According to the Wiki on Amazon Rainforest: “In 2018 about 17% of the Amazon Rainforest was already destroyed. Research suggests that upon reaching about 20-25% (hence 3-8% more), the tipping point to flip it into non-forest ecosystems – degraded savannah – (in eastern, southern and central Amazonia) will be reached.” Given 3 recent century scale droughts in the Amazon Rainforest in 2005, 2010, and 2015-2016, and slash-and-burn human practices accelerating again, we are quite literally playing with fire in a game we cannot win.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has demanded an apology from French President Emmanuel Macron before accepting more than 20 million U.S. dollars in international aid to help fight fires in the Amazon rainforest. The political spat is escalating between the two leaders as 43-thousand Brazilian troops join the firefight.
So-called “World leaders” have demonstrated massive ignorance and sustained incompetence in coming to any effective global solution to limit carbon emissions and reduce the impact of coming climate change.
The question now is simple: Can global citizens & the world’s children educate these so-called “leaders” fast enough about what the human community is facing as these figures continue to dither, sputter and prance about on the world stage?
What are likely to be the consequences for human survival if global citizens and the next generation of youth cannot educate and motivate these so-called “leaders” in the very near future?
Indonesia announced plans Monday to relocate its capital city from Jakarta to the island of Borneo. Jakarta, which is home to over 30 million people, has been steadily sinking into the Java Sea, and a study found that over a quarter of the city will be under water within the next 10 years. Excessive extraction of groundwater and poorly managed environmental policies have led to Jakarta’s surface water becoming polluted and unfit for consumption. Rising sea levels from climate change further compound the issue. This is Indonesian President Joko Widodo announcing the plans.
President Joko Widodo: “The ideal location for the new capital is part of it in North Penajam Paser and part of it in Kutai Kartanegara in East Kalimantan province. … The place has minimum risk of natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, forest fires, volcanoes and landslides. Secondly, the location is strategic, as it’s located in the center of Indonesia. And thirdly, it’s close to other developed cities.”
Moving the country’s political center will cost an estimated $33 billion in construction and infrastructure projects. It’s not clear what will happen to the millions of Jakarta residents at risk of losing their homes and livelihoods as the city is submerged in coming years. Conservationists also warn the plan could threaten Borneo’s tropical rainforests if efforts aren’t made to respect protected areas and the area becomes overdeveloped.
In Brazil, federal prosecutors from the state of Pará have launched an investigation after revealing they warned the Brazilian Environment Ministry that agriculturalists were planning a “fire day” in the Amazon but government authorities did nothing to stop it. One farmer told a local news site they were planning the action to send a message to President Jair Bolsonaro that the only way they could work was to clear the land by cutting down and burning trees. Some environment officials say they requested help from the central government once they learned of the plan, but that they were ignored. Public outrage over the record-breaking Amazon fires has focused on Bolsonaro’s anti-environmental policies and his support for agribusiness, logging and mining.
Brazil is rejecting a pledge by G7 nations to provide $22 million to help combat the raging Amazon wildfires. On Monday, Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro accused French President Emmanuel Macron and other G7 world leaders of treating Brazil like a “colony or no-man’s land.” Bolsonaro’s chief of staff suggested the funds could be used for reforesting in Europe instead. He also said Macron had no place intervening after he failed to prevent a destructive fire earlier this year that burned down a large part of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. Many have called out the G7 for not putting nearly enough resources toward the mounting disaster, with some noting that $1 billion was raised within just two days of the Notre-Dame Cathedral fire.
The dispute between Presidents Bolsonaro and Macron took a personal turn after Bolsonaro commented on an image posted by a supporter on Facebook, suggesting Macron was jealous of Bolsonaro because his wife is 30 years younger than French first lady Brigitte Macron. Bolsonaro’s comment expressed amusement and read, “Do not embarrass the guy.” President Macron called the comment “incredibly disrespectful.”
See also report from “The World – PRI” – 27 August 2019
Amid growing global condemnation, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro said on Friday he may mobilize the army to help combat a record number of fires sweeping through the Amazon rainforest.
