Stop the #AmazonFire
News about the Amazon rainforest being on fire may seem trivial to some considering we’re on a different continent but one couldn’t be more wrong.
The Amazon accounts for
- 20{54d2fcdcd494adb6982253be6fe8d5492e5f586157f419110131714f9092ec60} of the earth’s total oxygen supply
- 30 million people living across a vast region subdivided into nine different national political systems
- 15-16{54d2fcdcd494adb6982253be6fe8d5492e5f586157f419110131714f9092ec60} of the world’s total river discharge into the oceans, flowing for more than 6,600 km
- 10{54d2fcdcd494adb6982253be6fe8d5492e5f586157f419110131714f9092ec60} of the world’s known biodiversity, including endemic and endangered flora and fauna.
Yes, pretty important. But somehow, the current forest fire has been reported to have been burning for sixteen (16) days, unattended and ignored.
Even more distressing, the Amazon rainforest is burning record numbers of fires this year, and now smoke from the expansive flames has been captured on both NASA and NOAA satellites from space. The National Institute for Space Research (INPE) reported its satellite data has detected more than 72,000 fires since January 2019.
Reports even say that the heavy smoke caused a daytime blackout more than 1,700 miles away in Brazil’s largest city São Paulo on Monday.
The crazy part is, as much as wildfires occur naturally, a lot of these fires are deliberately started in efforts to illegally deforest land for cattle ranching.
It is in our best interest that the forest is kept as healthy as possible, regardless of how directly it affects us. The carbon escaping the forest to the atmosphere alone is enough to push global warming up the leader-board.
We should think of the forest as a big chunk of the earth’s lungs, and not just idle trees and insignificant wildlife. As is, we do not have the natural resources to support the constantly increasing population and a blow this big could prove disastrous.
The ‘Thanos Initiative’ could soon become a reality than just a comic book story.
As many as are reading this, let’s endeavor to spread the news of our dying planet and #PrayForAmazonia
