There is no reason to blame Bolsonaro for Amazonia devastarion. Actually it was not better during Lula or Dilma's governs.
10
No doubt the Amazon should be saved, but Brazilians are the ones to be convinced, not NYT readers. Americans should stop messing with Alaska before they start worrying about Brazil.
25
@Ricardo
Many of these precious lands do not exist in a vacuum.
Migrating birds need protected habitats.
This is not the time for tunnel vision.
Contribute to conservation efforts for the good
of the planet.
19
Yes, see last paragraph of the piece:
“The international community must also play a key, active role. The Amazon is the Earth’s patrimony and its destruction will impact us all. Within the framework of climate agreements, Brazil should receive generous funds from developed nations in exchange for preserving the Amazon; it already receives large donations from Norway and, to a lesser extent, Germany. For the rain forest to survive, the country needs an economy that revolves around its conservation instead of its destruction.”
6
@Ricardo
I agree with you, but it's always easier to point out the mistakes of others and not look at your own mistakes, is not it? However. as human beings, I think that we should all be concerned about the world and how the world is treated by all of us. Sharing there and here is not a good idea.
4
The horrific irony of Bolsonaro’s greed is allowing thieves to trample over ancient, 25,000+ year-old, pre-comet-impacting Amazonian cities from a civilization that had far more advanced, productive and sustainable agricultural practices than clear cutting forest to plant soy in useless soil.
If Bolsonaro wasn’t so greedy he could just ask indigenous people how to bring back the most productive, carbon trapping garden on earth.
41
@Schedule 1 Remedy
Instead, he calls them "animals".
7
@Schedule 1 Remedy
This president is a junction of everything that is cruel to a human being. He is a retired military man at age 33 for various crimes and noncompliance with rules, misogynist, homophobic, racist, has involvement with the militia, has an obsession with sexual matters, uses religion to deceive the ignorant, celebrates dictatorship. And believe me, 57 million Brazilians voted for him. Thus, it has not been well known that the Brazilians are well-known all over the world. I'm Brazilian and I'm ashamed of the people there and what they're doing with the country.
11
Trump's trade war with China means that China will buy more soy beans from Brazil. This will give Bolsanaro greater incentives to clear more rain forest. Placing too much power in the hands of strong men will destroy the planet.
20
President Bolsonaro and President Trump are two of the biggest threats to our planet's future health. And Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonara are also two of the biggest threats to the future of Democracy in North and South America.
We need to vote them both out of office.
17
How sad and scary for Brazil and the world to have someone like this as president....Like trump, Bolsonaro does not believe in science (climate change), makes horrible racists comments about the indigenous people who live deep within the Amazon rain forest, "Let's hope we can be as successful as the US at getting rid of these people just like the US was at getting rid of the Indians"..nice guy? Interesting how Bolsonaro loves trump. Birds of a feather meal up together! Bolsonaro also does not support LGBT rights and human rights. This is not the kind of leader the world needs right now!
17
Another breast-beating article about the destruction of our natural environment which fails, as many many others do, to emphasize the underlying issue. Namely, the uncontrolled growth of human population. Parts of the Amazon are being deforested to raise manioc because more and ore people need food. All the do-gooder breast beating is delusion.
2
If Mr. Bolsonaro was to look at his country from 30-thousand feet he's see that desertification in some areas is a threat. Please don't make it worst.
2
In 1982 Jonathan Schell wrote, "In weighing the fate of the earth and, with it, our own fate, we stand before a mystery, and in tampering with the earth we tamper with a mystery. We are in deep ignorance. Our ignorance should dispose us to wonder, our wonder should make us humble, our humility should inspire us to reverence and caution, and our reverence and caution should lead us to act without delay to withdraw the threat we now pose to the earth and to ourselves." We haven't made much progress. It was Schell who also suggested our voracious rate of consumption of resources could be our undoing. The destruction of the Amazon then was a concern he focused on. He had an interesting economic model to mitigate the consumption of natural resources using a tree of all things as an example. In his example if a tree was not simply valued as a commodity, that is by its value as a wood product but instead was valued as a living thing, providing habitat, shade and as a climate regulator, if the cost of replacement was added the cost of lumber would reflect the real value of the resource and two things would happen: fewer trees would be cut down and when they were the products produced would be more highly valued and less easily discarded. Of course as revealed here the opposite is happening. Jonathan Schell warned us that our fearful, destructive natures could easily be our undoing at the same time he offered alternatives that might save us. All we need do is act- with care.
