Dear MEL Topic Readers,
'Football pitch' of Amazon forest lost every
minute
The Amazon rainforest covers most of the
Amazon basin of South America. Roughly 60% of the forest is contained in Brazil,
13% in Peru, 10% in Colombia, and the rest in the other six countries. It
represents over half of the Earth’s rainforests and is the largest and most biodiverse
tropical rainforest. The forest’s billions of trees absorb a huge amount of
carbon dioxide and produce oxygen in return, whose process slows the rise in
global temperatures.
Until Bolsonaro, nicknamed “the Trump of the
Tropics” was elected the president, Brazil had been serious and strict in conserving
the rainforest. But the administration abruptly loosened the guard and now about
the size of a football field of the forest is being lost every minute. And much
of the cleared land is covered with grass to raise cows, which on average release
around 100 kg of Methane per year, a greenhouse gas whose negative effect on
climate is much higher than carbon dioxide.
And what will happen to one million indigenous
people who live in and depend everything on the rainforest? It is also home to the world’s
richest biodiversity with nearly one-tenth of all species of animals and
plants. A single election result is going to change the future of the most valuable
and vital resource of the planet.
Read the article and think if an elected
president should have almighty power over the environment.
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