Link to Article: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/07/record-after-record-brazils-amazon-deforestation-hits-april-high-nearly-double-previous-peak
Summary: In the first four months of 2022 the destruction of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil hit an all time high. The destruction has increased 69% since last year in 2021. They have observed that a space that is twice the size of New York City has been cleared out of the Amazon rainforest. The deforestation of the Amazon has increased a massive amount since President Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019 and has weakened environmental protection. Bolsonaro believes that by clearing out land it will allow for more farming and mining that will reduce the poverty in that region. The Climate Observatory says that the preservation of the Amazon is vital to stopping catastrophic climate change because of the amount of carbon dioxide that the Amazon absorbs.
Analysis: Climate change and deforestation has been a topic that every country has been thinking about and concerned about. The Amazon rainforest is a very important forest in terms of helping the environment and is responsible for producing much of the oxygen in the atmosphere. Other countries such as America have been criticizing Bolsonaro for the continued deforestation of the Amazon. America is known for deforestation as well though so criticizing Bolsonaro now makes them look very hypocritical. There are also the vast amounts of resources that are untouched in the Amazon because of the difficulty to get the equipment needed to collect these resources into the forest. Brazil also suffers from a divided population. So while the deforestation of the Amazon would have lasting effects on the whole world, it would help mend this population divide in Brazil and could also open economic opportunities that would help regions in Brazil out of poverty. There are also the fires that burned thousands of acres of the Amazon, with that on top of the deforestation the Amazon has lost a lot of its trees.
How it relates to class: This shows us what lengths some countries will go to help their people. While some of the deforestation of the Amazon is done illegally, some of it is also sanctioned by the government in hopes of using that land and the resources found in the Amazon to help lift regions of Brazil out of their poverty. This also shows how a change of leadership in countries can drastically change how that country is run. Before Bolsonaro came into power the deforestation of the Amazon wasn’t something the government really participated in.