3
I am scared, nay, petrified, to read another article that appeared side-by-side to this one which speaks of America's, nay Trump's and Bolton's and Pompeo's, plan to attack Iran.
I urge them not to get involved with Iran and instead focus and get involved with Brazil in a plan to save the Lungs of the World, aka The Amazing Amazon.
7
Roughly half the population of large countries (USA, Russia, China) and a few smaller ones support this kind of blind greed with overt and not-so-overt fascist undertones. This is the essentially nihilistic aspect of so-called "populism". Like a death wish overwhelming any yearning for reason - which it mocks by hollow slogans it drills into masses of people. We are the Amazon. We are 'self-deforesting' in more ways than we think.
9
I'm cool with whatever as long as I still get two-day delivery.
4
Wouldn't it be lovely if the owner of that other Amazon, you know - the one that's contributing so much economic disruption and pollution to the Earth? - changed focus from rockets to the big blue marble? What could he do with his fortune then? Make a name for himself other than narcissist, perhaps?
28
@Quite Contrary It’s easy to spend other people’s money.
If Bolsonaro fails to protect the Amazon rain forest then he should be held accountable by the international criminal court for putting the future of humanity in peril. His actions to destroy the Amazon should be compared to the actions of Hitler.
16
The United States, I believe, was somewhere around 90% forested before the white man showed up.
Perhaps we should have thought of the problems that deforestation might cause 300 years ago?
8
What-about-ism. There is also a distinction between tropical and temperate forested land and their resilience, productivity, and biodiversity, speaking from readings on forestry.
Amazonian rainforest is a world heritage of biodiversity, hugely productive as a rainforest just not for soybeans. Tropical trees are sensitive to burning by fire and individually don't survive, and tropical soils are often nutrient-poor due to heavy rain (with most of the nutrients bound-cycling in the living and dying rainforest. Burning and clearing such a forest is devastating in the long-term.
While I don't approve of the past deforestation of the United States, areas that are fallowed have regrown as forest, though there are contemporary problems of soil erosion in the US. The biodiversity is also not as simpler, and the dry (not mesic) forests are fire-tolerant.
Burning the rainforest still standing to grow soybeans and beef is a travesty.
15
@Jonathan McCaffrey
I would like to see the rainforest preserved and think developing nations partially subsidizing that effort is noble. I do not however see any difference between Brazilian logging and logging in the US. Some of our forests have come back but in a different state. I would feel ok with our past logging if the companies that profited had practiced sustainability and paid for proper replanting. Northern Minnesota is covered with aspen and fur forests that are missing the hardwoods and pines. These are not healthy or long lived. It is not the same. The United States has a history of a small amount of people profiting from the pillaging of our resources without cleaning up their mess.
8
After we get our own act together we need to levy import taxes on goods from environmentally unfriendly countries.
For now, we can only watch in disappointment without any right to speak.
4
Here's a bok that goes into more detail about these very issues (albeit pre-Bolsonaro):
https://www.amazon.com/Law-Jungle-Environmental-Tenharim-Amazonia-ebook/dp/B0108A7RKW/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1450889098&sr=1-2&keywords=law+of+the+jungle%3A+Environmental
2
A good moment to review "At Play in the Fields of the Lord" - Peter Matthiessen - 1965, Bolsonaro perhaps continuing a trend and momentum long well-established - if seldom noted or criticized - under previous administrations.
3
"The dictatorship...ruled the country from 1964-1985....Bolsonaro declares himself nostalgic for, despite the serious abuses it committed"....Get ready Brazil for another dangerous dictatorship....I have been going to Brazil for over 20 years but my trips will now stop. It is really sad that countries do not see trump for what he really is: Greed personified at the expense of the planet, health, people....In a few years Bolsonaro & trump will both be dead but the planet will not be far behind. All for greed and ignorance.
17
From the movie The Matrix that was written and directed by the Wachowskis:
Agent Smith: I'd like to share a revelation during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we are the cure.
14
Brazil elected that buffoon and so did the USA with ours. That's on each of us respectively.
11
The corporatist fascists have taken control of much of the world. if the socialists want to regain power, they'd better move now because in another few years, the right will be ensconced everywhere.
