The Amazon Forest is Burning - Who cares?

If one only read some of the mainstream media and selected Facebook posts - one could easily believe that all of a sudden the Amazon forest is in imminent danger of disappearing. Quite clearly from all of the information available and from the comments of such world leaders such as our own Justin Trudeau, Brazil needs to do something immediately before the world's environment is destroyed. While I do not disagree with the sentiment, I do wish folks would get their facts right. Even better, I wish that they actually did something as opposed to wringing their hands at the foolishness of others while refusing to make significant changes in their lifestyle - that same lifestyle that is leading to so many of the world's environmental problems. The sad fact is that that forest and others like it have been under constant pressure since (at least) the 1950s.

The total number of rain forest acres around the world has, on a yearly basis, been getting smaller and smaller. This is frequently done by burning the forest. Some of the fires are set intentionally either to drive out the indigenous populations, to clear the land for agriculture or to gain access to valuable timber or minerals. Other fires occur - as they do in Canada through lightning strikes or human carelessness. On a yearly basis, there are fires within the Amazon basin. This year, compared to last year is much worse. This year compared to the number of fires is worse than in 2013, but it is not the worse year on record. There are numerous sites available if one wants to have all of the facts (see the end of blog for a shortlist of sites). While it would be nice if someone could figure out how to put out the fires, it would be better to figure out how to stop the forests' continuous planned destruction.

It is so easy for the western world to demand that someone do something to stop the destruction of the forest. As we sit in our nice homes, some (many) of them single dwelling units perched on some of the best agriculture land in Canada, it is easy for us to ignore the pollution in our rivers and lakes that we have created. We demand that other countries stop using their natural resources or cutting down their forest when we do it every day in our own country. As we wear our pretty jewellery or use our high tech toys containing rare earth minerals, we forget where those substances come from. We expect others to deal with the destruction of our atmosphere while we continue to cruise along our roads, frequently alone in our five-passenger SUV or pick-up truck.

Some of the postings I have seen on Facebook, have suggested that we all need to stop eating meat as some of the rain forests are being cut down to make room for corn and other silage to feed beef cattle. Not much has changed from when I first stopped eating meat some 40 years ago - one of the bits of logic (I use that word loosely) was that the forest in Argentina was being destroyed so that fast food outlets could get cheap beef. In fact, the western world's lifestyle and constant demand for cheap products has ensured that forest all over the world have been cut down to produce pineapple or palm oil or etc etc. If we do not agree that Brazilians should use their forests to expand their economy, perhaps we should both stop doing it ourselves and stop demanding the exotic woods and precious metals that their forest provides to us.

In the short term, Canada could offer the skills and expertise of its forest firefighters to assist - except that I am not all that convinced that we are that skilled at putting out fires. It seems to take us long enough. We could offer to donate money so that they could hire and train their own firefighters or if we had them - we could send down some Martin Mars water bombers. But then someone would complain about how we are sending money to another country rather than helping people here.

Maybe we should just quit talking about what others should do - and do something ourselves.

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/08/23/amazon-fire-history-since-2003/
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/amazon-rainforest-on-fire-2019/
https://www.science20.com/robert_walker/nasa_say_the_amazon_is_burning_at_below_average_rates_yet_many_news_stories_say_record_rates-240959