The forests of the Amazon that were once called the lungs of the world are being destroyed by opaque entrepreneurs and corrupt politicians. The impact of the destruction and fires will be felt in very distant places
Is the Amazon forest the biggest filter for pollutants in the atmosphere? Does the forest collect greenhouse gases? Does it blend the climate of its surroundings? Are evergreen forests in general and the Amazon in particular the lungs of the world.
In the XNUMXs, the public activity to save the forests of Haad began, when many celebrities appeared for the sake of preserving and preventing damage to what was then called "the lungs of the world", the degree of justice in the pretentious nickname should be checked in light of the situation today.
Huge fires burn in the Amazon forest, many new ones every year, the fires are started by farmers who are trying to "conquer" new cultivation areas, before them roads were broken and the big trees were cut down by companies that meet the global demand for wood, most of the companies active in the field go beyond the scope of the license they have or simply operate Without a license in the guise of politicians bribed by criminal organizations. Environmental organizations have long succeeded in bringing the owners of a large company to a work stoppage, not before they operated in the field for about 15 years, generated profits amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars and destroyed thousands of square kilometers of forest.
After the breaking of the roads and the felling of the trees, it is easy and simple for the farmers to reach areas that were previously remote and inaccessible. The farmers set fire to the remnants of the forest and the fires spread over thousands of square kilometers and burn until the seasonal rains extinguish the fire. Cowboys burn areas to accelerate the growth of fresh grass, and ranchers prepare huge areas for growing the new "star" in Brazil...soybean. After two to three growing seasons, it becomes clear to the farmers that the soil is poor and they move on, setting fire to more plots and so the destruction continues.
We said "the lungs of the world" and it's not. The continuous fires are one of the biggest centers of pollution, thousands of tons of carbon dioxide are emitted into the atmosphere every day. Brazil is considered one of the biggest polluters in the world with a third of the pollution coming from the Amazon forest... the lungs of the world. The Amazon forest consumes more oxygen for combustion than it produces, the combustion produces more carbon dioxide than the forest absorbs.
Scientists refer to the Amazon forest as a "body that fuses the climate" and its cooling effect in South America reaches as far as Europe. The forest contains about 30% of the animal and plant species in the world and is a drainage basin for 20% of the fresh water in the world. Its importance for maintaining the diversity of species is enormous and immeasurable. According to measurements, for thirty years about 20 thousand square kilometers of forest have been destroyed every year, that is, in the last thirty years 600 thousand square kilometers of forest have been destroyed, roughly the area of Spain.
The fire season is the dry season, ie between July and January. In 2004 satellite photos showed more than 150 thousand fires. The fire burns at a temperature that reaches 2500 degrees. Flames tens of meters high send into the atmosphere. About 200 million tons of smoke every year... which turns into triple the amount of carbon dioxide. The use of fossil fuel in Brazil results in the emission of pollutants in an amount that is about half of the aforementioned amount
During the fires, the entire forest is covered in "clouds" of smoke and soot, the days turn into night, it is difficult for a person to breathe and live, so the long-term damage intensifies. Road accidents due to the smoke are a daily issue, air transport paralyzes residents in remote areas and are cut off from sources of supply for many weeks. The cutoff causes a lack of food and the residents go hunting, thus adding to the damage to nature.
The emission of pollutants in Brazil, including the emission caused by the burning of the forest, places it in the (disrespectful) sixth place in the world. This emission is still a tiny amount for the nation of 6 billion tons of pollutants emitted by the USA, but the USA is another case that deserves a separate and much more extreme treatment.
The Kyoto Convention does not oblige Brazil to reduce pollutants due to being a "poor country", and there are also no international incentives to monitor and reduce the destruction of the equatorial forest. In order to monitor and reduce the destruction, Brazil must be given an incentive in the form of compensation for the income worker... since as a "poor country" it cannot withstand supervision on the one hand and loss of income on the other.
Under pressure from international bodies, governments and organizations, the Brazilian federal government is looking for ways to compensate the "states" that will protect the forest, but so far nothing has been done. If the election of the new president (Lula de Silva) in 2002 was a hope that the new administration led by him would stop the destruction of the forest, but it turns out that the president prefers the development of huge soybean farms over the preservation of the forest, the farms give a boost to the country's economy and strengthen his chances of being elected again.
The common perception that the forest is a "huge oxygen producer" turns out to be wrong even without the fires, the forest does produce a large amount of oxygen in the process of assimilation, but consumes almost the same amount in the process of breaking down the large amount of organic matter created. Researchers examine the role of the forest in maintaining a relatively cool and humid climate, a climate that farmers enjoy.
