Bolsonaro and the Amazon Deforestation Crisis


In the past few months, Brazil has been the victim of major setbacks in the preservation of the Amazon rainforest. Over the course of this year, over 1,330 square miles of forest cover has been lost (in comparison with the 957 square miles last year). This June alone saw a rate of deforestation verging on double that of June just one year ago.

A significant force at play in this recent decay of environmental protection is undoubtedly the poor
policy of the nation’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who is both overly dismissive of related
studies and supportive of an excessively anti-control mindset.

Indeed, Bolsonaro seems to condone the recent spike in deforestation. Part of his presidential
campaign involved promising to remove regulations on protected land, which he described as an
economic and agricultural hindrance. Soon after taking office, Bolsonaro granted the Ministry of
Agriculture the right to certify the protected status of indigenous lands, a right previously held by the
National Indian Foundation. While this change was reversed, it serves as a clear example of
Bolsonaro’s perilous disregard for Amazon preservation.

Bolsonaro also appears to be not simply neglecting but questioning recent studies of trends in Amazon deforestation. When confronted with recent findings of the PRODES satellite monitoring system, which issues annual logging reports under the National Institute of Space Research, Bolsonaro criticized the study instead of addressing the issue, an issue that even the nation’s environment minister, Ricardo Salles, admitted merited attention.

Ultimately, Brazil’s growing struggles with rainforest preservation exemplify the global phenomenon of political figures either disregarding or even entirely dismissing the overwhelming evidence for climate change in a time where all nations ought to be tackling this threat head-on.

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/01/amazon-deforestation-bolsonaro-government-accused-doubt-data

https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-rainforest-experiencing-record-breaking-deforestation-2019-7

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/07/deforestation-amazon-shooting-brazil-s-president-calls-data-lie

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/28/world/americas/brazil-deforestation-amazon-bolsonaro.html?searchResultPosition=2

Comments

  1. AnnieD1 August 2019 at 16:41

    This has been very troubling news. I'm interested in hearing your personal thoughts about this Bolsonaro's policies.

    ReplyDelete

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