World News

By: Johnathan Wiggins

Amazon Rainforest Belongs to us, says President Jair

President Jair Bolsonaro had insisted that the Brazilian areas of the Amazon rainforest are sovereign territory. Conversationalists blame President Bolsonaro and his government for turning a blind eye to farmers and bloggers clearing land in the Amazon, hastening deforestation.

Bolsonaro said it was a “fallacy” to describe the Amazon as the heritage of humanity and a “misconception” that its forests are the lungs of the world.

This year has been the highest number of fires in Brazil since 2010. There is an official figure that shows more than 87,000 forest fires that were recorded in Brazil in the first eight months of the year. That compares with 49,000 in the same period in 2018. However, 2019 is not the worst year in recent history. Brazil experienced more fire activity in the 2000s, with 2005 seeing more than 142,000 fires. Forest fires are common in the Amazon during the dry season, which runs from July to October. They can be caused by naturally occurring events, such as lighting strikes, but this year most are believed to have been started by farmers and loggers clearing land for crops or grazing. There had been a noticeable increase in large, intense, and persistent fires along major roads in the Central Brazilian Amazon. The timing and location of the fires were more consistent with land clearing than with regional drought.