Sao Paulo:
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon surged once more more than the previous year, hitting a 12-year higher, according to official figures released Monday that drew a chorus of condemnation of President Jair Bolsonaro’s government.
A total of 11,088 square kilometers (4,281 square miles) of forest was destroyed in Brazil’s share of the world’s most significant rainforest in the 12 months to August, according to the Brazilian space agency’s PRODES monitoring plan, which analyzes satellite pictures to track deforestation.
That is equivalent to an location bigger than Jamaica, and was a 9.5-% improve from the prior year, when deforestation also hit a far more than decade-lengthy higher.
“Because of such deforestation, Brazil is probably the only major greenhouse gas emitter that managed to increase its emissions in the year the coronavirus pandemic paralyzed the global economy,” mentioned the Brazilian Climate Observatory, a coalition of environmental groups.
Forests such as the Amazon play a essential function in controlling climate adjust due to the fact they suck carbon from the atmosphere. However, when trees die or burn, they release their carbon back into the atmosphere.
Bolsonaro, a far-proper climate-adjust skeptic, has presided more than increasing deforestation and wildfires given that taking workplace in January 2019.
His government is pushing to open protected lands to mining and agribusiness, and has slashed funding for environmental protection applications.
Environmentalists say these policies fuel the destruction of the Amazon, about 60 % of which is in Brazil.
“The Bolsonaro government’s vision of development for the Amazon is a throwback to the rampant deforestation of the past. It’s a regressive vision that’s far from the effort needed to deal with the climate crisis,” Greenpeace spokeswoman Cristiane Mazzetti mentioned in a statement.
Vice President Hamilton Mourao, who presented the figures in a press conference, defended the government’s committment to fighting deforestation.
“The message I bring in the name of President Bolsonaro is that we will continue working with science and technology to support the work of environmental protection agencies,” mentioned Mourao, a retired army common who heads Bolsonaro’s Amazon job force.
The most current annual deforestation figure was the highest given that 2008, when 12,911 square kilometers of forest have been destroyed in the Brazilian Amazon.
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