Amazon Fires in Brazil (comprehensive thread)

[TomSea]

Amazon fires: Brazilian rainforest burning at record rate, space agency warns

Brazil's Amazon rainforest has seen a record number of fires this year, according to new data from the country's space research agency.

The National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) said its satellite data showed an 83% increase on the same period in 2018.

It comes weeks after President Jair Bolsonaro fired the head of the agency amid rows over its deforestation data.

Smoke from the fires caused a blackout in the city of Sao Paulo on Monday.

Read more at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49415973

BNL NEWS
@BreakingNLive
BREAKING NEWS: A massive wildfire has broken out in the Amazon rainforest. The whole city of São Paulo is covered by thick smoke. The Amazon has now been burning for three weeks and the fire is spreading.
Developing...

(Video)

https://twitter.com/BreakingNLive/status/1163892326172962818

I think I've heard it said that the Amazon forest is so massive, some of it virtually is always burning.

[bigheadfred]

"The dry season creates the favourable conditions for the use and spread of fire, but starting a fire is the work of humans, either deliberately or by accident."

Trump's fault in 3-2-1.

[TomSea]

BTT, I may sticky this, it certainly is a concern, I may rename this some generic name like "Amazon Fires",  it is a big news story, I will see what I find. Also, we un-stickied (un-marked) 2 threads last weekend. I think it should be prominently displayed perhaps... Brazil is now sending the army in, Macron has said it's an international crisis, so here we go...

I just don't like calling every stickied thread a crisis, 'Hong Kong Crisis", "Iranian crisis" and so on...

[Cyber Liberty]

Are we going to send Smokey the Bear there, to repeat the mismanagement that's wreaking havoc on the forests of the USA?

[TomSea]

Brazil sends army to tackle Amazon fires

Brazil's president has ordered the armed forces to help fight a record number of forest fires in the Amazon.

A decree issued by President Jair Bolsonaro authorises the deployment of soldiers in nature reserves, indigenous lands and border areas in the region.

The announcement comes after intense pressure from European leaders.

Read more at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49452789

Macron Urges G-7 Members To Put Amazon Fires At Top Of Agenda

French President Emmanuel Macron is calling on world leaders to place the massive fires destroying Brazil's Amazon rainforest at the top of their agenda as they gather in France's southwest for the Group of Seven summit.

"Our house is burning. Literally. The Amazon rain forest – the lungs which produces 20% of our planet's oxygen – is on fire," Macron wrote in a tweet Thursday. "It is an international crisis. Members of the G7 Summit, let's discuss this emergency first order in two days!"

France is hosting the summit in the city of Biarritz, on the Atlantic coast, which begins on Saturday. President Trump and leaders from Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom will also attend.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres echoed Macron's statement, saying in a tweet that "we cannot afford more damage to a major source of oxygen and biodiversity. The Amazon must be protected."

Read more at: https://www.npr.org/2019/08/23/753639869/macron-urges-g7-members-to-put-amazon-fires-at-top-of-agenda

Are we going to send Smokey the Bear there, to repeat the mismanagement that's wreaking havoc on the forests of the USA?

So we shouldn't worry? I have no idea what all of this means actually.

Maybe it's like global warming then?  It seems a bit different than global warming, climate change.  We will see.

Trump has offered aid as well; as I believe he has offered aid to Russia with their fires and I believe offered help to France when the Cathedral was on fire.

Israel helped Brazil when that dam broke earlier this year. It's no big deal to help out countries in need.

[Cyber Liberty]

So we shouldn't worry? I have no idea what all of this means actually.

Maybe it's like global warming then?  It seems a bit different than global warming, climate change.  We will see.

Trump has offered aid as well; as I believe he has offered aid to Russia with their fires and I believe offered help to France when the Cathedral was on fire.

Israel helped Brazil when that dam broke earlier this year. It's no big deal to help out countries in need.

Forests catch fire, it's what they do.  If they aren't allowed to, the fires are hotter and more severe.  In the USA we've been quenching every fire that pops up, and that practice has led to overgrown ground that catches the canopy of the forest on fire leading to more serious and near permanent devastation. 

While it's good to not set fires accidentally, it's not good to put out every fire.  This sounds really major, though.   

ETA:  The whole Smokey the Bear campaign led to the forestry practices decribed above.

[Sighlass]

Just speculating out loud here, but could the environmental folks be putting pressure on the local farmers that want the land cleared (good farmland) but are getting pressure to not burn it... so they are setting fires while the setting is good.

Again, just thinking out loud... I don't know if this is even close to true.

[Cyber Liberty]

Just speculating out loud here, but could the environmental folks be putting pressure on the local farmers that want the land cleared (good farmland) but are getting pressure to not burn it... so they are setting fires while the setting is good.

Again, just thinking out loud... I don't know if this is even close to true.

A reasonable theory...we already know the enviros have been raising Heck.

[TomSea]

Good conjecture above,

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/amazon-burning-190823082046821.html

Pretty good Q and A on this issue. Anyway, throughout this G7 meeting this weekend, we can read this thread. Hopefully, this will be a temporary matter.

