Beef, beans, and Bolsonaro: the Amazon’s Cause of Death
The Amazon is now emitting more carbon than it's absorbing. (Photo: Andre Penner/AP)
The Amazon covers a land area of 5.5 million square kilometers. It houses about 20% of the world’s flowing fresh water, a third of known terrestrial animal and plant life, and, most importantly, contains 10% of all biomass on Earth. In the 80s and 90s, the Amazon absorbed 2 billion tonnes of carbon annually.
But year by year, that figure is shrinking, and worse, studies are showing that the rainforest is now emitting more carbon than it’s absorbing.
The Amazon’s changing carbon emissions are because of the millions of trees that are being cut down every year. Deforestation is causing the carbon dioxide that was previously absorbed by the forest to be released back into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming.
In 2022, deforestation in the Amazon is reaching a record high. Experts are saying that twice the amount of forest has been removed in April 2022 than in the same month last year. This marks the third monthly record this year, after the same record was broken in January and February. Experts are also reporting that deforestation in the Amazon for the first four months of the year is seeing an increase of 69% compared to the same time frame last year. Some very grim records to break, to say the least.
Deforestation in the Amazon is now happening at a rate so rapid that scientists fear it may soon be irreversible– and the causes are inherently linked to our food habits, so they’re not optimistic that we can overturn the trend anytime soon.
Time to go vegan
In the early 2000s and up until 2019, soy and cattle farming in South America doubled. Soy and cattle farmers cleared about 20,500 square kilometers of forest a year. Over the past 20 years, the Amazon has lost a total of 350,000 square kilometers, and emitted 13% more carbon than it absorbed.
Much of the beef produced in Brazil is exclusively for export. China is the biggest buyer of Brazilian beef by far, importing over 950,000 tonnes in 2021 alone. The US comes at a distant second, importing almost 150,000 tonnes. The Philippines is also one of the biggest buyers, coming in sixth after reportedly importing over 46,000 tonnes of beef in 2021.
The demand for soy is also inherently linked to cattle farming, and farming animals in general. Only 7% of soy produced globally is used for products like tofu and soy milk– the large majority, an astounding 77%, is used as feed for animals that are bred for human consumption. To address the rising demand for soy, soybean cultivation in Brazil alone went up by 160% from 2001 to 2019.
Beef with Bolsonaro
Perhaps the saddest part is that scientists and activists think that the destruction of the Amazon is inevitable under Brazil’s current administration. Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s far-right president, has done nothing to address the depletion of the rainforest.
Instead, Bolsonaro has allowed the agricultural mafia to take over the Amazon rainforest, and his policies have actively encouraged and stimulated deforestation, allowing the legalization of ownership of stretches of land that had been illegally invaded and cleared,
Bolsonaro is up for re-election this year, and he’s under pressure from the international community to ramp up efforts to fight the deforestation of the Amazon. The US, Germany, and Norway have pledged billions of dollars to help in protecting the rainforest, but have since frozen those funds, and the EU is also holding off on ratifying a trade agreement with the Mercusor trade bloc, which Brazil is a part of.
Hopefully, this is enough to make Bolsonaro prioritize saving the Amazon– because if he doesn’t, the consequences will be dire.
