Amazonia rainforest has been burning for the past three weeks, and yet no much media coverage has been spotted. Well if you think it is just only the duty of the government; Let me bring it to you some facts and figures. This region holds territory belonging to nine nations. The Amazon rainforest is positioned in South America and covers 2.1 million square miles of land. Brazil has 60%, Peru has 13%, and Colombia has 10% while other countries have minimal parts of the rainforest within their borders.
On Monday afternoon, the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil stretched in darkness. However, it was not any cosmic event, but the smoke from the forest fire burning 1,700 miles away. According to the INPE (Bazil’s Space research centre), almost 73,000 wildfires have been detected.
The strong wind carried the smoke from the fire blazing in the Brazilian state of Rondônia and Amazonas, which darkened the sky above the city for nearly an hour.
Not only the resident’s of the city that had seen this, report states that NASA had captured the image of a forest fire from space last week. NASA had posted satellite images of multiple fires cutting through the Brazilian states of Amazonas, Rondônia, Pará and Mato Grosso recorded on August 11 and 13 of this year. Smoke appeared to cover the states in the disturbing images.
According to NASA, fire in the Amazon region is rare due to the wet weather which keeps the blaze from spreading. With the onset of the dry season during July and August, fire does increase. It will be at peak throughout September and stops by the mid of November.
NASA also stated that when compared to the past 15 years records the “total fire activity in the Amazon basin” is slightly below average.
Despite all these, the Brasilian Government lead by Jair Bolsonaro is busy with the blame game rather than taking preventive actions. Even with no supporting evidence, he claims that the NGO’s are setting fire in Amazon. He stated that as the government has cut the funding of NGO’s, to put the government in shame, such activities are being carried out.
Since taking office in January, Brazil’s right-wing President Bolsonaro has been continuously accused of harming the Amazon rainforest and indigenous peoples living there.
Marcio Astrini from Greenpeace said that the extensive deforestation and burning are the sequence of Bolsonaro’s anti-environmental policy. The conservationist’s blams Mr Bolsonaro for Amazon’s plight. They are assuming he has encouraged loggers and farmers to clear the land.
Bolsonaro, whose anti-environment speech has included a pledge to end “Shiite ecologist activism”. As per the official figures, deforestation increased by 88% in June compared with the same period last year. He uses the word “Shiite” as a synonym for radicalism rather than denoting a branch of Islam.
Amazon the source of LIFE
Now the question which arises in readers mind would be, Isn’t it the responsibility of the government over there? Well, let me enlighten you. To be precise, this 5.5 million km² extent forest is the lungs of our planet. Yes, you guessed it right we are shrinking in oxygen with the destruction of this area. Now another shocking fact regarding this forest is that these have the most abundant biome when compared to the other wet forest of Africa and Asia.
Amazon rainforest has one of the unique biodiversity and is the habitat of one of the ten known species in the world. Some of the well-known hazardous species dwell in these areas, include anaconda, jaguar, black caiman, piranha and more.
The green leaf stretch of plants and trees in the rainforest varies by about 25% as a consequence of seasonal variations. Leaves expand during the dry season when sunlight is at a highest, then undergo shedding in the cloudy, wet season. These changes give the stability of carbon between photosynthesis and respiration.
Even after such an unexpected event has occurred, not much media was seen reporting this. Is it because it does not bring in much of your TRP rate or are you busy engrossed in gossipping? I demand all the media bring out such news around the world, make people aware and show your real media ethics rather than boast about it.
Now let me pose a question to all the readers. Is it just the responsibility of the government and people over there to conserve Amazonia? Amazon rainforest has been the symbol of hope when it came to the protection of species, climate and the well being of
natural habitat and ecosystem. This hope of ours is on fire. Man has already destroyed Mother Nature. It’s high time we conserve our natural resources. As the say goes, better late than never.
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