Trump’s Trade War Linked To Amazon Rainforest Destruction

As unsold U.S. soybeans are stored in silos across the farm belt, Brazilian farmers and corporations scramble to satisfy the voracious Chinese market. The push to break new ground amid President Donald Trump’s trade war with China is putting increasing pressure on the Amazon rainforest and is likely linked to the region’s devastating fires, according to experts.

The Amazon burns as the trade wars ramp up.

“There is concern that market pressures related to the disruptions in global trade contributed to the fires in the Amazon,” Paul Murphy-Spooner, the spokesperson for the American Soybean Association, said in an email to HuffPost. 

Brazil is America’s biggest soybean competitor and has stepped up its production now that China has slashed its purchases of U.S. crops in retaliation for Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports. Soy shipments from Brazil jumped 27% from 2017 to 2018. Chinese imports from Brazil in the 12 months through April amounted to 71 million tons — nearly as much as China imported from the entire world in 2014, according to Bloomberg. 

Read the Huffpost story by Mary Papenfuss - “Trump’s Trade War Linked To Amazon Rainforest Destruction.”

Brazil says it lacks resources to fight Amazon wildfires as dispute rages over who is to blame

The Brazilian Government lacks the resources to fight a record number of wildfires burning in the Amazon rainforest, President Jair Bolsonaro said, weeks after telling donors he did not need their money.

Fires in the Amazon have surged 83 per cent so far this year.

The growing threat to what some call "the lungs of the planet" has ignited a bitter dispute about who is to blame during the tenure of a leader who described Brazil's rainforest protections as an obstacle to economic development.

"The Amazon is bigger than Europe, how will you fight criminal fires in such an area?" Mr Bolsonaro asked reporters as he left the presidential residence. 

"We do not have the resources for that."

Read the ABC News story - “Brazil says it lacks resources to fight Amazon wildfires as dispute rages over who is to blame.”

Amazon Deforestation Rate Hits 3 Football Fields Per Minute, Data Confirms

The Amazon rainforest in Brazil is being clear cut so rapidly — a rate of three football fields per minute — that it is approaching a "tipping point" from which it will not recover, according to the Guardian. 

The Amazon rainforest is disappearing at
the rate of three football fields a minute.

As trees are lost, researchers said there is a risk that large areas could transition from rainforest to savannah as they lose the ability to make their own rainfall from evaporation and from plants giving off water vapor, according to Newsweek. 

A transition on that scale could have significant implications for global warming since the rainforest absorbs vast amounts of atmospheric carbon. Recent research has shown the potential for massive tree plantings to remove excess carbon from the atmosphere.

Read the story from EcoWatch by Jordan Davidson - “Amazon Deforestation Rate Hits 3 Football Fields Per Minute, Data Confirms.”

More than 200,000 hectares of Amazon forest have been destroyed in just nine months

Rio de Janeiro: A non-government group that monitors the Amazon rainforest says the pace of deforestation is increasing.

A deforested area near Novo Progresso in Brazil's northern state of Para.

Imazon said that satellite imagery show the region lost 2169 square kilometres (216,900 hectares) of forest in the most recent August-through-April period.

That's a 20 per cent jump from the 1807 square kilometres lost over the same nine-month period the previous year.

Analysts blame uncontrolled logging and land invasion for much of the loss, some of which occurred in protected areas and Indigenous reserves.

Read the story from The Age - “More than 200,000 hectares of Amazon forest have been destroyed in just nine months.”

Colombia’s top court orders government to protect Amazon forest in landmark case

BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Colombia’s highest court has told the government it must take urgent action to protect its Amazon rainforest and stem rising deforestation, in what campaigners said was an historic moment that should help conserve forests and counter climate change.

In their ruling on Thursday, the judges said that Colombia - which is home to a swathe of rainforest roughly the size of Germany and England combined - saw deforestation rates in its Amazon region increase by 44 percent from 2015 to 2016.

“It is clear, despite numerous international commitments, regulations ... that the Colombian state has not efficiently addressed the problem of deforestation in the Amazon,” the supreme court said.

The ruling comes after a group of 25 young plaintiffs, ranging in age from seven to 26, filed a lawsuit against the government in January demanding it protect their right to a healthy environment.

Read Anastasia Maloney’s story from Reuters - “Colombia’s top court orders government to protect Amazon forest in landmark case.”

Ecuadoran visitor finds her country in the news for all the wrong reasons

“

Isabel", who has a special interest in the environment and the state of the world, came from Ecuador to study at the University of Melbourne.

Nearly two years ago she became a friend of Beneath the Wisteria, but several months ago returned home and now her home country is in the news, for all the wrong reasons.

A story on Business Insider Australia - “Ecuador To Sell A Third Of Its Amazon Rainforest To Chinese Oil Companies” – would undoubtedly frustrate Isabel.

The story says, “Ecuador is planning to auction off three million of the country’s 8.1 million hectares of pristine Amazonian rainforest to Chinese oil companies, Jonathan Kaiman of The Guardian reports.

“The report comes as oil pollution forced neighbouring Peru to declare an environmental state of emergency in its northern Amazon rainforest.

“Ecuador owed China more than $7 billion — more than a tenth of its GDP — as of last summer.

“In 2009 China began loaning Ecuador billions of dollars in exchange for oil shipments. It also helped fund two of the country’s biggest hydroelectric infrastructure projects, and China National Petroleum Corp may soon have a 30 per cent stake in a $10 billion oil refinery in Ecuador.”