The Amazon Rainforest has been burning for over a month. That’s right, the three-million square miles of tropical forests that produces 20% of the air we breathe has been in imminent danger for weeks. And now, retailers are starting to act in response.
H&M has become the second retailer to stop buying Brazilian leather, announcing the temporary ban on Thursday last week. They follow the lead of VF Corporation - which produces Timberland, The North Face and Vans. The companies have stated they will not buy Brazilian leather until they can be sure suppliers are not connected to environmental harm.
This is because Brazilian farmers have been accused of starting fires themselves to clear land for crop and cattle farming. In fact, last month the Brazilian government rejected an £18 million aid offer from the G7 countries. However, last week President Bolsonaro sent the Brazilian military in to fight the fires, and signed an executive order forbidding fires during dry season.
How have other counties tried to help the Amazon rainforest fires?
The G7 aid offer, made by French President Emmanuel Macron, was announced after a summit last month saw it placed as a high priority talking point. However, Brazil's government has dubbed the offer 'colonialist and imperialist'.
'We appreciate [the offer], but maybe those resources are more relevant to reforest Europe,' Onyx Lorenzoni, the chief of staff to President Jair Bolsonaro, told the G1 news website, 'Brazil is a democratic, free nation that never had colonialist and imperialist practices, as perhaps is the objective of the Frenchman Macron.'
He also referenced the Notre Dame fire earlier this year, saying, 'Macron cannot even avoid a foreseeable fire in a church that is a world heritage site. What does he intend to teach our country?'
While the aid offer - primarily meant to fund firefighting planes - had been called 'chump change' by environmental experts, the money was thought to be welcomed by Brazil's environment minister, Ricardo Salles. However, the government quickly changed course.
Macron has since responded, calling the fires a global issue as the Amazon trees are 'the lungs of the planet'.
'We respect your sovereignty. It’s your country,' he said, 'The Amazon forest is a subject for the whole planet. We can help you reforest. We can find the means for your economic development that respects the natural balance. But we cannot allow you to destroy everything.'
Bolsonaro's environmental policies have previously been slated by experts. He is considered to be more focused on increasing economic growth by encouraging cattle and crop farming in the Amazon Rainforest, rather than conserving the environment.
So how can we help fight the fires? Scroll down to find out.
What was the media coverage of the Amazon rainforest fires?
Up until last week there had been little international reporting of the event.
In fact, the coverage has only burst onto the collective consciousness last week because of the increasing alarm on social media – with hundreds of thousands sharing images of the burning forest. Comparing the concern for a rainforest that critically stabilises the global climate to the outpouring of grief after the Notre Dame fire earlier this year, many are pointing to the hypocrisy of responses from powerful people and organisations.
According to the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), Brazil’s Amazon rainforest has seen a record number of fires this year with an 84% increase on the same time frame in 2018. In fact, smoke from the most recent fires has been so thick it can be seen from space.
Home to one million indigenous people and three million plant and animal species, the disaster has led to a state of emergency being declared in the state of Amazonas.
So why was it so slow?
You could blame the cat-and-mouse state of the media whereby trivial matters are more frequently covered because they are more highly engaged with by readers. Or, the problematic idea that readers are only likely to engage with news that directly impacts them at present (of course, the climate crisis does impact us all but seems to remain somewhat invisible to many.)
However, it also goes much deeper than that. Environmental concerns in Brazil are currently extremely complex, with ongoing tensions between the government and environmental activists increasing with the arrival of new president Jair Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro’s government has received scathing criticism from scientists and climate activists since he took office in January this year, with many alleging that the Amazon rainforest has suffered accelerated losses since his arrival. His policies generally favour economic development over conservation and have reportedly emboldened farmers to clear land for crop fields and cattle ranches – with the new government hoping to increase economic activity in the Amazonian region.
In fact, Brazilian ministers have made clear they are more sympathetic to those in the logging industry than the indigenous groups living in the state of Amazonas. And earlier this year the government unilaterally suspended the Amazon Fund – which was created to curb deforestation – after both Germany and Norway halted donations in protest to Bolsonaro’s policies.
It also is probably true to say that given the fact that forest fires are relatively common in the Amazon rainforest, there seems to have been a reluctance to cover the issue because – at least at first – it didn't seem particularly urgent news. For example, while the number of fires in Brazil has increased massively this year, they do typically occur naturally in dry seasons. There have been between 35,000 and 75,000 fires in Brazil from January to August each year for the last five years. In 2016, there were more than 68,000 fires across this period – the highest number in the last decade until now.
However, as farmers are being dubbed partly responsible for the increase in fires recently (deliberately starting them to enable deforestation) the complication of Bolsonaro’s policies has made the issue much more complex – and the issue must become a priority for the media and politicians.
But now we do know about it, what can we do to help?
As always with international crises, you can write to your MP to ask for a government response or debate on the issue. Should the UK government condemn Brazil’s new environmental policy and attempt to hold them accountable in some form (perhaps a change in our international trade policies with Brazil), that could inspire reflection from the Brazilian government.
'A significant proportion of forest fires are started deliberately to clear land for planting palm oil, soya, or making room for grazing cattle,' a spokesperson for Greenpeace told Grazia, 'Governments making deals with countries that are allowing this to happen are also driving further forest destruction and climate change. We cannot accept this and must call on Government to change.'
But the call to action doesn't end there. The spokesperson went on to explain that readers must 'call on consumer goods companies to stick to their promises and end deforestation for commodities like palm oil and soya by 2020.
'Their choice is simple,' they said, 'If they can’t end deforestation by buying from sustainable sources, they need to use less of the commodities responsible for forest destruction and climate change.'
You can also donate to Greenpeace Brazil to help their fight against deforestation, join one of their volunteer teams or lead a campaign with them. You can find out more about this and donate to the fundraiser here.
In a more general sense, Greenpeace Brazil advises people change their lifestyles to better help the planet.
'What we’re witnessing with these fires is the true cost of our meat and dairy addiction - huge areas of forests burned to the ground to graze cattle and grow crops like soya, nearly all of it used for animal feed,' they said, 'As individuals, we can all reduce our meat consumption. Beef has been identified time and time again as the worst meat for the environment because of the emissions it causes but did you know that 90% of soya – one of the world’s fastest drivers of deforestation – is made into animal feed for chickens and pigs?'
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