Left to Donald Trump and his Brazilian fellow right winger, Jair Bolsonaro, the Amazon is simply wealth untapped and therefore waiting to be tapped. The potentials for money from mining, logging, farming, ranching and other activities are just too tempting. So when the Amazon went up in flames, (more than 72,000 fires between January and August, with a menacing uptick since august 15th, 2019) Bolsonaro did little for too long until the noise became too loud for him to comfortably sit still. And even then his first act was to pick a quarrel with the French President who the Brazilian President thought was less than diplomatic in his utterances regarding the Amazon fires and his (Bolsonaro’s) response.
However, largely because the Amazon straddles 9 other countries, namely Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, and also due to the noise from climate change activists and governments of other nations, there are a lot more hands on deck now to ensure the fires are effectively put out. Help has been accepted from the USA and Russia, amongst other nations that offered. As well, the armed forces of Brazil (which is home to 60% of the Amazon) is now heavily involved.
Every year the Amazon forest shrinks in size. Understandably. It has too much of everything inside of it. Lots of minerals, lots of aquatic species – flora, fauna and avian – some of which cannot be
found anywhere else. In fact, they have not all been discovered as yet. The place is simply brimming over with life and what is seen as potentials for humongous wealth.
Hereunder are some more facts about the Amazon as gleaned from softschools.com
The Amazon rainforest is a moist, broadleaf forest.
It covers most of the Amazon Basin in South America. The basin is 2.7 million square miles while the Amazon covers 2.1 million square miles of it. If the Amazon rainforest was a country, it would rank 9th in size.
The Amazon rainforest accounts for more than half of the entire world’s remaining rainforests.
The Amazon rainforest is home to 10% of the known species in the world.
The Amazon rainforest is home to more than 1500 of the bird species in the world.
There are over 40,000 different plant species and approximately 2.5 million insect species in the Amazon rainforest.
Due to efforts to fight deforestation in the Amazon, rates have been reducing slightly, but it is still an issue today.
The droughts in 2005 and 2010 destroyed huge amounts of vegetation in the areas worst affected.
It’s estimated that if the climate change were to increase the world’s temperature by only 3 degrees Celsius then 75% of the Amazon would be destroyed.
The Amazon rainforest is also referred to as the ‘Lungs of the Planet’ because it produces more than 20% of the world’s oxygen.
There are approximately 10 million species of animals, plants and insects known to man and more than half of them call the rainforest home.
There are approximately 3000 fruits that grow in the rainforest that are edible.
Many plants around the world have medicinal qualities. Of the plants known to have anti-cancer properties, 70% are found in the rainforest. Amazon natives use rainforest plants regularly but 90% of the ones they use have not been studied by modern science.
In 1500 there were between 6 and 9 million Amazon natives. Today there are only an estimated 250,000 left. There are approximately 170 different languages spoken by the Amazon natives.
It is believed that there may still be as many as 50 Amazon native tribes living in the rainforest that have never been in contact with the rest of the world.
There are many dangerous species of snakes, spiders and animals in the Amazon rainforest. It is also home to the anaconda.
The Amazon River is considered to be the life force of the Amazon rainforest.
The toucan is the loudest creature in the Amazon. You can hear it as far as a half mile away.
There are vampire bats in the Amazon rainforest as well as poisonous dart frogs.
If you were caught in the rain in the Amazon you would have about 10 minutes to find your umbrella. The trees are so tightly packed that it can take 10 minutes for the rain to reach the ground below.
The raging fires are one element in the vicious circle which stoke the greenhouse gases and which in turn lead to rising temperatures and longer dry seasons, and causing more fires which start the whole circle all over. The current fires are visible from space!
Thumbs up to all the concerned countries and organisations involved in the fire-quenching exercise. With the Amazon generating more than 20% of the oxygen in the world, we can only wait with bated breath and hope that this endeavour of on behalf of the whole world is ( wildly) successful.