Today it is known that: the humidity in the forest is a factor in the formation of rains to the same extent as the ocean! Rains that fall in the Amazon River basin and in the south of Brazil, an area where most of the agricultural areas are located, that is, ranchers, farmers, and cattlemen with their own hands cause rains to stop, rains on which their lives and livelihoods depend. Researchers claim that if the Amazon forest is damaged, the amount of rain in Brazil will drop by half! And the danger is clear.
From observations and studies it turns out that climate change in Brazil will not only harm the Brazilian farmers but will cause changes in the global climate, climate changes are expected in Antarctica, in the eastern United States and even in western Europe, therefore today when ecologists worry about the rainforest in the Amazon and other areas.
The main concern is not focused on "providing clean air to the world" there is no concern for the rainforest as the "lungs of the world" since the Amazon forest is not the lungs of the world and never was, the main concern is for the extreme impact it will have on the global climate.
It turns out that trees also harm the environment
The rainforests of the Amazon. It is not the trees that regulate the flow of rivers (Photo: Reuters) Two new studies claim that forests can have a negative effect on the water system, and emit carbon dioxide into the environment faster than is commonly thought.
The common opinion is that trees bring blessing to the environment. They absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, store the carbon and emit the oxygen - a process that gave forests the nickname "the lungs of the earth". In addition, the roots of the trees trap sediments that accumulate at the bottom of the rivers and thus allow the water to flow freely. The trees are also credited with regulating the flow of the rivers in rainy or dry seasons, which prevents droughts or floods. But do the forests really do all these things? Complete folly, claim two studies on the subject that were published last week.
The first study, conducted by researchers from the University of Newcastle in the United Kingdom and the Free University in Amsterdam and lasting four years, challenges some entrenched assumptions about the impact of forests on water sources. For example, he discovered that in arid and semi-arid areas, trees consume much more water than they store, and it is not the trees that delay soil sediments and nutrients and regulate the flow rate of rivers, but the fact that the soil is not compacted.
The World Committee on Water Affairs estimates that in the next thirty years the demand for water will increase by about 50%. Moreover, about four billion people, half of the world's population, will know by 2025 a severe water shortage, that is, they will not have a sufficient amount of drinking and bathing water to ensure their health.
The South African government has adopted a strict policy on the issue of trees since in 1998 it became the first country to recognize the human right to water as a fundamental right. The amount of water emitted from trees in the process of transpiration - evaporation of water by the plant - is twice as large as the amount emitted from grasslands or the country's unique shrubbery. In an initiative that was praised by hydrologists, the state imposes fines on forestry companies, and this is because they reduce the amount of water reaching rivers and underground aquifers.
A report entitled "From Mountain to Tap: How Proper Land Use and Efficient Water Management Can Improve the Condition of Poor Rural Areas", published by the UK Government's Department for International Development, concludes that there is no scientific evidence that forests increase or regulate water flow in arid areas. or semi-arid. It also recommends that governments impose restrictions on afforestation when the problem of water scarcity arises.
In another study, conducted by American and Brazilian researchers and published last week in the journal "Nature", the scientists examined how long forests in the Amazon store carbon. Trees that are in the process of growth consume carbon dioxide, and the accepted opinion was that the carbon is returned to the atmosphere only when the tree dies, a few hundred years later. It turns out that this is not the case. The researchers state that the carbon begins to be gradually emitted from the trees already after five years.
However, before swinging the ax it is better to take into account the virtues of the tropical rainforests. The "cloud forests" of Costa Rica, which are covered in fog all year round, store water and emit only a small amount in the process of precipitation. The streams coming out of these high forests feed hydroelectric plants, which supply about a third of Costa Rica's energy needs, are used to irrigate agricultural fields and drain into a marsh area where migratory birds congregate. The area has become a favorite destination for ecotourism enthusiasts, an industry that is Costa Rica's largest source of foreign exchange earnings.
An original protest in Brazil against deforestation
In protest of the extensive deforestation in the Amazon basin in Brazil, members of the Greenpeace organization "wrote" the word "crime" in huge letters in a forest plot created in the state of Mato Grasso. Last year, a forest was cut down in the Amazon region in a total area of about 26,000 square kilometers, and experts estimate that about 20% of the jungle area in the Amazon has already been cut down. Environmental organizations have been calling for a long time for the government of President Luis Incio de Silva (Lula) to focus on preserving the Amazon basin - the habitat of about 30% of the world's animal and plant species - and claim that the government's policy, whose stated goal is to improve the economic situation of the crumbling communities of The Indians in the Amazon, is actually leading to the destruction of the region.