The Trump administration said it was “deeply concerned” about the wildfires and European leaders ratcheted up criticism of Brazil’s handling of the crisis, which now looks set to be discussed at a summit of G7 leaders in France this weekend.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s office went so far as to accuse Bolsonaro of lying when he downplayed concerns over climate change at the G20 summit in June, and said that France would now oppose the farming deal struck in June between the European Union and the Mercosur countries of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
Stung by the international outcry, Brazil distributed a 12-page circular, exclusively seen by Reuters, to foreign embassies, outlining data and statistics defending the government’s reputation on the environment.
Having first dismissed the fires as natural, then blaming nongovernmental organizations without evidence for lighting them, Bolsonaro struck a more serious note on Friday, saying he would summon top cabinet members to tailor a response.
Asked by reporters in Brasília if he would send in the army, he said, “That is the expectation.”
A government spokesman in Germany called the wildfires “shocking and threatening, not only for Brazil.”
The World’s Marco Werman spoke to Oliver Stuenkel, a professor at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation in São Paulo, about the global and Brazilian reactions to the fires.
Climate activists hold upside down official portraits of French President Emmanuel Macron stolen from town halls throughout France during a march in Bayonne, near Biarritz, as part of the G7 summit, France, Aug. 25, 2019.
As the three-day G7 summit wrapped up in the town of Biarritz in southwestern France on Aug. 26, French President Emmanuel Macron declared success as he stood next to US President Donald Trump and said the gathering was productive and efficient. Meanwhile, French protesters in the neighboring town of Bayonne carried hundreds of official portraits of Macron turned upside down in protest against his climate change policies.
Nearly 130 portraits had been stolen from various town halls around France.
The unusual protest tactics were part of larger protests in Bayonne, during which French riot police used water cannons and tear gas on Aug. 24 to disperse anti-capitalism protesters.
A police helicopter circled as dozens of protesters, some hurling stones, shouted slogans and abuse at the lines of police in the Basque town’s historic center.
Anne-Sophie Trujillo is an activist with the nonprofit ANV-COP 21 that helped organize the portrait protests near the G7 summit this weekend. They believe President Macron is guilty of inaction on climate change. “With this march our aim was to demonstrate that pictures of our President Emmanuel Macron are far from the reality in terms of climate change here in France,” said Trujillo.
As the three-day G7 summit wrapped up in the town of Biarritz in southwestern France on Aug. 26, French President Emmanuel Macron declared success as he stood next to US President Donald Trump and said the gathering was productive and efficient. Meanwhile, French protesters in the neighboring town of Bayonne carried hundreds of official portraits of Macron turned upside down in protest against his climate change policies.
Nearly 130 portraits had been stolen from various town halls around France.
The unusual protest tactics were part of larger protests in Bayonne, during which French riot police used water cannons and tear gas on Aug. 24 to disperse anti-capitalism protesters.
A police helicopter circled as dozens of protesters, some hurling stones, shouted slogans and abuse at the lines of police in the Basque town’s historic center.
Anne-Sophie Trujillo is an activist with the nonprofit ANV-COP 21 that helped organize the portrait protests near the G7 summit this weekend. They believe President Macron is guilty of inaction on climate change. “With this march our aim was to demonstrate that pictures of our President Emmanuel Macron are far from the reality in terms of climate change here in France,” said Trujillo.
From the left, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, U.S President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the G-7 summit in France on Monday Aug. 26 2019. (Ian Langsdon/Pool via AP)
Behind the photographs of smiling world leaders, there was plenty of tension at the G-7 summit in France on Monday. Trade, diplomacy with Iran, the impending Brexit and more issues exposed rifts among the world’s richest democracies. We look at the global economy and geopolitics of the alliance.
Eswar Prasad, professor of trade policy at Cornell University. Senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. (@EswarSPrasad)
John Kornblum, senior counselor to the international law firm Noerr LLP and former U.S. diplomat with a focus on Russia and Europe, dating back to the Nixon administration. Former assistant secretary of state for European affairs, ambassador to Germany and NATO and U.S. minister and deputy commandant of forces in divided Berlin.
Seminal climate scientist Michael Mann, who was the target of a Koch-funded smear, explains how the Koch Brothers “almost single-handedly stymied climate action for decades.”
Welcome to Transition Studies. To prosper for very much longer on the changing Earth humankind will need to move beyond its current fossil-fueled civilization toward one that is sustained on recycled materials and renewable energy. This is not a trivial shift. It will require a major transition in all aspects of our lives.
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