Brazil: alert on record deforestation in the Amazon

Officials inspect a deforested area in the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil, September 22, 2021. AFP - EVARISTO SA

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1 min

According to the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), nearly 430 km² of forest was destroyed in January in Brazil, five times more than in January 2021. Scientists denounce the increase in deforestation and the government's inaction .

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Britaldo Soares Filho isn't even shocked by the numbers anymore.

According to the researcher at the University of Meros Gerais, “

”.

In January 2022 alone, the equivalent of seven times the size of Manhattan was destroyed in the Amazon. 

But nothing new, according to scientists who all know to whom they owe this unprecedented rise: Jair Bolsonaro.

The far-right president has always 

of mining in the Amazon.

His election in 2017 resulted in unprecedented clearing:

were destroyed between August 2020 and July 2021, which is roughly the size of Lebanon.

Fifteen years since such figures had not been reached.

An essential forest against global warming

An increase in total contradiction with the commitments made by the Bolsonaro government during the Paris agreement in 2015. The head of state then pledged to end the destruction of the Amazon by 2030.

Protecting the largest rainforest in the world is essential to fight global warming.

But at this rate, deforestation is on track to break all records in 2022.  

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• Brazil

• Environment

• Climate change

• Jair Bolsonaro