Preliminary government data on Friday showed that deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest reached record levels in February. This was due to a scientific study showing that the Amazon rainforest is at a tipping point, after which it cannot sustain itself. According to INPE data, the area saw a 62% increase in forest clearing compared to the same month last year.
This is the highest February level since 2015/2016 when the data series began. It follows a January record. The destruction in the first two months was three times more than that of the same period in 2021. 629 square kilometers (243 square miles), or roughly half of Chicago’s area, were deforested.
Brazil is home to 60% of the Amazon, which is the world’s largest rainforest. Its preservation is crucial to halting climate change. Brazil’s deforestation rate has risen since Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing president, took office in 2019. He also weakened environmental conservation by advocating for more commercial farming in protected areas and mining to help lift the Amazon region of poverty.
Bolsonaro’s office didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment regarding Friday’s data. According to the Environment Ministry, Bolsonaro’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday’s data.
Scientists fear that the destruction of the Amazon is pushing it towards a tipping point. After which, the jungle would dry up and become savanna, emitting huge amounts of greenhouse gases. A study published in the journal Nature Climate Change https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01287-8 earlier this week found that in the last two decades, more than three-quarters of the Amazon has already lost some of its ability to bounce back from disruptions like drought and fire.
The University of Exeter authors wrote that “deforestation and climate change” may have already pushed the Amazon to the point where it is nearing a critical threshold of rainforest deathback. The amount of carbon lost by tropical forests each year – which ultimately returns to the atmosphere as climate-warming carbon dioxide – has doubled since the early 2000s, a separate study in the journal Nature Sustainability https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-022-00854-3 found last month.
Scientists suspect that deforestation will increase even more ahead of Brazil’s October elections, as it did during the previous three election years. According to Carlos Souza Jr, a researcher from the environmental institute Imazon, authorities are likely not to enforce environmental laws as rigorously as they should in fear of upsetting voters.
(This story is not edited by Devdiscourse staff.
