Last week the largest city in South America went dark in the middle of the day. Forest fires in the Amazon, which are estimated to have increased 84% since last year, had come right to the doorstep of Sao Paulo. Other parts of Brazil have also experienced this blackening of the sun, with soot penetrating even sealed hotel rooms.
Is it an overstatement to say that the world’s lungs are burning? Not at all. Today this largest tropical forest on the planet is a vital source of oxygen. Even more importantly, the CO2 that it is holding is the equivalent of 140 years of human emissions. This carbon sink is an invaluable weapon in humanity’s struggle against climate change.
Unfortunately Brazil’s president has shown sympathy for the argument that global warming is nothing more than “greenhouse fables” and Brazil’s environment minister has said that the solution to the fires is to “monetize” the Amazon. Their government is accused of encouraging large-scale deforestation.
But it is specious to put Brazil alone in the dock. Around 42% of EU’s beef imports were reportedly from Brazil until as recently as 2017. A majority of Brazil’s soybeans are consumed in China and the US. It is growing global demand that incentivizes Brazilians to clear more and more land. The bottomline is that 60% of the Amazon is in Brazil, and preserving it is key to stabilizing the temperature across the world. The only way forward is to work together.
