The Amazon is on Fire

[pixy0stix]

beta.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/the-amazon-is-burning-bolsonaro-says-his-critics-are-setting-the-fires-to-make-him-look-bad/2019/08/21/722ca092-c424-11e9-8bf7-cde2d9e09055_story.html

And then read this story about why any loss of the Amazon is dire (it was published in July, before the fires really started going). theintercept.com/2019/07/06/brazil-amazon-rainforest-indigenous-conservation-agribusiness-ranching/?fbclid=IwAR0TkDWHBTkYibQK83DqM9snPb3pOLXh1u2b_2trpjdwXL7kLsDO2ZdhQfk

ETA to make my headline less flippant. What this is, is intentional genocide aimed at the indigenous people of Brazil. While we are all going to feel the effects, they are on the front lines of this.

[mskitkat]

This was all over my Twitter last night. It’s really, really scary.

[pixy0stix]

Aug 22, 2019 9:49:33 GMT -5 mskitkat said:

This was all over my Twitter last night. It’s really, really scary.

There's been a lot of memes going around, but no context. 

[seeyalater52]

Aug 22, 2019 9:51:16 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Aug 22, 2019 9:49:33 GMT -5 mskitkat said:

This was all over my Twitter last night. It’s really, really scary.

There's been a lot of memes going around, but no context. 

Yeah I saw the "wrong Amazon is burning... wrong ICE is melting" one but no context. Thanks for providing more links, I'm off to read. 

ETA: Oh wow. WOW. How devastating and horrible.

[GilliC]

Just a friendly reminder that the rainforest is the 5th largest contributor to curbing climate change.
www.drawdown.org/solutions-summary-by-rank

Apparently it's not enough for Bolsonaro to fuck up Brazil; he's literally trying to destroy the world.

[downtoearth]

I know - it's been all over the media (social and journalism) for the past couple days and it's devastating. How can the international world not intervene for humanitarian and global destruction reasons?! How is Brazil not a topic that our national leaders are discussing actively?!

[heat40]

This is absolutely devastating. Unless there is a forceful international response, I’m not sure what exactly can be done to stop this. Maybe there is something?

[Velar Fricative]

The only reason I know about this is because it's been consistently trending on Twitter for a while. I know Twitter can be a cesspool, but the media has been otherwise very slow in their coverage of this. I do not trust Bolsonaro and unfortunately he pulls the strings here except for any portions of the Amazon that fall outside of Brazil's borders, but there are some political issues in some of those countries as well (like Venezuela).

Re: genocide, that is absolutely true and the most horrifying part. I also think about all of the uncontacted people in the Amazon as well and we are failing them too. We may never know exactly how much this is devastating them.

[karinothing]

I don't understand some of this. Are they refusing to fight the fires? I saw that Boliva ( I think ) is sending a plane to drop water, but otherwise is Brazil just letting the fires burn or are they trying to combat it. I haven't been able to find much info on it, other than the Brazilian leader saying they won't have resources.

[formerlyak]

Aug 23, 2019 10:22:17 GMT -5 karinothing said:

I don't understand some of this. Are they refusing to fight the fires? I saw that Boliva ( I think ) is sending a plane to drop water, but otherwise is Brazil just letting the fires burn or are they trying to combat it. I haven't been able to find much info on it, other than the Brazilian leader saying they won't have resources.

From what I understood from the news this morning, the Brazilian president has said that other countries can't intervene and offer assistance because it isn't an international issue. I think the majority of the rest of the world would disagree, but that's his stance.

[karinothing]

Aug 23, 2019 11:11:40 GMT -5 formerlyak said:

Aug 23, 2019 10:22:17 GMT -5 karinothing said:

I don't understand some of this. Are they refusing to fight the fires? I saw that Boliva ( I think ) is sending a plane to drop water, but otherwise is Brazil just letting the fires burn or are they trying to combat it. I haven't been able to find much info on it, other than the Brazilian leader saying they won't have resources.

From what I understood from the news this morning, the Brazilian president has said that other countries can't intervene and offer assistance because it isn't an international issue. I think the majority of the rest of the world would disagree, but that's his stance.

So Brazil says they don't have the resources to fight the fire, but don't want anyone to intervene. So they are just what? Waiting till it all burns out on its own?

[mrspez07]

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/08/23/americas/brazil-beef-amazon-rainforest-fire-intl/index.html

They are being intentionally set in order to provide grazing land for cattle. They apparently do this every year, but have seen an uptick in the amount of fires, in part because of the Brazilian president’s pro-beef export stance. Hence why he doesn’t see it as a problem, just business as usual.

[formerlyak]

Aug 23, 2019 11:16:02 GMT -5 karinothing said:

Aug 23, 2019 11:11:40 GMT -5 formerlyak said:

From what I understood from the news this morning, the Brazilian president has said that other countries can't intervene and offer assistance because it isn't an international issue. I think the majority of the rest of the world would disagree, but that's his stance.

So Brazil says they don't have the resources to fight the fire, but don't want anyone to intervene. So they are just what? Waiting till it all burns out on its own?

So I was paying attention as best I could while getting the kids out the door for school, but what I think I heard was that some of the fires were started, with the president's blessing, by local ranchers, farmers and loggers who want to use some of that land for their businesses. 

[formerlyak]

mrspez07 thank you for the info. I knew I heard something to that affect but with one eye on the news and one eye on the clock to get out the door, I had little details.

[heat40]

Yes. The fires are intentional “for business”. Bolsonaro gave the ok.

That’s why, I think, a forceful international push against it is needed. Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening. Definitely not coming from us anyway.

The only thing I can think of is that the countries who share the amazon can put their foot down and guard their piece. But 1. That’s only a small fraction of the entire amazon. And 2. If it gets to those parts we are screwed as the rest of the amazon would have been lost.

[formerlyak]

heat40 my like was because I agree with you, not because I like that this is a huge mess as you describe. 30 years ago when I was in high school, we had a few teachers who were very passionate about the rainforest and taught us all about why they are so important. It really made an impression on many of us and is why many of my classmates and I have supported environmental causes since. The Brazilian president's attitude about this terrible event is very scary.