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DEFORESTATION IN THE Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil surged to nearly 10,000 square kilometers in the year to July 2019 – its highest level in more than a decade, officials have said.
The 29.5% increase from the previous 12-month period comes after fires ravaged swathes of the Amazon this year, igniting a global outcry and diplomatic feud between President Jair Bolsonaro and European leaders.
Satellite data collected by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) shows that 9,762 square kilometres were cleared of trees, INPE officials told AFP.
That is the highest since the same period in 2008.
Para was the hardest hit of the nine states that make up the Amazon in Brazil, with nearly 4,000 square kilometres deforested.
Previous data showed that clearing in the Amazon nearly doubled in the first eight months of this year, compared with the same period in 2018, to 6,404 square kilometres.
Greenpeace blamed the dismantling of environmental protections under Bolsonaro for the sharp increase in deforestation.
Bolsonaro’s “government is throwing away all the work that has been done in recent decades for environmental protection,” said Cristiane Mazzetti, a Greenpeace campaigner in Brazil.
Pro-business Bolsonaro took power in January on a promise to open up more of the Amazon to loggers, miners and farmers.
Faced with criticism over the fires and tree clearing, Bolsonaro accused non-government organisations of starting the blazes, and France and others of threatening Brazil’s sovereignty over the rainforest.
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And the glorious EU line up the Mercosur trade deal with them promising to import beef on dirty oil guzzling ships while actively running Irish beef farmers into the ground. Not to mention the amount of rainforest that will be cleared to produce this beef. Madness.
@Daniel Dunne: It’s the greatest level of blatant hypocrisy by the E.U and our own government. Talking shite about a latte levy ,granted it has it’s place, but the Amazon is on fire. Hogan and Leo havet the gumption between them to take a stance on this.
@Daniel Dunne: Don’t eat beef then.
@Paraic: Not that I eat much of it, but who the hell do you think you are dictating what I eat or not?
@Paraic: and don’t buy hardwood furniture
@Daniel Dunne: I’m not dictating to you. I’m proposing a solution.
@Paraic: why shouldn’t he eat beef when high quality beef that has been produced in this country can be bought from local butchers, or Irish supermarkets like SuperValu and Dunnes??
@Devilsavocado: Generally speaking, beef production is very bad for our environment. The Amazon is being burned chiefly to clear land for cattle grazing. Methane is a 23 times more potent greenhouse than CO2. By all means enjoy beef. But it’s fast becoming a luxury that we can’t afford.
@Paraic: generally speaking, beef production isn’t bad at all, but beef production under current rules and regulations is, finishing cattle at younger ages, requires concentrate, large amounts of artificial fertiliser, instead we could go back to the old ways, cattle older, bigger and raised on grass. Don’t forget earth had millions of buffalo and nobody was talking about climate change.
@Daniel Dunne: but it’s cool because carbon tax….
@DERRY1973: I see your point, but you’ve contradicted yourself a few times. Grass fed cattle still produce methane. Methane is 23 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than CO2. Taking longer to finish cattle will simply produce more methane per head over the lifespan. Also nitrogen fertilizer converts to nitrous oxide. This is 300 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than CO2. Compare this to chicken farming and you find that 1Kg of beef produced, is approx 10 times worse than the same weight of chicken.
@Paraic: buffalo produced methane as well as like all ruminants and it had no affect on climate change, so this methane argument is dubious at best and as far as chicken farming is concerned, if you think shipping chicken from Thailand to Holland to Ireland is better for the planet than beef production here at home you have a serious misunderstanding of the entire problem.
@DERRY1973: No chicken producers in Ireland I suppose? Buffalo produced methane, but were we driving cars then? You’re being very silly.
It’s almost as if we humans are trying to kill ourselves off. As if enough forest wasn’t already destroyed between California, The Arctic and Australia. Now that heat waves are occurring in the winter, and the Arctic is warming three times faster than the global average More than 1.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide are being released from Arctic soil annually due to rising temperatures. That’s the equivalent CO2 output of 189 countries. And what do we do? Burn the Amazon.
@Paraic: What’s this “we” business paleface? Are you accusing every Irish person of arson?
@Daniel Dunne: Sorry, I presumed you were human. I didn’t realise that you aren’t. No offence intended, nonhuman.
@Paraic: Bit silly levelling accusations against “humans”. If that is the case then your on trial also. No court of law would accept such evidence.
@Charles McCarthy: Bit of a weak argument. Very silly bringing up the court of law. Nobody is on trial. But yes everyone is culpable. The evidence is irrefutable.
Tax the Irish..
That should sort out the banks ,
I mean the forests ..
Yawn
Bolsonaro is a complete fraud. Leo and co. need to pull mercosor deal off the table immediately. The lungs of the world are being burnt in front of us.
@Declan O Toole: Amazon produces 6% of the world’s oxygen – hardly the lungs of the earth. I would however be greatly concerned about the destruction of wildlife and the release of vast amounts of water vapour back into the atmosphere that these trees normally soak up. That is way worse than C02.
@Daniel Dunne: Thought it was up on 25% of the world’s supply of oxygen, regardless it’s too important a resource to allow this to happen. All for illegal logging and unsustainable beef production.
@Declan O Toole: This year we reached a tipping point. Up until now, forests in the Arctic sequestered more CO2 in summer than they released in winter (trees emit CO2 both at night and in winter). For the first time ever, the Arctic forests have emitted more CO2 than they absorbed. Converting the region from a carbon sink and into a carbon hose.
It’s ok, we’ll reduce our heard number and let Brazil’s heard make up the short fall. That’s will help the environment!
At some point Mother Earth will have the last laugh in time …
@iohanx: the ultimate shi#*ing on your own doorstep story!
Are they getting carbon tax for emissions
Yes, but Lidl, and Aldi get to sell cheap exported meat in Europe. Buy Irish,, in this case, a few more pence makes a lot more sense.
@Devilsavocado: Lidl and Aldi sell mostly meat from Irish farms, they are even labelled by farmer and county, and here you are trying to pull the rug from under Irish farmers?
@Francis Tuffy: I can assure you that they don’t sell “mostly Irish meat” in EUROPE, as my comment said. But they could, instead of imported meat from half way around the world, that they are wiping out forests to do. We could easily supply Europe with quality meat, and we don’t need to destroy forests to do it. I’ll accept your apology…
European bankers have broken Brasilian economy. As the rest of the world crashed they moved their special brand of hyper stimulation with easy credit to fuel speculation & unsustainable growth and of course made a killing. They do the very thing that is illegal in their home countries. Now the bubble is burst the Brasilians are having to burn the family heirlooms so as to not be bought up by those bankers vulture funds.
@Corb John: ‘Turn Facebook Blue for Alfie Evans’ profile picture, wanting an infant to suffer extreme pain so your moral views can be wrapped in cotton wool, hmm.
Human species gone amuck. Not much hope for us. Hope the trees and less invasive species get some kind of rebirth.
Mercusor trade deal started this. The Germans sold the EU down the line so they could sell more toxic cars into South America in return for beef imports. Big business wins every time until we change our buying habits. “It not about meat it’s about imports, stupid”
Swop meat for palm oil any day and understand the effects
Only the abolition of capitalism can save us from extinction. Time is quickly running out. It’s communism or barbarism
All for beef?
All this will do is turn the Amazon into desert, are those farmers that stupid?
All countries should contribute to Brazilian government to keep Forrests intact
I fear for the future of our beautiful planet that humans are intent on destroying.
All the tress continued to vote for the axe. The axe was clever in that he convinced them he was one of them because his handle was made of wood.
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I fear for our beautiful planet that us humans are intent on destroying.
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