[Cyber Liberty]

Good conjecture above,

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/amazon-burning-190823082046821.html

Pretty good Q and A on this issue. Anyway, throughout this G7 meeting this weekend, we can read this thread. Hopefully, this will be a temporary matter.

Good thread, BTW!  I like having a central thread to post updates and discuss.

[Victoria33]

@Cyber Liberty

@TomSea

It's serious because 20% of the oxygen in the world comes from there.

[Cyber Liberty]

@Cyber Liberty

It's serious because 20% of the oxygen in the world comes from there.

I see a problem there.  Is a significant share of that on fire? 

Settlers have been slashing and burning for a couple thousand years at least.  Are they burning 10X more acreage today compare to 100 years ago?  It's hard to assess the relative impact of the current event through the eyes of the press, they'll tell us we're all going to die in 12 years.  They've been lying in order to effect some kind of social change for as long as I've been a spectator of these things (since the 70's.)

[TomSea]

The army is fighting the fire now, also water being air-dropped. I don't know if this is enough at this point.  News coverage over the weekend said new fires had started as well.

G-7 leaders agree to $20 million fund to help Brazil fight Amazon fires and repair damage
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/ct-nw-g7-summit-amazon-fires-20190825-n2rxa4hzxnaxlgkf3lamrhrhvy-story.html

And some big protests worldwide:

Pressure, prayers and protests: Amazon fires push Brazil to the forefront of international conversations
Amid an international outcry and protests at home over the proliferation of fires in the Amazon rainforest, the Brazilian ...
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/08/25/amazon-fires-brazil-sends-troops-international-outcry-pope-francis-g-7-leaders/2116605001/

More later.

[goatprairie]

@Cyber Liberty

@TomSea

It's serious because 20% of the oxygen in the world comes from there.ed

No it doesn't. Almost all the oxygen produced in the Amazon stays there. Almost all the fires are occurring on previously cleared land aka agricultural land.
Another hysterical fake news event cooked up (no pun intended) by liberals.

[thackney]

@Cyber Liberty

@TomSea

It's serious because 20% of the oxygen in the world comes from there.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49450925

...Many claim on social media that the Amazon produces about 20% of the world's oxygen. It's widely quoted - by campaign groups and well-known figures, including Emmanuel Macron and footballer Cristiano Ronaldo.

But academics say this is a very common misconception, and that the figure is less than 10%.

Oxygen is released by plants during the process of photosynthesis, where sunlight and carbon dioxide are converted into energy in the form of carbohydrates.

A large proportion of the world's oxygen is produced by plankton, explains Professor Malhi. He says of the oxygen produced by land-based plants, about 16% comes from the Amazon.

But this isn't the whole story. In the long run, the Amazon absorbs about the same amount of oxygen as it produces, effectively making the total produced net zero....

[Victoria33]

No it doesn't. Almost all the oxygen produced in the Amazon stays there. Almost all the fires are occurring on previously cleared land aka agricultural land.
Another hysterical fake news event cooked up (no pun intended) by liberals.

@goatprairie

My information was old - I apologize for that and am glad I was wrong. Here is what actually happens (consider the rest in quotes):

“The Amazon does not change the oxygen balance much. It, for example, annually removes up to two billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, and it returns about 1.5 billion tons of oxygen to the atmosphere. But 1.5 billion tons of oxygen is a very small fraction, 0.001% of the planet's oxygen, ”explained climatologist Carlos Nobre.

For Paulo Sérgio Salomon, oceanologist and researcher at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, explains that most of the oxygen present in the atmosphere has been accumulating in billions of years in the processes of life formation on Earth. For him, as important as the forest is phytoplankton, microscopic algae that also produce oxygen in the oceans.

"Advances in knowledge have shown that this oxygen producer function is shared approximately 50% with phytoplankton."

[TomSea]

The Amazon Is on Fire
Kathryn Salam

This week, Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research announced that fires were burning in the Amazon at the highest rate since it had started measuring in 2013. According to reports, Brazil has seen 72,843 blazes this year—half of them in the Amazon—amounting to an 80 percent increase over the same period in 2018. Many observers attribute the poor state of the rainforest to the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, who has relaxed environmental legislations and has argued that “there aren’t the resources” to fight the fires.

As the Amazon continues to burn, we’ve collected our top reads on how Brazil got here—and what to do about it.

The recent turn of events in Brazil is all the more surprising given the progress it has made on climate change in recent years. As Bard College’s Omar G. Encarnación writes, “it is hard to think of a progressive cause not championed by Brazil on the global stage in the last three decades, starting with the environment.” In fact, “in 1992, just a few years after leaving military rule, the country put the international environment movement on the map when it hosted the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. One of the largest and most ambitious events ever sponsored by the United Nations, the Earth Summit encouraged the world’s community to reconsider economic development and to find ways to slow down the stress that humans are putting on the planet. Thousands of environmental activists, business leaders, and politicians made their way to Rio de Janeiro, alongside some 10,000 journalists, ensuring unprecedented attention to the environment and setting the stage for the advent of a ‘global green regime.’”