9
“In the first month after his election, deforestation increased more than 400 percent, compared to the previous year.“
France’ s Macron proposes an economic penalty. If only the United States were on board for collective actions, the forest, and its carbon, climate, and biodiversity benefits, might be kept intact long enough for us to deploy renewable energy sources, possibly saving the world. It’s not a proven fact yet, but anecdotal and instinctual evidence tell us that the Amazon is a keystone of climate and bio-destiny.
15
Whoops, too late.
But let’s keep the USA in all climate accords.
Whoops, too late.
But let’s at least insure that we in the USA promote the health of our forests, the safety of the waters of the USA, and the cleanliness of the air we breathe by strengthening our country’s own Environmental Protection Regulations.
Whoops, too late.
But let’s at least...
10
The short-sightedness of Bolsonaro is a real threat to our entire world. This is horrific. It is horrific to lose the trees necessary to curb climate change, but the article doesn't even mention the loss of habit for protected species. Bolsonaro needs to be stopped but like in the US, false news and insane politics win the day in Brazil. How can a human be so horrific?
14
@Anthony There is no shortage of horrific humans in this world.
10
People from other countries concerned with the Brazilian rain forest should be planting their own trees and taking care of their own environment. Don’t go to a foreign country tell what they should do, when you did not do the same in your own country. Brazil is an independent democratic country and the majority of the people voted to Bolsonaro to do what he is doing. Let the guy work.
5
@Leo This issue has global consequences Leo.
14
@Leo
As Marc stated, deforestation of the Amazon does have global consequences; borders don't factor in to this equation. The Amazon rainforest provides critical ecosystem services to the whole planet. It provides 20% of the planet's oxygen. About 1/2 of the 95-100" of rain the Amazon receives transpires or evaporates back into the atmosphere, creating currents of moisture and determining air pressure across continents. The Amazon is known as "the biotic pump" of the planet. Forests everywhere comprise important ecosystems and every species within them contributes to the workings of those ecosystems. Salamanders, for example, store tons of carbon in the soil. They maintain the structure and pH of the soil. This in turn affects our air and water which the forests and their geology filter. Even here in NJ, the push to log our healthiest core forests will have devastating consequences. Planting a tree here and there doesn't make a forest, and human survival depends on the critical services forests provide.
7
@Leo
I planted 105 tress three other day! Feels good baby!
and tomorrow the 14th the Brazilian Chamber of Commerce will honor Bolsonaro and Pompeo in Manhattan! There is a protest planned.
https://www.facebook.com/events/602164266968023/
6
@Stanley Heller
No, it's going to be in Texas. DiBlasio and others complained.
1
@wendy levy The event will still be held, without Bolsonaro. As will the protest.
He is planning on a different trip (and a different award... for what, who knows?) to Dallas.
If Brazil can see the advantages of preserving it's forests, donations included, and perhaps stimulating controlled tourism, no reason could be find to destroy the Amazon. And Bolsonaro, however corrupt he may be, ought to see daylight on this...if outside assistance is made pursuant to his honoring the deal. As an aside, those of us foreign to Brazil, do not have a sterling record in preserving our own natural habitats, hence, with no moral authority to belittle others for their neglect...if not active destruction for the money.
4
This is a bunch of bologna! Brazil was at risk of a catastrophic falling at hands of the most corrupt political leaders of the PT (workers party) and now the media wants to spread out to the world that Mr. Bolsonaro is a monster who will destroy the country, which is a big lie!!!!! The President Bolsonaro is not bought by any of the others and he just started to clean the house. To say that he called the Brazilian Indians “zoo animals “ is totally taken out of context, read the whole article and you will understand. I feel sorry for those who don’t know the whole truth and what has been going on in Brazil.
6
Thank you for your comment. I lived in Brazil many decades ago and loved the country and its people. And rice and beans. I always read articles about Brazil with great interest, and read your letter with such. I understand that articles published in a foreign newspaper (in this case the Times) sometimes do not accurately represent the views or the reality of another people or place, so I ask you. Rather than attack the Times or this writer for his comments and perspective, then what is going on, with the Amazon, with the indigenous people and what was his intent when he made the comments which you say were “taken out of context”. The Amazon region is monumentally important, to all inhabitants of this planet, not just to Brazilians.
6
I am truly grateful that newspapers in other parts of the world report to the world about the risk that the Amazon rainforest is facing an ambitious government and does not worry about the loss of the world's lungs and the Indians living there. The current president of Brazil is the sum of everything that a human being can have of bad.
