For a forest that is considered home for millions of indigenous people, and millions of plants and animals, one would think that in the fight against climate change, the Amazon rain-forest is meant to absorb carbon, not produce it. This year alone, the Brazilian Amazon Forest has had reports of 57 509 fires (Stein, 2019). This was recorded from the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research as of Monday, August 26 (Stein, 2019).

About one million indigenous people, divided into some 400 tribes, live throughout the Amazon rain-forest. Credit: Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters (Child, 2019).

Before we get into the current status of the Amazon forest, we need to put context on this large, vast spaced ecosystem that we all famously call the ‘Lungs of the Earth’ (Yeung, 2019).

The Amazon Forest is the largest rain-forest and the largest river basin (The Amazon River Basin) on the planet. WWF (2019) has reveiled that this region is believed to house up to 10% (in other words 1 in 10) known species on Earth. Moreover, it is found that out of the plant species found in the region, 75% are only found in the Amazon. There are in total about 300 species of fish and the tallest number of freshwater fish species in the world. What’s fascinating to note is that the Amazon is so big, it covers parts of 8 countries, these are namely: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, as well as French Guiana (Butler, 2019).

[TOP] The 9 countries sharing the Amazon River Basin/Forest. [BOTTOM] Tree cover loss in Amazon countries according to analysis of satellite data by Hansen et al 2018.

Now that we have put numbers into perspective, we need to look at the growing number of deforestation occurring in the Amazon today. The Amazon is affected by four primary impactors, these are : mining, Illegal occupation- hardwood trafficking, Crop/ livestock farming and of recent fires!  It was in early August that news broke out of the Amazon ablaze; this was on-going for 3 weeks. Many have speculated on what may have caused this and I would like to talk about this matter (Acosta, 2019).

 Amazon rain-forest fire: More than 72,000 fires have started since January 2019. Credit: REUTERS (Heden, 2019).

So, what are the causes?

This is a mixture between natural phenomena and deliberate harm. It has been argued that fires around this time of the year in the Amazon - the dry season in Brazil - are to be expected, as recorded by BBC News (2019). But many of the fires burning through the Amazon are believed to have been started deliberately. Organizations, activists, and social media users argue that the pro-development president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has encouraged ranchers, farmers, and loggers to exploit and burn the rainforest like never before with a sense of impunity (Heden & BBc News, 2019). The country's pro-business president when running his campaign for presidency, made campaign promises to restore the economy by exploring the Amazon's economic potential, as this is what we see in the Amazon burning (Child, 2019).

The number of active fires in the Amazon as of August 22,2019 (BBC news, 2019).

Why is this significant?

I find the Amazon to be significant in that is acts as an enormous sink of carbon dioxide; it has been storing up 100 years of carbon emissions produced by humans alone and also is helping to slow the pace of global warming (Child, 2019). The fires spreading in the Amazon should not have struck anyone with fear. I say this because the fires normally exude over the dry spell. But we what should be extremely cognisant of is the fact that now more ever, we not only have forest fires naturally igniting, but we have farmers and tree loggers degrading and slowly killing off the Amazon for economic gain. This has been going on with the direct backing of the Brazilian president, where Brazil has over 60% of the Amazon in its territory (Butler, 2019).

A satellite image shows smoke rising from Amazon rainforest fires in the State of Rondonia, just southwest of Porto Velho, Brazil in the upper Amazon River basin on. Credit: Satellite image ©2019 Maxar Technologies/Handout via Reuters (Stein, 2019).

What are some possible negative aftermath resulting from this situation?

The Amazon rainforest fires could have far-reaching effects on our health. According to Adrian Forsyth, a PhD, co-founder of the Amazon Conservation Association, if the forest continues to burn, it will release a vast amount of carbon dioxide pollution into the atmosphere. Concentrations of 1) Nighttime levels of particulate matter over 20 times the EPA standard, are small enough to lodge in the lungs, and have been found at extremely high levels near the rainforest (Doheny, 2019).

The 2) smoke is also a problem. The smoke generated in the Amazon has been travelling over a long distance. It even reached the city of Sao Paulo, with nearly 12 million residents, and darkened the entire city at 3 p.m. recently. We know that apart from voluminous oxygen, the Amazon also provides moisture to air and water evapotranspirates from the leaves. When forests burn, the 3) weather patterns also changes. This means that with the ongoing fires, there is less moisture released into the atmosphere, which can mean less rainfall, Doheny (2019). Other aspects that are being seriously affected by this injustice are the 5)medicine (herbal plants used as medical purposes like the cinchona trees may be lost due to the onspread of these raging fires), 6)disease outbreaks (as a results of a decreased forest volume) 7) and mental health (due to air pollution).

