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DEFORESTATION IN THE Brazilian Amazon set a new record for January just three weeks into the year, according to data released today, a worrying sign of the surging destruction of the world’s biggest rainforest.
Nearly 360 square kilometres of forest cover – an area more than six times the size of Manhattan – were destroyed in the Brazilian Amazon from 1 January to 21 January, said Brazil’s national space research institute, INPE.
With 10 days to go in the month, the figure was already the worst for January since the institute launched its DETER satellite monitoring program in 2015.
Environmentalists said that translated into a high risk that 2022 would be another devastating year for the Brazilian Amazon, where deforestation has surged since far-right President Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019.
“A number that high in January, which is the peak of the rainy season” – when deforestation usually falls – “certainly demands attention and leaves us extremely worried,” said Claudio Angelo of the Climate Observatory, a network of environmental groups.
“We’ll have to see how the coming months go, but it’s definitely not a good sign.”
By comparison, deforestation for January 2021 was 83 square kilometres – less than one-fourth the figure for the first 21 days of January 2022.
Last year was nevertheless a terrible year for Brazil’s 60% share of the Amazon. The amount of forest cover lost during INPE’s reference period, from August 2020 to July 2021, surged almost 22% year-on-year, to a 15-year high of 13,235 square kilometres.
It was the third straight increase under Bolsonaro, who has pushed to open protected rainforest lands to agribusiness and mining.
Bolsonaro has faced international outcry over the surging destruction of the Amazon, a key resource in the race to curb climate change.
The Climate Observatory revealed yesterday that Brazil’s main environmental protection agency, Ibama, had spent just 41% of its enforcement budget in 2021.
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I’ve also heard that Cadbury’s have hacked off one-fifth of Freddo the Frog .
And our giving redundancies to their staff as they are moving operations to a cheaper country
everybody is leaving. I am hoping to go myself and I am in the higher tax bracket. I stayed because i felt it served my country to pay tax and support others. I am now over it. It doesn’t serve me anymore. I am in debt and I would be better off elsewhere.
and when I say debt, its minimum and I can pay it back. Not compared to the fraudsters that gambled. They have put me and many others in debt
Dear Mr. Journalist. It’s “how quickly”, not “how quick”. When describing a verb, you use an adverb, not an adjective. I know that the internet likes to bugger with adverbs, particularly if it pertains to doing anything “direct”, but you, as indebted as you are to the English language for your living should be able to show that language just a modicum of respect.
I wish wikileaks would stop invading other people’s privacy. It worries me to think what would happen if they started targeting business and political figures over here, not that there’s anything to hide of course.
Fake account
Fake account but some of the view expressed aren’t far off the YFG mentality
I suppose Mr and Ms Majority really thought you looked like a silent when you were born?
Silent majority who are you?
Looks like Kevin and yfg are best buddies .. Interesting
Suzie are you and davedunne the same person? You both seem a bit obsessed with me.
Is that the best you could come up with ?
I differ in policy to yfg on most issue. It’s a careerists clubs for most. Boosts the cv for various employers. I dislike yfg and would never vote FG after what they’ve done.
have your say