An exaggeration, but after scanning the headlines today, this is how it feels – the world is on fire. A bit close to home right now for me, the amazon burning in Brazil as well as in parts of Peru and Bolivia. Since having my dream the other morning with the “Fire Alert” going off on my phone, I began to watch the headlines, something I have ignored of late. I was a bit shocked to see what is happening, a terrifying result of human ignorance. To lose so much of the rainforest is devastating, affecting us all.
In conversation with a friend here, I was told the rainforest is not actually on fire, just the cleared land. What he said made some sense as the rainforest is in a constant state of moisture, continually creating it’s own rain each day. However when I thought about it after, I understood the severity of what was happening is due to deforestation, so the loss of rainforest is still the key factor. It occurred to me, rather than focus on the fires, we should be focusing on the cause. Perhaps the rainforest is not burning (yet), but the fact that so much of the forest is being destroyed due to humans has to be addressed. That we feel it is better to log for grazing land and crops (probably to feed the cattle) than to ensure the existence of the rainforest can only be explained as idiotic. We have all but destroyed the diverse oceanic life, now some apparently are doing their best to reduce the importance of the rainforest in favor of commerce. From everything I have read over the last few days, the fires are directly related to this way of thinking.
I’m sorry….what is more important than the canopy protecting this diverse ecosystem? While the jobs created provide income, will this be of much import when the rain no longer comes? I think it will be of precious little comfort, when desert replaces the lush forest, and there is no food able to grow for feeding the cattle. Are people really so limited in their thinking process, they cannot look ahead a few years to understand the consequences of actions taken now?
From: Rainforests.mongabay.com. For most of human history, deforestation in the Amazon was primarily the product of subsistence farmers who cut down trees to produce crops for their families and local consumption. But in the later part of the 20th century, that began to change, with an increasing proportion of deforestation driven by industrial activities and large-scale agriculture. By the 2000s more than three-quarters of forest clearing in the Amazon was for cattle-ranching.
The result of this shift is forests in the Amazon were cleared faster than ever before in the late 1970s through the mid 2000s. Vast areas of rainforest were felled for cattle pasture and soy farms, drowned for dams, dug up for minerals, and bulldozed for towns and colonization projects. At the same time, the proliferation of roads opened previously inaccessible forests to settlement by poor farmers, illegal logging, and land speculators.
One of the primary reasons as a vegetarian, I stopped eating tofu was because I became aware of the deforestation happening in the rainforest to clear land for growing soy. When putting that together with the knowledge soy needs to be fermented in order for our bodies to benefit from it, the decision was easy to stay clear of soy products. Supporting an industry which clearly ignores the importance of the forest and all who inhabit it, is foolish at best. Vote with your feet…..
I am not suggesting people eliminate meat from their diet, taking away their personal preference, but consider a compromise, reduction at the very least. When I was growing up, meat was not something we ate at every meal, the Sunday roast was meant to last through most of the week, the portions small. Given the increased rate of obesity and illness over the years, can we not turn to our diet and the significant allowances made to include more meat, dairy and processed foods, to understand the reasons? Our decisions have been the major contributing factor to our health issues, something I address in the story “Natural Healing” from my book “Finding Home” – we are out of balance in our thinking and our behaviour. Again, I find our unwillingness to connect the dots resulting in our inability to see our health and that of our environment as being related, difficult to comprehend. It is our choice to see or not see what is right in front of us, hidden in plain sight. Our choice to hide our heads in the sand rather than seek out information which is separate from the interests of government, is disturbing. Do we have to lose everything, which would also include our lives before we see the road we have been travelling? I’m worried the answer to that question is yes.
I will preface the next partial inclusion from The Guardian, by offering the opinion of someone I met who was from Brazil, while staying in Agato last year. She clarified Bolsonaro becoming President would change everything in her country, not for the better. There was much unrest, and although she did not go into much detail, her discomfort with his leadership was very clear. He had only just taken office when we met, but already she was concerned with the consequences of this man becoming president. Not a very positive beginning. In reading more about him over the last few days, it seems to me the validation for her concerns are apparent as this situation unfolds.
From The Guardian: Marina Silva, Brazil’s former environment minister, told the Guardian it would take more than propaganda and “words in the wind” to solve the Amazonian “environmental emergency” caused by Bolsonaro’s policies.
“Bolsonaro won the election with his anti-environment, anti-human rights and anti-indigenous discourse and on taking office he has transformed these words into deeds,” said Silva, who oversaw a significant reduction in deforestation while minister from 2003 until 2008. “These policies cannot be allowed to prosper.”
Amid a growing chorus of international criticism, Donald Trump came to Bolsonaro’s defense on Friday. “I told him if the United States can help with the Amazon Rainforest fires, we stand ready to assist!” the US president tweeted.
“Our future Trade prospects are very exciting and our relationship is strong, perhaps stronger than ever before,” Trump said.
There are over 75,000 fires burning in Brazil, so anyway you look at this, we could have devastating consequences, possibly irreparable. So rather than squabble over the validity of the photos being shared, diverting our attention, start looking at the reasons behind so many fires. If it is due to deforestation, then it’s time to take a closer look at the companies/countries condoning this action. I noticed Trump was friendly and supportive with Bolsonaro, something of a rarity given how he negotiates with the rest of the world. This makes me wonder just how much of what is happening in Brazil is in the interest of the Trump administration, or maybe just Trump. Not that I pay attention to the man as I find him not worth my time, I do imagine money is behind every decision he makes with no regard for the consequences. Bolsonaro seems to be a man of equal measure, so it is no surprise they are supporting each other over this. Who needs forests, when there is so much profit to be made from them. And who needs environmental policies when there is money to be made once we begin the process of eliminating those protective measures.
Of course everything could turn out reasonably well in the end, my concerns blown out of proportion, but somehow I find this to be right up there with the Maduro mess. Only time will tell how this affects us, one can only hope it is not as bad as it appears right now. We cannot reverse the damage already caused during the last three weeks, nor does it appear can we stop it anytime soon. As this follows the mining disaster, also in Brazil earlier this year, I can only wonder what will change our course, putting us on the right track for a better future.
** one of the headlines which came to my attention during the last few days, in regards to my dream was another story involving a terrible fire. I was not going to open the story to read the details, but the phrase emergency alert warning got my curiosity reading it so soon after waking from my dream. Memories of similar warnings on my phone while living in Canada suddenly giving this dream importance.
The accident causing this fire happened south of Calgary, Alberta on Tuesday, August 20th, the evening before my dream, which occurred the following morning. Two of my children live in Calgary, so my immediate thought, I realized, despite the almost 20 years of separation, was connected to my concern over their safety, triggering the vision or dream. Despite the distance between Calgary and the accident scene, I was aware they easily could have been travelling the road for any number of reasons. It was a bit eerie to connect the dream to an actual event in quick succession.
The ties that bind, between a mother and her children is never broken, no matter the circumstances separating them.
0 Comments