A snake is seen while a tract of the Amazon jungle burns as it is cleared by loggers and farmers in Porto Velho, credit:REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino (Stein, 2019)

What can be the (possible) solutions?

I think in this situation, the Amazon is facing a chronic emergency and unless there is a change in the enforcement of laws in Brazil, there will continue to be the fires set.

There needs to be a balance the between economic development and conservation. Since the Amazon is still 80% (BBC News, 2019) intact what's needed is government enforcement to protect the rain-forest must be a primary priority and the notion of economic and agricultural growth should work around the conservation of the environment. On a personal level, we all have to reduce our meat consumption because not all meats are equally bad; chicken is not as bad as beef (Doheny,2019). This in terms of water use to produce meat, and land clearance to farm livestock and the overall carbon footprint it has on our planet.

A protester cries as he holds a placard reading 'SOS' during a demonstration against the deforestation in the Amazon and the government's environmental policies. Credit:Odd Andersen/AFP (Child, 2019).

To date the G-7 countries, which collectively have a GDP of nearly $34 trillion, have pledged to fight fires in nations that are home to parts of the Amazon rain-forest by donating $20 million towards fighting off the fires (Stein, 2019). Thanks to the global and political pressure by presidents (and of particular of France) and organisations from around the world, the Brazilian President, Mr Jair Bolsonaro, has called in the armed forces, who have more resources to tackle the fires, including the use of helicopters and aeroplanes to drop water (BBC News, 2019).

Apart from this, I believe that it is important for a person to choose to make one environmentally friendly change in your life to help offset the impact of this destruction (Doheny, 2019). For instance, order take-out food one less time per week, as the single-use plastics used in food packaging are an environmental concern. Or volunteer for an environmental group (such as: Yout4Nature and YUNGA) that speaks to fighting issues against environmental degradation and wildlife security.

I have personally seen how it has hurt people to know about what the Amazon Basin and the inhabitants living in this marvelous ecosystem are going through. It is evident that there needs to be a behavioural change towards our surroundings. The Amazon cannot fight for itself, yet it is being destroyed when it has been slowing down global warming by producing approximately 20% of the planet's oxygen (BBC News, 2019). We need to make ourselves aware of what we can do, we are not weak…in numbers we can manifest a loud war-cry as we stand in solidarity with the millions of others for the Amazon forest.

#SavetheAmazon

Reference list:

Acosta,. S. 2019. Understand: How the Amazon forest fires impact people worldwide. Online. [Available] https://www.ksat.com/news/news-at-9/understand/understand-how-the-amazon-forest-fires-impact-people-worldwide. Accessed, 12.09.2019. Aug 30,2019.

BBC News. 2019. Amazon rainforest fires: Ten readers' questions answered. Online. [Available] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49450925. Accessed, 12.09.2019. Aug 28,2019.

Butler,. 2019. The Amazon Rainforest: The World's Largest Rainforest. Online. [Available] Accessed, 12.09.2019. Apr 1,2019.

Child,. D. 2019. The Amazon is burning: What you need to know. Online. [Available] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/amazon-burning-190823082046821.html.Accessed, 12.09.2019. Aug 27,2019.

Doheny,. K. 2019. Amazon Rainforest Fires: Effects on Health, Weather. Online. [Available] https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/news/20190828/amazon-rainforest-fires-effects-on-health-weather.  Accessed, 12.09.2019. Aug 28,2019.

Henden,. A. 2019. Amazon rainforest fire: How did the Amazon fire start? How long has it been on fire? Online. [Available] https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1168299/amazon-rainforest-fire-how-did-amazon-fires-start-cause-deforestation-how-long-fire. Accessed, 12.09.2019. Aug 27,2019.

Stein,. V. 2019. 9 numbers you need to know to understand the Amazon fires. Online. [Available] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/9-numbers-you-need-to-know-to-understand-the-amazon-fires. Accessed, 12.09.2019. Aug 26,2019.

WWF. N/A. Amazon Deforestration. Online. [Available] https://wwf.panda.org/our_work/forests/deforestation_fronts2/deforestation_in_the_amazon/. Accessed, 12.09.2019. Aug 23,2019.

Yeung,. J. 2019. Blame humans for starting the Amazon fires, environmentalists say. Online. [Available] https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/22/americas/amazon-fires-humans-intl-hnk-trnd/index.html. Accessed, 12.09.2019. Aug 23,2019.