The burning Amazon is no accident – it has a cause and action needs to be taken now
The Amazon is in a state of emergency.
The forest is located in South America, and it is spread out across nine countries.
However, 60 percent of the vast forest is in Brazil.
I lived in Brazil for 15 years and the Amazon has always been an important topic for the country.
I have never seen my city, of which is located in the south of the country, be affected by a fire in the north.
However, smoke has reached cities that are thousands of miles away.
My city had smoke covering the entire sky for an entire day. I had never been witness to such an event.
While the population has been crying for help, Jair Bolsonaro, the president of Brazil, is blaming Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) for the disaster.
According to CNBC, Bolsonaro said that NGOs were going to the Amazon to “set fire’’ to the forest, but his claim has no evidence whatsoever.
More than 40,000 species of plants and 1,000 species of birds live in the Amazon. It is not only devastating to see the forest burning up, but also to see thousands of species dying as a consequence of the fire itself.
According to National Geographic, one of the reasons why this tragedy is occurring is deforestation; a lot of trees in Amazon are getting cut down either for soy to be planted or to open room for profitable pastures.
The fire that happened in California in 2018, was initiated by a farmer working in a field of dry vegetation for deforestation. Farmers started a large part of the Amazon fire as well. These “controlled” fires for deforestation tend to get out of control.
The important thing to undrstand about these fires is that they are not happening by accident.
The lack of protection for the Amazon is often pointed to as one of the reasons that we need to take action to further protect it from deforestation.
It is more than deforestation and more than a fire; it is a complete tragedy for the whole Brazilian population.
A part of the country is fading away, and the people with power are not willing to do anything about it.
Some countries have tried to come up with an agreement with Bolsonaro to donate money to help rebuild the forest, but the president ignored the calls.
The Brazilian Army has been deployed to help tackle the vicious fires after the nation’s government faced mounting international pressure to take action.
France agreed on helping the countries that were affected by the fire.
However, it could still take decades to rebuild the vast amount of forest that has been lost, but we need to start somewhere.
Five million people have signed a petition to prohibit the deforestation and exploration of the Amazon, but the president still defends the exploration for economic reasons.
A country’s president should always look after the cities and the environment, but that’s not the case in Brazil.
One solution for the problem is to make farmers more conscious of the effects of deforestation.
There needs to be more restrictive laws and greater limits placed on actions and exploration of the Amazon Forest.
The solution doesn’t have to stay in Brazil and the surrounding countries.
We can start right now by being aware of the situation and spreading awareness of the issues throughout the world.
We can’t start worrying about our planet when we are 30 or 40, we must start now.
Students should be participating in recycling and conscientious of our pollution and the effects of our actions have on our future.
Think about the planet we are living in before personal endeavors for economic gain. The money means nothing when there is no earth left in which spend it.
