02-13 The Amazon Rainforest

The world’s largest rainforest and largest river. Providing 20% of the world’s oxygen. Under attack from natural and unnatural forest fires, illegal logging and deforestation.

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There are something like 390 billion trees in Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest. And each year about 7 billion trees are cut down. It is an enormous area the size of India that is part of eight neighboring nations.
And the Amazon River is something like 6400 km long and is the largest drainage system in the world. It is a river system that nurtures 50% of the world’s animals, insects and plants.
Not sure I would want to holiday in the Amazon. Not crazy about the piranha fish that can strip the flesh off an animal in minutes. Or those monster Green Anaconda snakes that are nine meters long.
A lifetime chum was the Canadian Trade Commissioner in Rio de Janeiro. He embarked on an extensive trip through the Amazon and was told to shuffle when walking through the forest. Get your toes under the snakes. They won’t bite and kill you as long as you do not step on them.
In a nation like Brazil, it is not hard to appreciate that a lot of logging and mining in the Amazon is illegal. And that deforestation for raising cattle is out of control.
Today, there is an explosion of forest fires that are a product of a warming, drying and windy climate. It is all about climate change.
Listening to President Jair Bolsonaro at the UN defend Brazil, he gives the impression of being a spokesman for those with financial interests in the Amazon.
His right wing nationalism is offensive. The Amazon Rainforest impacts the world. And for the political leadership of Brazil to ignore that reality puts Brazil in conflict with all the developed nations.
During two extensive visits to Brazil in 1989 and 1998, I was struck by the combination of beauty and danger. We were told to not even trust the taxis in Rio de Janeiro and to never travel around the city alone. Stick with your tour group. We could not even carry a camera.
However in terms of beauty. Is there anything more spectacular than the “Christ the Redeemer” statue? Or those famous beaches: The Copacabana and the Ipanema.
What I remember most from our visits was the extent of the mystery surrounding the Amazon Rainforest. Something like 25% of all pharmaceuticals are linked to discoveries from the Amazon. It is just a beginning. Protecting this area, supporting reforestation, is the world’s business.