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Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon Alamy Stock Photo

Area more than six times the size of Manhattan destroyed in Brazilian Amazon in January

Deforestation levels in the Brazilian Amazon hit a new record for January.

DEFORESTATION IN THE Brazilian Amazon set a new record for January just three weeks into the year, according to data released today, a worrying sign of the surging destruction of the world’s biggest rainforest.

Nearly 360 square kilometres of forest cover – an area more than six times the size of Manhattan – were destroyed in the Brazilian Amazon from 1 January to 21 January, said Brazil’s national space research institute, INPE.

With 10 days to go in the month, the figure was already the worst for January since the institute launched its DETER satellite monitoring program in 2015.

Environmentalists said that translated into a high risk that 2022 would be another devastating year for the Brazilian Amazon, where deforestation has surged since far-right President Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019.

“A number that high in January, which is the peak of the rainy season” – when deforestation usually falls – “certainly demands attention and leaves us extremely worried,” said Claudio Angelo of the Climate Observatory, a network of environmental groups.

“We’ll have to see how the coming months go, but it’s definitely not a good sign.”

By comparison, deforestation for January 2021 was 83 square kilometres – less than one-fourth the figure for the first 21 days of January 2022.

Last year was nevertheless a terrible year for Brazil’s 60% share of the Amazon. The amount of forest cover lost during INPE’s reference period, from August 2020 to July 2021, surged almost 22% year-on-year, to a 15-year high of 13,235 square kilometres.

It was the third straight increase under Bolsonaro, who has pushed to open protected rainforest lands to agribusiness and mining.

Bolsonaro has faced international outcry over the surging destruction of the Amazon, a key resource in the race to curb climate change.

The Climate Observatory revealed yesterday that Brazil’s main environmental protection agency, Ibama, had spent just 41% of its enforcement budget in 2021.

 © AFP 2022

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    Mute Munster1
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    Feb 2nd 2022, 10:12 PM

    Destroyed for farms so they can sell Europe and the world cheap meat.

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    Mute DERRY1973
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    Feb 2nd 2022, 10:18 PM

    @Munster1: soya bean more like.

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    Mute john smith iv
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    Feb 2nd 2022, 10:35 PM

    @Munster1: if that is happening (I’m sure that the EU is mostly sufficient in beef) then get on to your MEP to ban it.

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    Mute Monty Donotno
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    Feb 2nd 2022, 11:42 PM

    @Munster1: more like destroyed for soya bean so they can sell Europe and the world cheap feed for producing meat and milk in their own countries while their governments pretend to care.

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    Mute Bitcoin Buddy
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    Feb 2nd 2022, 10:23 PM

    IMF / ECB / WEF Wanting Ireland to slow down meat production while backhanding SA deforestation for cheaper meat.

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    Mute Reg
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    Feb 2nd 2022, 10:32 PM

    Depressing.

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    Mute Andy mc Laughlin
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    Feb 2nd 2022, 10:51 PM

    I am by no means a tree hugger but you would have to be deluded to think that this isn’t a bad thing.

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    Mute Chief
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    Feb 2nd 2022, 10:23 PM

    Oh, Manhattan eh. Just down the road from almost none of us.

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    Mute David Duffy
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    Feb 3rd 2022, 12:57 AM

    @Chief: do you not normally measure your rainforests in Manhattan’s?

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    Mute Fachtna Roe
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    Feb 3rd 2022, 9:15 AM

    @Chief: 6 * Manhattan =~ (3 * Dublin) + (1 * Athlone)

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    Mute David Geraghty
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    Feb 2nd 2022, 10:24 PM

    Is there nowhere with an area six times the size of Manhattan that could have been referred to in the title. Or I don’t know, just say the specific figure

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    Mute Ixtrix Net
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    Feb 2nd 2022, 11:20 PM

    @David Geraghty:
    A little larger than Grenada, or a little smaller than Mayotte. It says nearly 360km² in the article

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    Mute SPQH
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    Feb 2nd 2022, 11:42 PM

    @David Geraghty: Manhattan is now a measurement of area since our stupid obsession with all things NY and the sheer amount of times Hollywood shove it down our throats as the default way a city should look, anything that’s ever happened that’s of any interest has happened in NY and your life is just bleak if you’re beyond bridge and tunnel, unless you’re from LA of course. Isle of Man is about 6 Manhattans.

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    Mute John Johnes
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    Feb 2nd 2022, 10:23 PM

    A great reason for our gov to tax Irish citizen.

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    Mute Alan Biddulph
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    Feb 3rd 2022, 8:17 AM

    @John Johnes: John I doubt you pay much tax if your intellect and comments on here are anything to go pay.

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    Mute Alan Biddulph
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    Feb 3rd 2022, 8:21 AM

    @Alan Biddulph: By*

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    Mute Tom Gahan
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    Feb 3rd 2022, 6:33 PM

    @John Johnes: Yes indeed and put a bag of coal or a fill of heating oil to unaffordable heights.

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    Mute andrew
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    Feb 2nd 2022, 10:50 PM

    Absolutely dreadful and Bolsonaro is a right piece of work neglecting the Amazon rainforest and the indegenous people

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    Mute Hear me now
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    Feb 2nd 2022, 11:09 PM

    Handed paradise & what do we do…

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    Mute Fachtna Roe
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    Feb 3rd 2022, 9:24 AM

    @Hear me now: Lose it, and write poetry about it?

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    Mute SandraMeyler
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    Feb 3rd 2022, 7:22 AM

    Send Eamon Ryan there for a few years
    He will sort it

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    Mute Alan Biddulph
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    Feb 3rd 2022, 8:14 AM

    @SandraMeyler: Good one Sandra! At least your recycled joke is renewable.

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    Mute Will
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    Feb 3rd 2022, 12:35 PM

    For some perspective, over 60% of Brazil is covered in forest. The figure for Ireland is 12% and that has decreased slightly in the last 20 years.
    When we plant forest we tend to plant non native spruce and the like. This acidifies the soil and leads to a dead forest with little or no biodiversity. We plant for purely commercial reasons. Easy to point the finger at Brazil and tut.
    When you look at Brazils fast increasing population it is no wonder it leads to deforestation on a grand scale. Populists like Bolsonaro aren’t going to stand in the way when there’s money to be made. This leads to jobs which leads to votes. It’s a no brainer for him. Would our lot be any different given the circumstances?

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    Mute Michael Dowling
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    Feb 3rd 2022, 12:47 PM

    This is where the greens should be lobbying not taxing the Irish.

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    Mute Liam Mc Meel
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    Feb 3rd 2022, 12:06 AM

    Make a nice theme park out if that stretch of land

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