2020 definitely made us stop and think.
The year started with massive bushfires in Australia that burned more than 46 million acres (that is almost the size of Syria!), killed 34 people and more than a billion animals perished. Among those, several endangered species face now the risk of total extinction. The most iconic Australian animal, the koala, was extremely affected: more than a third of the population is thought to have been killed.
Alarming portions of the Amazon rainforest and the Pantanal are burning in Brazil. The country have experienced a large number of fires that exceeded their capacity to respond. Between July 2019 and July 2020, more than 10000 km² have been deforested, releasing about 500 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. The Amazon forest has never been exposed to fire on a large scale. In its natural state, it is too humid to burn out of control. Only in 2020, 30% of the Pantanal burned to the ground.
What is causing so many fires just under the equator line?
Well the combination of dryer conditions triggered by increasing deforestation and of course climate change is leaving our forests defenseless. Between 1980 and 2000, 42 million hectares of natural landscapes were lost to cattle production in the Amazon forest.
What are the consequences?
There are three main critical consequences of the Amazon Fires:
an acceleration in biodiversity loss
an acceleration in climate change
a degradation in health all across the world
Remember: The Amazon forest is the worlds lungs.
How can we fight it?
This article published in Nature is very clear: all the evidences suggests that we are currently in a state of “planetary emergency”.
The Paris Climate Agreement (2016) set humanity a bold challenge: limit global warming to below 2°C relative to temperatures before the Industrial Revolution.
But the clock is ticking, and the point of no return on this fight is getting closer. The risk of a global cascade of events that will be devastating for our societies is getting higher.
Since the year 1900, human degradation and destruction of natural habitats have caused the extinction of 477 different species, instead of the 9 species that would have been expected at natural rates (based on the fossil records). The average abundance of native species in most habitats has fallen by at least 20%, mostly since 1900.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created the worst health, economic and social crisis in our lifetime. No country, no economy, no society has been spared. Over 1.1 million people died and more than 42 million people have been infected worldwide. The pandemic made it clear that the necessity to fight climate change and to preserve biodiversity is urgent.
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