Unless you were living under a rock till now, it’s impossible not to know about the Amazon forest fires. But even if you know about the fires, why should you care? The president of Brazil himself seems unconcerned about the issue. Well, you should, because it concerns you and your future generations.
Let’s know how.
Table of Contents
Why You Should Care
Amazon forest is a carbon sink where an enormous amount of carbon is stored. Due to the fires, those carbons are being released into the atmosphere making the problem of global warming harder to resolve.
Also, the loss of those vegetations has a direct impact on the rain across that area. The loss of trees will cause the rainfall to get reduced significantly in Brazil and surrounding countries.
You’ll be surprised to know that around 6% of the world’s oxygen is supplied by the amazon. Though there is cause for an oxygen shortage to happen, we should take proper measures to protect one of the biggest oxygen sources of our planet.
What Are the Political Leaders Doing?
Worryingly, the world leaders have been aloof to this crisis until recently. Only the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, had reacted to this growing calamity immediately and asked for global attention.
Surprisingly, the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has been reluctant to accept the world’s help to put out the fires. Before eventually using the army under pressure from the global powers, he had refused to take any significant action to solve this crisis and also rejected a donation of 10 million dollars from the international community.
It is widely reported that these fires are created on purpose to clear the lands which will bring monetary benefits for some selected group of people. It is alleged that due to president Bolsonaro’s party being complicit with the perpetrators, he has so far been reluctant to take any actions against the criminals.
The Role of Media
Nevertheless, despite the inactivity of the world political leaders, awareness has been spread about the fires around the world. That’s largely thanks to the extensive coverage by international media which has been bringing regular updates to the viewers.
Also, Hollywood celebrities like Leonardo Dicaprio and Jaden Smith sharing about the incident has helped to make the general public aware of the fire.
Beware of Fake Pictures!
It needs to be noted that many people, including some well-known celebrities, are sharing morphed and fake pictures of the amazon fire unintentionally.
Despite their good intentions, it’s doing more harm than good and causing the topic to lose seriousness. If people begin to doubt the gravity of the matter, it’ll cause them to lose interest in the issue, which will pave the way for the political leaders to resume the inactivity.
What Impact It Will Have on Climate Change?
Though most of the fires have been contained, they have caused significant damage. Its impact is going to be felt around the world as it will worsen the problem of global warming. However, as of now, it’s still undetermined how much of impact the amazon fire is going to have on the climate change.
