Climate Change In The Amazon
Amazon Rainforest


Deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest is threatening to accelerate past some extent of no return. Countries and international organizations have called on Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to strengthen environmental protections and Indigenous land rights that he has weakened since taking office.

What is the present state of the Amazon Rainforest?

Scientists warn that the world’s largest rain forest is approaching a critical tipping point past which there may be severe, irreversible consequences for the world.

New data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research shows that 166 square miles of the Amazon were cleared in January 2022, a record monthly high. This deforestation is contributing to a loss in resilience, or the forest’s ability to endure droughts, fires, and landslides. If this continues, it could cause the Amazon’s traditionally wet, tropical climate to dry out, a phenomenon called “dieback.” About 17 percent of the Amazon has been destroyed over the past fifty years, and a few scientists believe that the tipping point for dieback is between 20 and 25 percent deforestation.

International demand for beef and soy incentivizes ranchers to clear the land for cattle ranching and soybean production. Brazil is currently the world’s top exporter of beef and soy, which together accounted for nearly 13 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019.

Why does it matter?

The Amazon plays a critical role in climate regulation. Often remarked as “the lungs of the world,” it produces between 6 and 9 percent of the world’s total oxygen and long functioned as a carbon sink, absorbing more greenhouse gas than it emitted. However, scientists say the Amazon now emits more carbonic acid gas than it's ready to absorb. This puts the Amazon’s rich biodiversity at risk: frequent fires, hotter temperatures, and changing rain patterns damage the habitats of the forest’s quite three million species, thousands of which are endangered.

Also under threat are nearly four hundred Indigenous tribes. Deforestation has displaced several of them inspiring Indigenous-led protest movements across Brazil. In 2019, there have been 256 cases of illegal occupation of Indigenous land, which human rights groups attributed to Bolsonaro’s efforts to dismantle protections for Indigenous communities. In August 2021, a coalition of Brazilian Indigenous rights groups petitioned the International court to analyze Bolsonaro for alleged crimes against humanity and genocide.

How did we get here?
Large-scale deforestation of the Amazon began within the 1960s, but it's accelerated under Bolsonaro, reaching a fifteen-year high in 2021. Since taking office in 2019, his government has scaled back the enforcement of environmental laws and pushed to open Indigenous lands to commercial exploitation. When widespread fires broke go into 2019, Bosonaro rejected numerous dollars in aid from the Group of Seven (G7), claiming the G7 sought to infringe on Brazilian sovereignty.
Deforestation At Amazon Rainforest
His administration has also weakened existing environmental protections. additionally to approving a 24 percent move the 2021 environment budget, Brazil’s Congress passed several measures that reduced citizen representation on environmental policy counsels and replaced environmental policymakers with military officials. Other efforts, including bills that will legitimize illegal squatting and erode protections for Indigenous territories, are still being deliberated.

Still, Bolsonaro has taken some steps to guard the Amazon. In January 2020, he announced the creation of an Amazon Council, consisting of fourteen cabinet members but no governors from Amazonian states, to oversee sustainable development efforts. And in May of that year, he tasked the country’s soldiers with responding to environmental crimes committed within the forest. However, critics say the reliance on the military has often undercut the work of federal environmental agencies and did not achieve significant results.

What are the choices going forward?
Bolsonaro faces growing international pressure to handle deforestation. During U.S. President Joe Biden’s 2021 Leaders Summit on Climate, Bolsonaro promised to finish illegal deforestation by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. At the United Nations’ twenty-sixth Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow later that year, he made a more ambitious pledge to finish deforestation by 2028.

The president could also see financial pressure work up prior his bid for reelection in October 2022. Germany and Norway gave billions of dollars to Brazil’s Amazon Fund, created in 2008 to market sustainable use of the rain forest, but those countries have frozen that support. Likewise, Brasilia and Washington are negotiating a proposed $20 billion U.S. donation to assist conservation efforts, but talks have stalled over Bolsonaro’s policies. Deforestation has also played a task within the European Union’s delay in ratifying a comprehensive trade agreement with the Mercosur trade bloc, of which Brazil could be a member.