I am a Brazilian who is ashamed of the current government and the 57 million citizens who voted for this man.
38
@Alessandra
Of the 12 million enslaved Africans who came to the New World about a third aka 4 million went to Brazil. About half a million came to the United States.
Based upon the American definition of race aka color aka the one-drop rule half of Brazil's 200 million people are black Sub-Saharan African. Only Nigeria has more black Africans.
As the brown Native Brazilians succumbed to colonial conquering white European Judeo- Catholic diseases, the blood, sweat and tears of black African men, women and children made Brazil great on behalf of Portugal and the Roman Catholic Church.
In addition to their free domestic labor service Black African Brazilian men and women were the sex slaves of white Roman Catholic Portuguese men and women. Brazil is the most populous Portuguese speaking and culture nation. Brazil is the most populous Roman Catholic country.
The Amazon rainforest is among the most biologically diverse and critical ecosystems on Earth.
2
We’re killing the planet folks, wake up and smell the burning rain forests from Borneo to the Amazon. If we don’t stop this quickly our lives will be in danger.
12
I agree completely that the Amazon has to be saved by people like Bolsonaro, but, sadly, phrases like 'Mr. Bolsonaro's government must radically change its plans for the Amazon' and must 'heed civil society, indigenous groups and scientists' just fall on deaf hears. For people like Bolsonaro just don't care. All they care about are getting profit for themselves and their cronies as quickly as they can, tragic long term consequences be damned.
Nor can we rely on the international community for anything but voiced yet punchless condemnation. Will the Chinese really care about how the soybeans they want are produced as long as the price is good? Will companies stop going to the Amazon to access resources, grow foodstuffs or raise cattle if it's in their own best interests to do so to be 'sustainable'? How much does the average consumer care about where what is bought comes from or how it is made or the damage making it has caused as long as the price is right?
I would love to believe that our world leaders will be influenced by the better angels of their nature and take immediate and severe action to protect this planet, but as long as the people allow leaders like Bolsonaro and Trump to get away with planetary murder they will follow their worst impulses to our inevitable destruction.
15
Like Trump, Bolsonaro wants to make his country and his cronies richer by destroying the planet. It will be quite a party on the road to Gomorrah.
What's missing from Mr. Araujo's account are the effects of Bolsonaro's war on trees upon the world's greatest wetlands --11 times larger than the Everglades -- the Pantanal. As Brazil slashes and burns the Pantanal to replace us as China's largest source of soybeans scientists have forecast a major change in the seasons of the two huge river systems which feed the Pantanal.
No longer will their rainy seasons be separate. Instead, they will coincide, spawning huge floods at the Pantanal's southern edge in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. A year or two ago, something like this actually happened (much of Paraguay was underwater for more than a week). Of course, in this scenario, dry seasons will also coincide.
Memo to Kevin Costner: Do a new movie, DRY WORLD.
15
The Trump of the Tropics definitely deserves his notorious nickname.
“At first I thought I was fighting to save rubber trees, then I thought I was fighting to save the Amazon rainforest. Now I realize I am fighting for humanity.” — Chico Mendes
35
Of course Bolsanaro poses the greatest threat to the Amazon forrest he needs land to grow the crops that the Chinese are buying from Brazil to replace what they won't buy from the American farmer.
7
In Brazil in the so called Amazonia Legal, farmers are required to leave 80% of the land untouched as legal reserve. I don't know any other country that has such a strict regulation.
5
@Beatriz
But is it followed?
7
@Caded
The Brazilian Federal Constitution establishes three kinds of liabilities for environmental violations: administrative, civil and criminal. All of them may be invoked concurrently against each violator for each violation.
http://imazon.org.br/PDFimazon/Portugues/congressos e anais/brazils-new-enviromental-crimes-law-an-analyses-o.pdf
1
@Alessandra
Your comment about me “this lady is one more Brazilian who wants to deceive strangers” says more about you than about me.
I am Brazilian, I was born and raised here and although I had many opportunities to leave, I decided to stay and fight.
My original comment was about a fact. I didn’t say if the laws were enforced or not. In my reply I posted a link to an independent study to help whoever is interested in the preservation of the rainforest understand how it’s done, how difficult its is to enforce the laws and what should be changed.
I am sorry it might not fit your agenda!
