Our Amazon has already been hit by more than 72,000 forest fires this year. Nothing special in the Southern Hemisphere’s winter, but the increase of fires is dramatic: +85% compared to winter 2018. 

While Bolsonaro claims without any evidence, that NGOs are to blame [1], many International governments say it is his fault. His weak consideration of the Amazon and the indigenous minorities living in it, encouraged farmers and miners to cut down and burn more trees. As a matter of fact, Bolsonaro thinks that the Amazon can be the new frontier for agricultural development.

The destruction of the Brazilian Amazonian rainforest is nothing to take superficially. It represents the lungs of our planet, and killing it may give a deadly kick to our attempts to contrast climate change.

But what can we do about it? In the end, we’re not Brazilians and the Amazon is on the other side of the Ocean.

1. Pray for the Amazon with your heart and your spirit. To pray, you can also use the hashtag #PrayForTheAmazon on Twitter.
2. Spread your disappointment and concern to your friends and colleagues. If the issue becomes of national interest, it may reach politicians and decision-making people of your country.
3. Ask your politicians to put market deals with Brazil into question (e.g. soy beans and beef steaks imports) and to stop financing the Brazilian government’s Amazon fund, like Norway and Germany did [2].
4. Set “Ecosia” has default search engine on your phone, computer and tablet. Ecosia is an environmental friendly search engine that plants tree every time you browse the web. In response to the Amazonian fires, Ecosia decided to plant 1M trees in the Atlantic rainforest [3]. They don’t accept donation but their partners do [4].
5. Donate to environmental initiatives that support the Amazonian forest (e.g. Rainforest Foundation, PUR Project, etc.)

Bibliografia:

[1] Watss, J. (2019). Jair Bolsonaro claims NGOs behind Amazon forest fire surge – but provides no evidence. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/21/jair-bolsonaro-accuses-ngos-setting-fire-amazon-rainforest (Accessed 2019.08.24).

[2] Boffey, D. (2019). Norway halts Amazon fund donation in dispute with Brazil. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/16/norway-halts-amazon-fund-donation-dispute-brazil-deforestation-jair-bolsonaro (Accessed 2019.08.24).

[3] Ecosia. (2018). News from Brazil: Your trees, Bolsonaro and how you can help. [online] Available at: https://blog.ecosia.org/news-from-brazil-how-you-can-help/ (Accessed 2019.08.24).

[4] Ecosia. (2019). Does Ecosia accept donations?. [online] Available at: https://ecosia.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002296049-Does-Ecosia-accept-donations- (Accessed 2019.08.24).