Don't Pray for Amazon or Brazil, Pray for Yourself
Just Imagine what will happen if your lungs get infected?
You will not be able to breathe properly. The same is the situation right now for our planet Earth. The planet’s lungs are set on fire!! Yes, The Amazon forest is set on fire!!
The Amazon Or Amazonia is the worlds largest tropical ecosystem on planet which produces about 20% of earth's oxygen, is often referred to as "the planet's lungs."
It is one of the greatest natural asset when it comes to tackle the climate change but it’s been burning at a record rate right now and for the past few days. This is a WORLD issue and international crisis as it affects all of our society.
Facts about Amazon rainforest
1. The Amazon is the worlds largest tropical rainforest, covering more than five million square kilometer across nine countries -- Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. Brazil houses around 60% of the rainforest.
2. It is house for Around 400-500 indigenous Amerindian tribes. It’s believed that about fifty of these tribes have never had contact with the outside world!
3. The Amazon has an incredibly rich ecosystem – there are around 40,000 plant species, 1,300 bird species, 3,000 types of fish, 430 mammals and a whopping 2.5 million different insects. Thats really incredible.
4. The Amazon rainforest is a carbon sink, it absorbs carbon dioxide and stores it. So, it is a major player in maintaining carbon levels globally.
What caused The Amazon to set on Fire
The answer to this is the significant acceleration of manmade deforestation for the lumber industry, for agriculture or for other human activities.
A tropical rainforest generally do not catches fire naturally because it’s so humid and wet. The vast majority of this fires are human lit “either on purpose or by accident”. In Amazon, when an area of forest is cleared, the tree trunks are removed and the vegetation is burnt on spot during the dry season which last from July to November. For farmland, or for prairies, bush and weed alike are heaped together, waiting for dry season. That’s what is burning right now but this time to an extent which is a worry-some for the whole world.
An 80% increase in deforestation has occurred so far this year compared to last year as per Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research. Most of this fires may also be result of farmers and ranchers who used to clear land by putting it on fire and make it ready to use.
Impact on climate change
Forest contain carbon stored in the tress and vegetation. When a tree is cut, the carbon inside will reenter the atmosphere. Forest fires and climate change operate in vicious cycle. As the number of fires increase, greenhouse gas emissions do too. This makes the planet's overall temperature rise. As the temperature increases, extreme weather events like major droughts happen more often.
At a time when the world needs more billion tress to absorb the carbon that we emit on a daily basis, we are loosing our biggest rainforest.
According to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, the Amazonian fires have generated a discernible spike in carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide emissions, threatening human health and exacerbating the effects of global warming. In the long run, deforestation-driven fire could prove devastating to the carbon-absorbing rainforest.
If deforestation continues at the rate seen today, more than half of the Amazon will have a climate similar to a savannah within the next 25 to 30 years.
Fold up your sleeves before its too late. Online, hashtags urged people to pray for the Amazon and to spread awareness of the fires, but its time to get to work for ourselves too and to save our planet and to save our future.
Any forest destroyed is a threat to biodiversity and the people who use that biodiversity. the overwhelming threat is that a lot of carbon goes into the atmosphere.
Climate change isn’t a problem for young people to solve alone. Whether or not you’re joining a march, there are steps you can take every single day to help the fight against climate change. Start with these few:
1. Start talking about it. We ourself is responsible for this drastic climate change so encourage every individual to talk more about climate change even if you don’t have all the answers. That’s where creativity and solutions come from.
2. Shift to organic diet that are more plant-based proteins. Cutting back on red meat is beneficial to the planet because livestock such as cows release methane, a greenhouse gas, and require large amounts of land and feed. Cattle ranch expansion is also the largest driver of deforestation in the Amazon, one of the world’s most essential tropical forests. Plant-based proteins can provide the nutrition at a much lower environmental cost.
3. Cut down plastic usage. Buying less not only cuts down on plastic packaging that is clogging our oceans, it also reduces your carbon footprint and puts fewer greenhouse gas emissions into our atmosphere.
If not done today than tomorrow is definitely in danger. Its just a little alert to the world!! So we need to get alert and do whatever we can do to save our planet.
Stay Aware and spread Awareness!!
