So I'm pretty much top tier terrified because the Amazon Rainforest is on fire. Like, that's seriously bad, isn't it??? How are we supposed to bounce back from this...?
Hey Anon! I’ve gotten a lot of asks about the Amazon forest fire situation so I’m going to address them all here.
The most concerning thing about the Amazon fires isn’t necessarily the fires themselves, but the reason that there are so many this year: This is almost certainly because Brazil’s current president is very anti-environmentalist, which has led to more clearing of the forest (which involves setting fires).
The fires themselves aren’t actually a new threat. People have been practicing slash-and-burn agriculture in the Amazon for a long time. What’s different this year is that there seem to be more fires than usual and they are impacting densely populated locations.
Something that I think is being glossed over by many of the images and headlines being passed around is that it’s very normal for there to be forest fires in and around the Amazon at this time of year.
Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research says that this is a record year for forest fires in Brazil since they started monitoring fires via satellite in 2013.
However, NASA says that the overall fire activity in the Amazon basin as a whole is actually slightly below average compared to the last 15 years; fire activity has increased in Amazonas and Rondonia but has decreased in Mato Grosso and Pará.
A manager for Global Forest Watch has said that the fires this year are roughly equivalent to what they saw in 2016 (according to satellite images). Now, 2016 was also a bad year for forest fires, but it goes to show that this level of fire is not unheard of.
So, why are we only hearing about the fires this year if they’ve been this bad before? Probaby because ash clouds darkened the sky over the most populated city in Brazil, which is a big, dramatic, apocalyptic thing that tends to get people’s attention.
Although some meteorologists think the ash over Sao Paulo may have been caused by fires in Paraguay, not even in the Amazon, the air quality in populated areas has been so strongly affected that Amazonas has declared a state of emergency.
To be clear, it is still definitely bad that parts of the Amazon are burning and the fact that the fires are impacting air quality in populated cities poses very real human health risks. We should be speaking out about this, drawing attention to it, and donating to organizations that are working to protect the Amazon. But this is not necessarily an apocalyptic scenario.
And the good news? #PrayforAmazonia went viral on Twitter. Tons and tons of news sources are covering these fires in a way that Amazon forest fires have not been covered in the past. People are talking about Amazon deforestation and its potential impact on climate change.
This whole debacle is generating a lot of outrage towards Brazil’s presidential administration. Hopefully, this will lead to more international support for those who are fighting his damaging policies towards the Amazon and the indigenous communities that rely on it. By the way, I think it bears mentioning that last week an indigenous women’s march occupied a Brazilian health ministry building in protest of their president’s harmful policies.
Do you want to help? Donate! I really cannot stress how much small amounts of money can go a long way in situations like this.
Donate to SOS Amazonia, a Brazilian NGO working to preserve the Amazon (I can’t find any third party information on how reputable this NGO is, but I think this may largely be because of the language barrier-they’ve been operating since the 1980s)
Donate to Rainforest Trust which buys and protects rainforest land all around the world (4/4 stars on Charity Navigator)
And don’t forget to vote for politicians that prioritize environmental protection and can put pressure on Brazil’s government to clean up its act!
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