Amazon Burning Season Begins In A Month; Imagine What Huge Air Pollution Impacts Will Do For COVID
EDIT
Now, with the dry season starting in May in the Amazon, fires were likely to be larger and more destructive than last year, warned Azevedo, who also coordinates the SEEG Network, which estimates greenhouse gas emissions.
Smoke from Amazon fires last year swept into major Brazilian cities, causing breathing difficulties. This year, with the country already battling a virus epidemic characterised by respiratory difficulties, things could be worse, he said. Amazon cities such as Porto Velho, Rio Branco and Cuiaba could be particularly badly affected, he noted. "Every effort to stop the fire issue will be fundamental," he said, adding that the combination of fire and the virus would be "a disaster".
Azevedo said authorities should ban the use of fire in clearing agricultural land for the duration of the pandemic. But enforcing a burning ban would be challenging. The Brazilian state of Paris is larger than Spain, France and Portugal combined, and has only 10 state environmental inspectors, said the Para secretary of environment. Ibama, the country's environmental enforcement agency, has fewer than 50 agents in the state.
EDIT
Azevedo said another worry is that sales of crawler tractors hit record levels in the first three months of 2020, with more than 200 sold, higher than the previous three years combined, according to the Brazilian association of vehicle manufacturers. The vehicles are a type of miniature bulldozer with tank-like tracks to move over uneven ground. "You use a crawler tractor for two things: civil construction, which is not the case in Brazil at the moment in the middle of an economic crisis, or to deforest," Azevedo said. The surging sales suggest deforestation is set to soar, he said, as the pandemic spreads in the Amazon.
EDIT
https://news.trust.org/item/20200420130944-tmyfy/
