebrum wrote for the @guardian:
“The Amazon is the centre of the world. Right now, as our planet experiences climate collapse, there is nowhere more important. If we don’t grasp this, there is no way to meet that challenge.”
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
18) As always, we know that the solutions are rooted in the wisdom & lived experiences of local communities.
Join our allies @AFrontlines & donate directly to the Brazilian Indigenous Federation COAIB to support frontline brigades fighting the fires
amazonfrontlines.org/donate/brazil/
19) Follow the news from @AFrontlines @GreenpeaceBR @AmazonWatch
and maps & reporting from @InfoAmazonia @globalforests
20) Connect the dots - how do our consumption patterns contribute to Amazon deforestation? Join growing movements and call upon our governments to hold businesses accountable for where they source materials, whether wood, soy or beef.
21) Everywhere:listen to, support & uplift the voices of indigenous peoples working to protect their lands both in Brazil and where you live.
These struggles are connected. Follow @IENearth @Indigenous_ca @WaoResistencia @ndncollective
#ActForAmazonia #ForestsAreLife
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