Amazon loses area of ​​rainforest the size of London in a month with Bolsonaro’s rule threatened | the Amazon forest

Deforestation in the Amazon has soared ahead of Brazil’s vital environmental presidential election, with an area almost the size of Greater London lost just last month.

Government satellites show 1,455 sq km of rainforest was destroyed in September as environmental criminals raced to destroy the area before a possible change of president leads to Jair BolsonaroThe era of destruction is coming to an end.

The climate observatory said the figure was up 47.7% from last September and on par with the destruction in September 2019, the first year of Bolsonaro’s far-right administration. august saw an increase of 81% in deforestation.

The number of fires in the Amazon has increased by 147% compared to September 2021, with more than 41,000 fires detected by satellites.

“This is a very dangerous moment,” warned Marcio Astrini, director general of the Climate Observatory. “The Bolsonaro government is a machine for destroying forests.”

Astrini said Friday’s grim figures revealed how criminal syndicates of illegal loggers and ranchers were scrambling to clean up the rainforest before Bolsonaro was ousted from power in the second round of Brazil’s presidential election on October 30. . Bolsonaro lost the first round on Sunday to his leftist rivalformer President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, but received more votes than polls predicted.

“They can see their president could lose the election, so they’re taking advantage of this last stretch of Bolsonaro to tear down whatever they can,” Astrini said.

Deforestation has soared under Bolsonaro, a pro-development nationalist who has cut environmental regulations, weakened government agencies tasked with protecting the Amazon and encouraged the invasion of indigenous lands.

More than 2 billion trees have been killed in the past four years, the Amazon Sumaúma newsletter reported last month, as well as up to 3.8 million monkeys and 89.9 million birds that may have been killed, injured or otherwise affected.

Violence against indigenous communities and environmentalists has also increased, a reality laid bare by the killings of Guardian contributor Dom Phillips and Brazilian activist Bruno Pereira in June.

Astrini said defeating Bolsonaro was critical to efforts to slow that destruction and protect the global climate, given the Amazon’s crucial role as a carbon sink. “Whether [this government] given another four years, the future of the Amazon will be uncertain,” he said, noting that 2022 had already seen 4% more deforestation than 2021 – and there were still three months to go.

“What’s at stake here is either we keep hoping the Amazon can be saved from collapsing — or we hand it over to environmental criminals forever,” Astrini said.

Lula, who succeeded in reducing the destruction of the Amazon during his tenure from 2003 to 2010, has sworn reinvigorate protection efforts, eradicate illegal gold mining and create a Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, if elected.

In August, the veteran left-winger told foreign reporters he would make the climate crisis “a top priority”, although critics say Lula was far from an environmental saint given its construction of the Belo Monte mega-dam.

Reports in Brazilian media suggest that if he defeats Bolsonaro, Lula will immediately convene a climate summit in a bid to restore Brazil’s international credibility, shattered, like the Amazon, during Bolsonaro’s four years in power.