{"id":51517,"date":"2019-08-23T19:00:16","date_gmt":"2019-08-23T13:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/?p=51517"},"modified":"2019-08-23T16:38:36","modified_gmt":"2019-08-23T11:08:36","slug":"7-pm-why-amazon-fires-are-worrying-23rd-august-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-why-amazon-fires-are-worrying-23rd-august-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"7 PM | Why Amazon fires are worrying | 23rd August, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Context:\n<\/strong>Amazon\nRainforests, its importance and the recent forest fires- a cause of concern for\nglobal community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>More\nin news:<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Thousands of fires are ravaging the\nAmazon rainforest in Brazil &#8211; the most intense blazes for almost a decade.<\/li><li>Brazil declared a state of emergency\nover the rising number of fires in the region. So far this year, almost 73,000\nfires have been detected by Brazil&#8217;s space research center.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Amazon\nRainforest:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The&nbsp;Amazon rainforest is\na&nbsp;moist broadleaf&nbsp;tropical&nbsp;rainforest&nbsp;in the&nbsp;Amazon\nbiome&nbsp;that covers most of the&nbsp;Amazon basin&nbsp;of&nbsp;South\nAmerica.<\/li><li>The majority of the forest is\ncontained&nbsp;within Brazil, with 60% of the rainforest, followed by&nbsp;Peru&nbsp;with\n13%,&nbsp;Colombia&nbsp;with 10%, and with minor amounts in&nbsp;Venezuela,&nbsp;Ecuador,&nbsp;Bolivia,&nbsp;Guyana,&nbsp;Suriname&nbsp;and&nbsp;France&nbsp;(French Guiana).<\/li><li>The Amazon rainforest stretches across 5.5\nmillion square kilometers, an area far larger than the EU. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Importance\nof the Amazon forests for the global community:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The enormous Amazon River, with all its\ntributaries, contains 20 per cent of the world\u2019s flowing freshwater.<\/li><li>The\nAmazon rain forests are the lungs of our planet which produces 20% of our\noxygen.<\/li><li><strong>Precipitation:<\/strong> Through\ntranspiration, the Amazon rainforest is responsible for creating 50-75 percent\nof its own precipitation. But its impact extends well beyond the Amazon Basin,\nwith Amazon rainfall and rivers feeding regions that generate 70 percent of\nSouth America&#8217;s GDP. Models indicate that moisture from the Amazon influences\nrainfall as far away as the Western United States and Central America.<\/li><li><strong>Carbon\nstorage:<\/strong>\nThe 390 billion trees across the Amazon rainforest locks up massive amounts of\ncarbon in their leaves, branches, and trunks. A 2007 study published\nin&nbsp;Global Change Biology&nbsp;estimated the forest stores some 86 billion\ntons of carbon or more than a third of all carbon stored by tropical forests\nworldwide.<\/li><li><strong>Biodiversity:<\/strong> Though\nthe Amazon covers only four per cent of the earth\u2019s surface, the Amazon is home\nto more species of plants and animals than any other terrestrial ecosystem on\nthe planet, perhaps 30 percent of the world&#8217;s species are found there. Besides\ntheir intrinsic value as living organisms, these species have potential value\nto humans in the form of medicine, food, and other products.<\/li><li><strong>Local\nbenefits:<\/strong>\nWithin the Amazon Basin, tens of millions of people depend on services afforded\nby the forest. Rivers are the main vectors for transportation, while logging\nand collection of non-timber forest products are major industries in many\ncities, towns, and villages. The rainforest helps suppress but not completely\neliminate the risk of fire, in addition to reducing air pollution. Fish in\nAmazon tributaries are a huge source of protein in the region. Annual floods\nreplenish nutrients in floodplain areas used for agriculture.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"425\" height=\"383\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/ama.jpg?resize=425%2C383&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-51518\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What caused the fire?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>While the&nbsp;Amazon rainforest&nbsp;is\ntypically wet and humid, July and August are the onset of the dry season (the\nregion&#8217;s driest months). Fire is often used to clear out the land for farming\nor ranching. For that reason, a vast majority of the fires can be attributed to\nhumans.<\/li><li>According to Brazil&#8217;s space research\ncenter (INPE), the country has seen an 80% increase in fires this year,\ncompared with the same period last year. According to INPE, more than half were\nin the Amazon region, spelling disaster for the local environment and ecology\nand 99% percent of the fires result from human actions &#8220;either on purpose\nor by accident\u201d.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What\nenvironmental protection do Brazil\u2019s law provide, and what are the changes\nrecently made?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Under Brazil\u2019s Forest Code\nof 1965, farmers could purchase Amazon land but could farm only 20% of it. <\/li><li>Following the collapse of\nthe military dictatorship in 1988, a new constitution gave indigenous\npopulations legal ownership of their land and the right to reject development\nof their land. <\/li><li>In 2012, the Forest Code was\nrevised to reduce the area of deforested land required to be restored, and to\nreduce penalties for illegal deforesting. &nbsp;In 2018, Brazil\u2019s\nSupreme Court upheld these changes.<\/li><li>Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro had\npromised in his election campaign that the Amazon region would be opened for\nthe business. He even opposed protections for indigenous tribal land.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Way\nforward:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The growing numbers of fires are the\nresult of illegal forest clearing to create land for farming. Fires are set\ndeliberately and spread easily in the dry season. The desire for new land for\ncattle farming has been the&nbsp;main driver of deforestation&nbsp;in the\nBrazilian Amazon&nbsp;since the 1970s. <\/li><li>The devastating loss of biodiversity\ndoes not just affect Brazil. The loss of Amazonian vegetation&nbsp;directly\nreduces rain&nbsp;across South America and other regions of the world. The\nplanet is losing an important carbon sink, and the fires are directly injecting\ncarbon into the atmosphere. If we can\u2019t stop deforestation in the Amazon, and\nthe associated fires, it raises real questions about our ability to reach the\nParis Agreement to slow climate change.<\/li><li>The&nbsp;Brazilian government has set an\nambitious target&nbsp;to stop illegal deforestation and restore 4.8 million\nhectares of degraded Amazonian land by 2030. If these goals are not carefully\naddressed now, it may not be possible to meaningfully mitigate climate change.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source:\n<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-why-amazon-fires-are-worrying-5928565\/\">https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-why-amazon-fires-are-worrying-5928565\/<\/a><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Context: Amazon Rainforests, its importance and the recent forest fires- a cause of concern for global community. More in news: Thousands of fires are ravaging the Amazon rainforest in Brazil &#8211; the most intense blazes for almost a decade. Brazil declared a state of emergency over the rising number of fires in the region. So&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-why-amazon-fires-are-worrying-23rd-august-2019\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">7 PM | Why Amazon fires are worrying | 23rd August, 2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":49370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7-pm","category-public","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/7-PM.png?fit=1000%2C500&ssl=1","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704835902},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}