The Amazon’s deforestation has risen to record levels in April. This is nearly twice the area of forest that was removed in April last year.
According to data from Inpe, the region saw 1,012.5 km (390 miles) of deforestation over the first 29 days. The agency, which compiles the monthly DETERB data sequence since 2015/2016, will be reporting data for the last day of April next week. After February and January, new records were set in April.
Destruction of the Brazilian Amazon in the first four months of the year also hit a record for the period of 1,954 sq km (754 sq miles), an increase of 69% compared to the same period of 2021 – clearing an area more than double the size of New York City. The Amazon’s deforestation has increased since the right-wing President Jairbolsonaro assumed office in 2019. This has led to a decline in environmental protection. Bolsonaro claims that more mining and farming in the Amazon will reduce poverty.
Marcio Astrini of the Brazilian advocacy group Climate Observatory stated that “the cause of this record has an initial and last name: Jair Messias Bolsonaro.” Bolsonaro’s office and the Environment Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Climate Observatory stated that even though deforestation is on the rise, its analysts were still shocked by the April reading. This is because April is part of the rainy seasons when the muddy forest is more difficult for loggers to access. Because of its large amount of climate-warming carbon dioxide, preservation of the Amazon is crucial to halting catastrophic climate change.
Ane Alencar (science director at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute) said that she expected deforestation would continue rising ahead of the October presidential elections. This is similar to what happened in Brazil’s previous three election years. Officials who fear angering voters tend to do less to enforce the law. She called the recent surge in deforestation “absurd” despite this. Alencar stated that clearing forests in the country has become a common practice, with record after record.
(This story was not edited by Devdiscourse staff. It is generated automatically from a syndicated feed.