The Amazon Is on Fire – Here’s Why
The largest rainforest on Earth is going up in flames – and has been for more than three weeks.
The Amazon rainforest has been burning for weeks at a record rate – adding to an already alarming level of deforestation.
Read more here: https://t.co/TT10BEnftt pic.twitter.com/03D62qEyVV
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) August 21, 2019
The equivalent of three football pitches of land in the Brazilian Amazon is deforested every minute. This region contains the largest rainforest in the world, which is vital to combating global climate change.
The record-breaking fires have taken over conversation online, as topical trending hashtags are widely used on Twitter, heartbreaking images are plastered across Instagram, and videos of the fires dominate Facebook timelines.
While awareness and concern are on the up, many people are voicing their frustrations, unsure as to why this is happening in the first place and what they can do to stop the fires from raging on. Well, there’s a clear reason … and a clear solution.
The Culprit
The leading cause of global deforestation and the reason for the tragedy in the Amazon right now is the use of animals for food.
Animal agriculture has the world’s largest land footprint, changing the face of our planet. It takes up one-third of the Earth’s land surface and is responsible for 30% of biodiversity loss. Humans are stealing land from wild animals to graze cattle or grow soya to feed billions of cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, and other animals, simply to exploit their bodies for food.
Some cattle ranchers in the Amazon even deliberately start illegal wildfires in order to make room for more animals.
The Amazon rainforest provides 20% of the world’s oxygen. People are deliberately starting fires in effort to illegally deforest land for cattle ranching. President Bolsonaro is letting this slide!! #AmazonRainforest #PrayforAmazonas pic.twitter.com/9pWraNgWu6
— hannah (@negativiq) August 21, 2019
Such practices could very well have caused the fires, especially since Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (known in Brazil as “Captain Chainsaw”) – who took office in January – champions deforestation efforts and promised to cut rainforest protections. In July alone, the rate of Amazon rainforest destruction was nearly 300% higher than in the same month in 2018.
The #AmazonRainforest has been burning for 3-weeks straight and there is very little media coverage.
The second image is São Paulo, Brazil during the day. If you want to know what the apocalypse looks like, this is a small glimpse. pic.twitter.com/xFlxZPIiOK
— Zohir (@ZohirZo) August 21, 2019
Wild animals are running out of space to live and are becoming extinct at an alarming rate – 1 million species are currently at risk of disappearing because of deforestation and other human activity.
This is the harsh reality of animal agriculture & human greed. The Amazon Rainforest continues to burn, so people can profit, all for ‘food’ we don’t need.
This is the reality of your decision to eat meat & dairy. This is the reality of your burgers & bacon. You’re funding this. pic.twitter.com/Bjeh0YIxzD
— (@soypreme) August 22, 2019
Care About Our Planet? Stop Eating Meat
By stopping deforestation and replanting trees, we can combat the climate crisis and preserve the natural habitats of many animals. If everyone went vegan, global agricultural land use could be reduced by more than 75% – an area equivalent to Australia, China, the European Union, and the US combined – and we could still feed the entire world.
You can’t be a meat-eating environmentalist. Order a free vegan starter kit to learn how easy it is to prevent nearly 200 animals a year from being slaughtered and help stop environmental annihilation.
