NASA reports since 2003
the square kilometers
of forest burned each year
has dropped by roughly
25% percent.
Did you read that
on the front page
of your newspaper ?
Most likely never mentioned.
Good news doesn’t get headlines.
Meteorologist Eric Holthaus
claimed the Amazon fires show:
“We are in a climate emergency”.
Holthaus tweeted,
“The current fires are
without precedent in the
past 20,000 years.”
The Truth:
As of August 16, 2019, a NASA
satellite analysis showed total
fire activity across the Amazon
basin this year has been close
to the average of the past 15 years.
Brazil wildfires
(Brazil includes a majority of the Amazon):
French president Macron
and actor Leonardo deCaprio,
tweeted Amazon wildfire
photographs ...
taken 20 years ago.
Madonna tweeted Amazon
wildfire photographs ...
taken 30 years ago.
Vegetarians denounced meat-eaters
for deforestation ( forests burned
deliberately to create pastures
for cattle. )
They had no idea
that pastures
created for grazing
are now being used
for biofuel cultivation,
driving ranchers
to carve out
new pastures
from the
rain forests.
Left-wingers blame the fires
on Brazil’s rightwing president
Jair Bolsonaro, a climate skeptic.
But the number of Brazilian fires,
and rainforest deforestation,
peaked in 2004 under a corrupt
leftist Workers Party.
Most 2019 fires have been
ignited on land cleared long ago.
Farmers and ranchers do this
to clear agricultural stubble,
or to prevent forests
from encroaching on
existing farms and pastures.
Brazil’s farmers set fires
as soon as the dry season begins.
Brazil’s “agricultural fire season”
traditionally peaks in July and August,
and ends by early November.
There are no data yet,
on extent of area burnt
on existing farms
and pastures,
versus
how much rainforest
has been lost to fires
in 2019.
Between 2000 and 2005
an estimated 45,000
square miles per year
of rainforest were
lost worldwide as
biofuel production
ramped up.
Currently only 2.3%
of Brazil’s agricultural
lands grow biofuels.
That will increase as
governments require
fuels blended with
increasing percentages
of biofuels.
So more encroachment
on rain forests
is likely in the future.
Deforestation Risk:
Brazil leads all developing
countries in biofuel production.
Brazil is the leader in sugarcane
production for biofuels.
As sugar cane fields expanded
throughout southern Brazil,
soybeans increasingly grown
for biodiesel were pushed
northward into central Brazil.
That new use of pastures
pushed cattle ranchers further
north into the rain forests.
Over 50 million Brazilians
live in poverty.
Slash and burn agriculture
is often practiced
by poor farmers.
Fields once growing food,
are being transformed into
fields for biofuels.
To make-up for lost food production,
pristine lands elsewhere are cleared
and burnt for new agriculture.
In the U.S.:
Marginal farms deforested
80% of Vermont by 1900.
But as more efficient land use evolved,
marginal farms were abandoned,
and Vermont is now 80% re-forested.
With the goal of fighting climate change,
biofuel subsidies and incentives
encourage destruction of Brazil’s
rain-forests, by displacing small farms.