CHAPTER 39: BIODIVERSITY


ACTIVITY 3: COMPREHENSION 1 Read this article and answer the questions that follow.


Bearing Witness as Brazil’s Amazon Burns by Matt Sandy


There were at least 5,442 fires in Rondônia this August, according to statistics from INPE, Brazil’s space agency. That is up from 1,975 last year, echoing an Amazon-wide trend.


Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, a long- time defender of loggers and ranchers, ordered the army to the state after an international outcry over the blazes. August is burning season in the Amazon, where ranchers use the dry weather to prepare land for crops and pasture.


Earlier in the month, the smoke drifted and darkened the afternoon sky in Latin America’s largest city, São Paulo, 1,800 miles to the southeast.


In an area used to environmental destruction, documentary photographer Sebastián Liste says the scale of the fires this year has taken locals and authorities by surprise. ‘Everyone is asking what is going on,’ he says.


The fires are not limited to private land but are also breaking out in protected areas, including the Jacundá National Forest in Rondônia. ‘All the


national parks here are burning,’ Liste goes on. ‘The sky was dark with smoke for many miles down major highways.’


When the fires broke out across the Amazon, a major diplomatic crisis rapidly escalated, isolating the Brazilian president, who faced a global backlash of politicians, celebrities and popular opinion.


Preliminary statistics indicate Amazon deforestation has risen by 70 per cent this year. France threatened to block a trade deal and Norway and Germany halted donations to protect the rainforest.


After his initial bullish response, Bolsonaro changed course. He mobilised the country’s military to tackle the flames and issued a decree banning fires in the Amazon for sixty days.


The news from the ground in Rondônia is less positive: locals say the worst is yet to come.


Adapted from:www.time.com a. How many fires were recorded in 2018 and 2019 and what was the percentage increase?


b. Why are the rainforests being burned?


c. What advantages can burning the forests have for Brazil?


d. Bush fires in Australia have caused extensive damage to forests on the continent. How do you think they have affected the atmosphere of the world?


e. What effect do you think this is having on the biodiversity?


UNIT 10: SUSTAINABILITY


185


BIOLOGICAL WORLD


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