29 August 2019, The Tablet
Amazon synod must speak out
If the Amazon rainforest is
critical in holding back global warming – as a lung which helps the
planet to breathe – then the wildfires now burning across the Amazon
region of South America can be likened to lung cancer, a threat to life.
Nothing could be more alarming, therefore, than the fact that the
leaders of the two states most implicated, Brazil and the United States,
are both climate change deniers. Presidents Jair Bolsonaro and Donald
Trump refuse to accept that the planet is sick, and scornfully disparage
international efforts to heal it.
The Brazilian government has rejected the offer of $22m from the countries of the G7, agreed at the summit hosted by the French in Biarritz, saying it smacks of colonialism. Yet Brazil has recently complained that it lacks sufficient resources to fight the thousands of fires now raging. There are other possible destinations for the money, of course, such as Bolivia, where its portion of the Amazon rainforest is also threatened by large-scale fires burning out of control. The G7’s gesture might have been more realistic, and more compelling, if the amount offered was 10 times larger – for that would be closer to a relief package to match the scale of the disaster.
This crisis is almost entirely man-made. Once the forest is burnt, the land can be developed for farming. Livestock can be grazed on it, but, even more significantly, genetically modified soybean has found an enormous market in the United States, where it is used to feed cattle for beef and for dairy farming. After processing, soy is also used directly for human consumption. Forest clearing and soy farming are both serious threats to biodiversity.
Brazil has laws to control and restrict deforestation, but the Bolsonaro government has tacitly encouraged widespread illegality, corruption and abuse. Commercial exploitation of the land often leads to violence. Successive governments have shown little concern for the welfare of the indigenous tribes who inhabit the rainforest and who understand it best. They are the natural custodians of this unique global treasury of plant and animal life, and they need the solidarity of the rest of the world if they are to survive. This autumn’s Amazon Synod convened by Pope Francis should allow that to be demonstrated, though it risks being engulfed by the smoke and flame of the immediate crisis.
Global warming is a scientific fact, involving the trapping of heat in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases. The Amazon forest plays a vital role in absorbing some of those gases. Somewhere not far ahead lies a critical turning point where the process is no longer roughly in balance, and the climate begins to destabilise. No one knows for sure what will then happen, but it will certainly be bad news for the human race.
The Brazilian government has rejected the offer of $22m from the countries of the G7, agreed at the summit hosted by the French in Biarritz, saying it smacks of colonialism. Yet Brazil has recently complained that it lacks sufficient resources to fight the thousands of fires now raging. There are other possible destinations for the money, of course, such as Bolivia, where its portion of the Amazon rainforest is also threatened by large-scale fires burning out of control. The G7’s gesture might have been more realistic, and more compelling, if the amount offered was 10 times larger – for that would be closer to a relief package to match the scale of the disaster.
This crisis is almost entirely man-made. Once the forest is burnt, the land can be developed for farming. Livestock can be grazed on it, but, even more significantly, genetically modified soybean has found an enormous market in the United States, where it is used to feed cattle for beef and for dairy farming. After processing, soy is also used directly for human consumption. Forest clearing and soy farming are both serious threats to biodiversity.
Brazil has laws to control and restrict deforestation, but the Bolsonaro government has tacitly encouraged widespread illegality, corruption and abuse. Commercial exploitation of the land often leads to violence. Successive governments have shown little concern for the welfare of the indigenous tribes who inhabit the rainforest and who understand it best. They are the natural custodians of this unique global treasury of plant and animal life, and they need the solidarity of the rest of the world if they are to survive. This autumn’s Amazon Synod convened by Pope Francis should allow that to be demonstrated, though it risks being engulfed by the smoke and flame of the immediate crisis.
Global warming is a scientific fact, involving the trapping of heat in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases. The Amazon forest plays a vital role in absorbing some of those gases. Somewhere not far ahead lies a critical turning point where the process is no longer roughly in balance, and the climate begins to destabilise. No one knows for sure what will then happen, but it will certainly be bad news for the human race.
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