1
All these greedy men in power around the Earth are proving they are unfit to rule anything, let alone have access to what supports all life on Earth.
We need a change from this thinking that MAN is superior to everything on Earth.
We are, obviously the biblical "Plague of Locusts"
36
Dear NYT,
The shift in the government attitude toward the Amazon happened under Dilma Rousseff:
- the government granted more flexibility for large infrastructure projects during the environmental licensing process
- A provisional measure allowed the president to decrease the lands already created for conservation
- Congress was granted veto power over the recognition of indigenous territories.
- Dilma’s government negotiated a version of the forest code, that would give amnesty to farmers who broke the law before 2008 — provided they agreed to plant new trees.
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/world/americas/in-brazil-protection-of-amazon-rainforest-takes-a-step-back.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
9
@Flavia A "shift in attitude" may have happened under Dilma but Bolsonaro is driving it to illogical and dangerous extremes....He is as unfit as trump to govern!
5
I click around the Webs today and there they are: breathless stories about the "Epic Game of Thrones episodes!" and "Donald Trump Trade War with China Escalates" and then there is this little piece, swallowed by the thronging, turgid infotainment babble. Instead this little piece floats in between surrounding pieces and you want to scream: Look at this! This is the important one!
Yet only one person thus far has said anything.
It's a stark reminder of how most people look at "environmental issues" . . . "Oh, those activists, always making trouble."
But Bolsonaro could be far more dangerous than Trump in the long run. As the guardian of one of the largest providers of oxygen on the entire planet, what he does with it is crucial to Earth's future and the future of MY children.
In 50 years, when Bolsonaro is long dead his legacy will live on in the ravaged Amazon . . . who knows what apocalyptic future awaits the region? Cocaine wars? Massive wildfires or inundations due to logging and clearcutting?
Don't let this be our future . . . speak out, someone! Anyone! Our future depends on it.
74
@Nicholas Robinson One reason we (who care) don't read every story is that we already know what the likes of Trump and Bolsonaro are doing and it's depressing and makes us (me) feel hopeless.
3
@Nicholas Robinson
Yes yes yes Nicholas!! Could not agree more. This article should be the one and only article printed in every major publication around world today. And every pathetic tweet, every self-important Facebook post, replaced with this urgent call to protect our planet.
Humanity seems lost - either too distracted, cynical or fatalistic to make positive change. Most of us are OK people, but we've been lead astray by our worst instincts and our worst leaders.
The Amazon belongs to all of Earth!!! We all have a 1/6billionth 'ownership' of it, and are only job is to pass it along to next generation. Come to think of it, that's not true only of the Amazon, but it's also true for every ocean, every species and living things on this planet. Who will lead us to enlightenment and action? Right now the scoundrels are winning.
3
@Nicholas Robinson
All true. We must turn to the 2020 elections and make this a central issue. Trump is a huge Bolsonaro supporter and I gather that the worst monstors from World War II would have been admirers and allies of him as well.
Now we need to turn our focus to the higher order intelligence which is present and knows of the vast beauty of this rare gem of a planet and simply know with the faith and from the heart that awakening will move a mountain and help us to save this planet, even as we act in concert, with orchestrated action and truth telling to halt the destruction of the vast ignorance and fear that drives such sociopaths to power.
1
Imagine if John Bolton was to focus his energies and resources on protecting the environment. I might even be tempted to align myself with his support for regime change by fair means or foul.
2
It would be like having Trump in charge of the Amazon rain forest. Humanity must realize the days of endless destruction to nature must stop. In just 100 years we have brought Mother Earth to her knees. All the money and profits in the world won’t mean a thing without a livable earth for us to live on.
51
Mother Earth: Sorry, Mike, I am not on my knees, but you and your human friends will be on your knees pretty soon, if you continue living like you do. Thanks.
14
@Mike L
Any suggestions about what Americans CAN do? I want to help. Which organizations, if any, are trying to stop this destruction, or at least intervene?
2
@Mike L
I agree with you and I really cry to see it all. There is not a day when I leave home and I do not see dead animals run over. I prefer to believe that some have been killed wrongly, but I know that others were because the "human" being feels superior to these animals. I question at all times why? I think we are all here, all of us, wanting the same thing: to live, so we are looking for food, love and a roof to live and animals want the same and the third of them is nature. Let us respect this, not the fact that if the forest is over, we humans will not be able to live, but no animal will live.
2