Read more at: https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/08/23/the-amazon-is-on-fire/

[TomSea]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49450925

...Many claim on social media that the Amazon produces about 20% of the world's oxygen. It's widely quoted - by campaign groups and well-known figures, including Emmanuel Macron and footballer Cristiano Ronaldo.

But academics say this is a very common misconception, and that the figure is less than 10%.

Oxygen is released by plants during the process of photosynthesis, where sunlight and carbon dioxide are converted into energy in the form of carbohydrates.

A large proportion of the world's oxygen is produced by plankton, explains Professor Malhi. He says of the oxygen produced by land-based plants, about 16% comes from the Amazon.

But this isn't the whole story. In the long run, the Amazon absorbs about the same amount of oxygen as it produces, effectively making the total produced net zero....

Thanks for the data. @thackney

I'm sure a whole lot of this is up to discussion.

[TomSea]

Brazil's Bolsonaro will consider $40M G-7 Amazon aid package - if Macron apologizes to him
By Nicole Darrah | Fox News

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro says he will think about accepting offers of international aid to fight raging fires in the Amazon region if French President Emmanuel Macron apologizes for comments he deemed offensive.

Bolsonaro said Tuesday that Macron called him a liar, and accused the French president of questioning Brazil’s sovereignty amid tensions over fires in the region — which Macron described as an issue "for the whole planet."

During the Group of Seven nations summit in Biarritz, southwest France, over the weekend, heads of state and government pledged $40 million — $20 million from the group, $12 million from the United Kingdom and $11 million from Canada — to help fight the fires.

Read more at: https://www.foxnews.com/world/brazil-amazon-fires-bolsonaro-macron-g7-summit-aid

Okay, whatever, Brazil has to fight these fires effectively though.

[Cyber Liberty]

This takes a bit of cheek....

[TomSea]

Brazil governors push president to accept fire aid

The governors of the nine Brazilian states most affected by a record number of fires have urged President Jair Bolsonaro to accept foreign aid to fight the blazes.

Mr Bolsonaro had earlier refused a G7 offer of $22m (£18m) following a spat with French President Emmanuel Macron.

But following a meeting between the governors and Mr Bolsonaro, the government shifted its position on aid.

It said it would accept it as long as it had control of what to spend it on.

More at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49494908

[TomSea]

Amazon fires: Brazil bans land clearance blazes for 60 days

Brazil has banned setting fires to clear land for 60 days in response to a massive increase in the number of fires in the Amazon rainforest.

The decree was signed by President Jair Bolsonaro, who has faced intense criticism at home and abroad for failing to protect the rainforest.

A leading Brazilian environmentalist warned on Wednesday that the "worst of the fire is yet to come".

Read more at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49507405

Also, other countries with the Amazon are getting involved, Peru and Ecuador are. Bolivia has some, Venezuela probably has some too.

If your neighbors share this resource, it's going to be hard to fool them.

[thackney]

About the Amazon rainforest fires — let’s separate fact from fiction
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/about-the-amazon-rainforest-fires-lets-separate-fact-from-fiction-2019-08-29

...Claim 1: Amazon fires will deplete the Earth’s oxygen supply
No, they won’t....In short, Amazon forests use almost as much oxygen as they generate....

Claim 2: There is a record 85% increase in Amazon fires compared to last year

...The number of forest-fire alerts in Brazil this year, detected by Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), is roughly the same as in 2018. Furthermore, this season isn’t even the worst on record. The year 2007 was far worse, according to reports by MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer)....

Claim 3: It’s all Bolsonaro’s fault!
...Perhaps the real culprits are you and me. We buy Brazilian products — cocoa, coffee, soy, corn and beef — often without even considering the high price paid for their production....

Claim 4: All eyes should turn to the Amazon
... Compared to Brazil alert data recorded by VIIRS in previous years, the current numbers for Russia are actually higher because of fires ravaging Siberia....

[TomSea]

al Jazeera:

The devastation of the Amazon predates Bolsonaro
Brazil needs a new economic approach, not a new government to save the Amazon.
by Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/devastation-amazon-predates-bolsonaro-190829115521710.html

We will see, I'm not excerpting because the opening comes down hard on Bolsonaro but... it goes on to say, he is "by far not the main reason" for the devastation we are seeing, which is good to hear some....

[TomSea]

World   
'Most of the fires' in the Amazon extinguished, Brazil says
AP
    Aug 31, 2019
   
WASHINGTON – Brazil’s foreign minister said his country is successfully extinguishing the fires in the Amazon region that have generated international concern after discussing the situation with President Donald Trump on Friday at the White House.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said earlier in the day that his son and Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo were heading to Washington to discuss possible U.S. aid in fighting the fires. The far-right president said he asked Trump for help and the U.S. president had said that “he couldn’t make a decision without hearing from Brazil.”

Araujo told reporters after meeting with Trump that the fires “are not an excuse to promote ideas of international management of the Amazon,” though he said the South American country is open to cooperation with other countries.

Read more at: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/08/31/world/fires-amazon-extinguished-brazil-says/#.XWuSiUdOkdU

Hopefully, this saga is drawing  to a close!