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THE NUMBER OF forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon so far this year has already surpassed that recorded for all of 2021, according to official figures released today that triggered new alarm for the world’s biggest rainforest.
Satellite monitoring has detected 75,592 fires from 1 January to 18 September this year, already higher than the 75,090 detected for all of last year, according to the Brazilian space agency, INPE.
The latest grim news from the rainforest will likely add to pressure on President Jair Bolsonaro, who is fighting to win reelection next month and faces international criticism over a surge in destruction in the Amazon on his watch.
Since Bolsonaro took office in January 2019, average annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has increased by 75% compared to the previous decade.
Greenpeace Brazil spokesman Andre Freitas called the latest figures a “tragedy foretold”.
“After four years of a clear and objective anti-environmental policy by the federal government, we are seeing that as this government’s term – one of the darkest periods ever for the Brazilian environment – comes to an end, land-grabbers and other illegal actors see it as the perfect opportunity to advance on the forest,” he said in a statement.
Election-year row
This has been a worrying year for the Amazon, a key buffer against global warming.
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon last month was nearly double the figure from August 2021, at 1,661 square kilometres.
And since the burning season began in earnest in August with the arrival of drier weather, the number of fires has soared.
According to INPE figures, there have been multiple days that surpassed the so-called Day of Fire on 10 August 2019, when farmers launched a coordinated plan to burn huge amounts of felled rainforest in the northern state of Para.
Then, fires sent thick gray smoke all the way to Sao Paulo, some 2,500 kilometres away, and triggered a global outcry over images of one of Earth’s most vital resources burning.
Bolsonaro vehemently rejects that criticism, insisting Brazil “protects its forests much better than Europe” and batting away international alarm with the line: “The Amazon belongs to Brazilians, and always will.”
The front-runner vying to unseat him in next month’s presidential elections, leftist ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has vowed to do a better job protecting the Amazon.
Deforestation in Brazil’s 60% share of the Amazon basin fell sharply under Lula, from nearly 28,000 square kilometres in 2004 to 7,000 in 2010.
Still, he has faced criticism from environmentalists for his own track record, which notably included the controversial decision to build the massive Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in the Amazon.
And the highest number of fires ever recorded in the Brazilian Amazon by INPE, whose records go back to 1998, was on his watch: 218,637, in 2004.
Amazing when applying for mortgage judt ticking one box either costs you or saves you for next 30 years.
Keep it where it is Mario – Those on Variable Mortgages like myself really are shafted otherwise – every time the ECB rate drops the AIB hikes up my Variable – ‘Sorry we have to in order to offset all those Trackers we agreed to’. I wonder will they be kind enough to keep the Variable where it is when the ECB rate does eventually rise ?!?! PS – begrudging admiration to those of you who chose Tracker Mortgages :)
Tracker mortgages were another disgraceful banking product promoted by the banks. The banks are now screwing variable rate mortgage customers with rates that are way above the ECB rate and did not reduce rates for these customers when the ECB did. What did our Government do about this, nothing as usual. The banks should be legally required to reduce rates when the ECB reduces rates and the banks should bear the loss on tracker mortgages, I would suggest it come out of their bonus pot for the next 100 years.
Why would the ECB act.
Inflation is rock bottom, growth is rock bottom, the Euro is overly strong crushing exports for many. Deflation threatens to turn into a tsunami.
Germany whistles, the ECB runs and barks and the rest of Europe can go hang.
Maybe you should leave the Eurozone, Ukraine is looking pretty good right now
Switzerland, Norway, Sweden & Denmark look all right. Britain doesn’t seem too bad either. Or are only comparisons to non-Eurozone countries currently in the throes of devastating civil wars due to community tensions, and in no way linked to their currencies, considered valid?
Before the Euro the interest rate for home loans stood at around 10% for the previous thirty years.
I wonder what the interest for punts would be now. Our problem is not the Euro it’s the political class that turned private capital losses into Government debt then continued by the next lot.
