Why did the massive Amazon forest fires emerged recently as a major issue on the agenda on the first day of the G7 summit in Biarritz, France, even though the place of the fires is located tens of thousands of kilometers away from most of the group's constituent countries?
The answer is that this enormous area is, literally, the lung of our planet, and if it disappears or even gets partially removed, the effects on our planet will be catastrophic.
On his part, the French president warned, on the eve of the summit, that these forests produce 20 per cent of the oxygen on the planet, and therefore, it is "earth oxygen" that is burning, that is not just a simple fire.
Leila Nargy wrote in 'Readers Digest' American magazine that the Amazon, which stretches over parts of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela and 60 per cent of Brazil, is now exposed to efforts undermining all past policies which directed to protect this area and prevent deforestation.
Before the 1970s, Brazil's rainforest alone stretched over 1.54 million square miles. But according to reports by some important organizations, the area of these forests has been steadily shrinking ever since, and has been gradually destroyed by illegal logging and soybean plantations. In 2018, Brazil's share of the rainforest was 1.274 million square meters, but under the current government, the number began to decline at high speed.
In this context, observers believe that anti-environmental rhetoric by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro encourage such activities to eliminate trees.
In return, Bolsonaro, who is skeptical about climate change accuses non-governmental organizations of setting fire to smear his government. But the president later said the government lacked the sufficient resources to put out the fires.
Nargy wrote in her valuable article that the Amazon region contains an unprecedented proportion of plants and animals up to 10 per cent of all types of plants and animals on our planet. This rainforest stores 100 billion metric tons of carbon. According to World Wildlife Fund (WWF), these forests filter carbon dioxide from the air we breathe and control our climate through evaporation.
According to the National Geographic magazine, logging in the Amazon would trigger "enormous amounts of greenhouse gases to increase warming the planet.
According to tropical forest Researcher Adrian Escoville Mulbert, if we manipulate the Amazon forests, carbon dioxide emissions will mount dramatically and, accordingly, all will suffer from low air quality and global warming.
Unfortunately, hundreds of new fires are sweeping through the Amazon forests in northern Brazil, according to official data, despite the mobilization of thousands of soldiers to help combat the worst fire in years . These fires spurred an international outcry, and placed on the agenda of the G7 summit in Biarritz, southern France. On Friday, thousands of Brazilians and Europeans rallied in the streets to denounce the fires.
According to official figures, 78,383 forest fires have happened in Brazil this year, the worst since 2013. Experts say that the process of bulldozing land during the long months of drought to allow space for growing crops or grazing livestock - has exacerbated the problem.
More than half of the fires were in the Amazon, where more than 20 million people live. Nearly 1,663 new fires broke out recently, according to the Brazilian Space Research Institute.
The issue is so serious that Macron accused the Brazilian president of "lying" about his climate pledges and of being indifferent in the face of the fires that have been devastating for days the "world lung." I think these criticisms will anger President Trump, who is Bolsonaro's most prominent ally.
We will see Brazilian president recation in the face of those critics as well as other controversial issues, as his attitude can not be expected. This is what we will talk about in our next article.
By: Dr. AbdelHak Azzouzi
Translated by Yassmine Elsayed
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