The Amazon Rainforest Is on Fire. What Can You Do to Help?
Wildfires often occur in the drier summer months in the Amazon, but what’s notable right now is the size and number of fires. The forest is roughly half the size of the USA, and it’s currently burning at the rate of 1 and ½ soccer fields every minute of every day. The smoke is visible from space. Environmental organizations and researchers say the blazing wildfires were set by cattle ranchers and loggers who want to clear and utilize the land. Pro-big business Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is pointedly not taking action and many believe the humans responsible for setting the fires have been emboldened by his lack of support for the Amazon.
The Amazon rainforest produces 20% of the oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere. It’s home to 10% of the world known biodiversity (wide variety of plants and animals). It’s the ancestral home of about 2.7 million indigenous people.
• If we lost the Amazon •
👉🏼 Reduced rainfall in Southern Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
👉🏼 Increased drought. Less water to drink, less water for agriculture (FOOD)
👉🏼 More greenhouse gasses. The air quality will be worse, meaning it’ll be more difficult for a lot of people to breathe, and the global temperatures will continue to rise even higher.
👉🏼 Endangered animals will disappear, possible future cures for medical problems will be lost, and millions of people will be displaced and lose their livelihoods.
• How can you and I help save the Amazon rainforest? It’s not like we can all hop on a bus and go fight the fires.•
👉🏼 Educate yourself and others. Getting everyone informed and inspired to take action is the first step. Do not look away.
👉🏼 Reduce the amount of wood and paper you use. Buy products made with recycled material if you can. Less demand for trees theoretically means less deforestation.
👉🏼 Reduce your beef consumption. Rainforest beef is typically found in fast-food hamburgers or processed beef products. Animal agriculture is responsible for 14.5 percent of the world’s greenhouse emissions. Of those emissions, 65% come from beef and dairy cattle.
👉🏼 Donate (what you can) to non-profit charities. I chose the Amazon Conservation Association and the Rainforest Action Network.
👉🏼 Speak up. You can call, email, or write to your elected officials and demand that they use their power to take action. Here’s one of many petitions you can sign: https://act.greenpeace.org/page/39922/petition/1?_ga=2.241642823.434415180.1566393850-1940554404.1566393850.
We have to care. We can’t forget about this when the next big news story comes out. We can all do SOMETHING. The Earth doesn’t need us, we need her. When we have destroyed our species and taken many others down with us, the Earth will come back strong. We will be gone.
Brazil’s Amazon rainforest is burning at a record rate, research center says: https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/21/americas/amazon-rainforest-fire-intl-hnk-trnd/index.html
Blame humans for starting the Amazon fires, environmentalists say
Here’s what you can do to help the burning, ravaged Amazon rainforest: https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-help-amazon-rainforest-what-charities-to-donate-to-2019
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