And do you think 10% was too high (ignoring interest rate spikes in the 80s)? What about in the early 2000s, would you say the low interest rates we enjoyed then were good or bad for our overheating economy?
Certainly not all of our problems have been caused by the Euro, but quite a few have and more will continue to be. The Euro was a bad idea, poorly executed. It might well work successfully down the road, but at present it is not fit for purpose. That said we’re in to deep to withdraw now, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t start putting plans in place now for an orderly succession from the EMU when the time is right.
Before the Euro, the continent of Europe had an economic future and the ability of its constituent states to adjust in line with normal business practice. That is gone and unemployment is now a serious problem.
We are now growing again, most of Europe has no meaningful growth and the EU itself predicts no strong growth this decade.
A Europe together was a great idea, ultimately destroyed by the rush to a single currency.
Britain doesn’t seem too bad either”
– U obviously have not been following UK economy closely . UK is in debt – big time .
Yes, the UK does have a very large national debt, as does the US who I believe are currently debating raising their debt ceiling to “eye watering.” But have you not noticed how little they seem to really care, or how much less of an impact these debt levels are having on their societies than our debt is having on us? Both the US & UK have been printing money hand over fist regularly for the past few years now; high debt levels are not such a big problem when default by devaluation remains an option, and it would be an (less viable) option for Ireland if we still controlled our printing presses too.
Always felt the real problem of the property boom was the banks were allowed to abandon a lending policy for home loans linked to wages. Only allowed to borrow 2and1/2 times your salary, this more or less kept home prices linked to wages.
But low interest rates hit bank cash margins and they threw money into the system by lending by value. The Gov are there to generally think society but that generation of ministers, bankers and top civil servants were complete A€&Holes in every sense, then to cap it all they refused to tell Germany, French, English, American banks that their investments can go up or down.
It over simplification but generally that’s what happened. Stupidity and cowardice.
I don’t think the problem was the Euro, the boom started when banks were allowed to stop lending linked to wages, that automatically restricts borrowing and started lending by perceived value. Then they just threw money into the system and were encouraged by a generation of ministers, bankers, regulators who were A€&holes. Then when it imploded the Developers bank had to be saved, of course the same ministers then were too cowardly to explain to French, German English and Americans investors that their investments sometimes fall as well as rise.
Low interest from the Euro is fine you can control lending other ways but our top men were too stupid and cowardly to have that difficult chat but prefer to shift the pain to the little people.
It’s a bit simple but that’s pretty much what happened.
My rate is 0.75 now – another cut would hardly make any difference. €15 tops. Keep it Mario ;)
Thanks rub it In for us variables gettin rode
I have a Tracker as my main mortgage and a small Variable as a topup. The increases on the variable loan over the past few years have pretty much wiped out the benefit of the low tracker rates. Very glad my main mortgage isn’t a variable.
Dont you think Mario looks like a Mafiosa? Would you trust a face like that?
Only his mother
Feck ya Mario!
I don’t know what a tracker mortgage is.
This is a good thing isn’t it?
It is if you have a problems with economic growth or are in zane
Who’s Zane?
Zane must be the strange world where most of those bamkers live. The rest of us are doomed to live in the real world.
Good for variable rate mortgage holders like me anyway.
“Ahh and I thought that they’d cut it by a few percent”
The ECB rate is at feckin 0.25%.
It’s virtually fcuking zero.
They’d have to go into the minuses to make any substantial decrease.
Draghi is looking a bit worse for wear.
Those big jaundiced bags under his eyes.
Ohh the virtues of money Mario.
As another poster said Fuc* You Mario
the banks will still get their money at near 0 % – and lend it out at whatever they wish .
That’s handy after they have f#cked up this and other economies .
Draghi is just another banker gangster. The idea that he has anyone’s interest at heart – except his own and banks is ridiculous . .
have your say