Murder of Amazon Rainforest—Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro—Sue Branford interview—Radio Ecoshock 2019-04-25

In Brazil, their own Donald Trump—newly elected President Jair Bolsonaro—is whipping up land-grabbers in the Amazon rainforest, and encouraging violence. There have been three massacres of native Amazonians in the last few weeks, while environmental laws have been tossed out the window. Here is the latest. Show by Radio Ecoshock, reposted under CC License. Episode details at https://www.ecoshock.org/2019/04/faint-hope-amid-rising-despair.html Stop Fossil Fuels researches and disseminates effective strategies and tactics to halt fossil fuel combustion as fast as possible. Learn more at https://stopfossilfuels.org SHOW DETAILS Climate change threatens to destroy the vast Amazon rainforest of South America. But Brazilians may still do if first. Everything from biodiversity, human rights, to rainfall in Africa is at risk. Let’s go to one of the most experienced correspondents covering the Amazon. Sue Branford became a journalist in Brazil, reporting for the Financial Times and the Economist. She was Latin America editor for the BBC for 15 years, and still returns to Brazil for the Times, the Guardian, and Mongabay. From London, Sue Branford talks with to Radio Ecoshock. --- The debate over land use is particularly fierce in Rondonia. The latest figures published by the government’s Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística), show that, whereas 30 years ago only 2 percent of the state’s forested land had been felled, that has now increased to 28.5 percent, the highest level in any Amazonian state. The main reason: a massive influx of land-hungry families, encouraged by the government, along with the uncontrolled expansion of logging and land clearing for ranching. I have been following the fate of the Amazon for a very long time. Here is a picture of my ticket to a ballet “A Floresta Amazonica” created for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit. I saw it in Rio de Janeiro on June 5, 1992. Was there more concern about the Amazon then than now, even though it continues to disappear? If and when the Amazon converts to grasslands or scrub, weather systems will change all over the world. Sue Branford expresses it beautifully in our interview: “I think the Amazon should be covered more because what happens in the Amazon is going to affect us all in the world. It’s an enormous forest. It covers 2 million square miles—the biggest forest in the world—contains a fifth of the world’s drinking water, and I think really the fate of the planet is going to be decided in the Amazon.” --- Listen to more Radio Ecoshock episodes at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhyuEATzj_iycIweK0VNbIWQLvlkDak87