The Amazon Rainforest
preserves forests, protect the climate and upholds human rights
Introduction
With the world’s increasing temperature, the issues of climate change draw more and more attention from the public and threaten the presence and future of the human fate. The Amazon Rainforest, the largest tropical rainforest in the world, is one of our greatest buffers against the climate crisis since the trees can absorb carbon dioxide, thus keeping it out of the atmosphere. However, deforestation threatens all of that. According to the World Wildlife Fund, the forests have been cut down nearly 20% in the last 50 years. If another 20% of the Amazon disappears, it would trigger a "dieback" scenario in which the forest would dry out and become a savannah. That process would release billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and raise global temperatures.
Content
The organization in advocating and helping to preserve the rainforest is called Rainforest Action Networks (RAN). This organization is a global network that preserves the forest, protect the climate, and promote human rights. They support and work closely with frontline communities and take actions against the companies and industries driving deforestation and climate change by challenging corporate power and systemic injustice through frontline partnerships and strategic campaigns.
The RAN was first founded by Randy Hazen and Mike Rozelle who wanted to create an opportunity for a small group of people to make a hugely outsized influence on the planet. This organization has been engaging in making an effort to fight for the environment and human rights for over 30years. They have been holding campaigns with big companies like Home Depot, Bank of America, CitiBank, Chevron, and A&F. These successful campaigns would show the strong determination and commitment of RAN which is to create a world where the rights and dignity of all communities are respected and where healthy forests, a stable climate, and wild biodiversity are protected and celebrated.
Not only the RAN focuses on preserving the forests, but they also support and uphold the human rights of the indigenous people living in the Amazon Rainforest. Programs such as Protect-An-Arc (PAA) has distributed one million dollars to more than 150 frontline communities and indigenous-led organizations, helping their efforts to secure protection for traditional territory in forests around the world.
The RAN is a global organization that targets the big issues and companies destroying the rainforests. Therefore, the intended audience of this organization is everyone on this planet. Under such cultural globalization and huge world trade, no community or firms are not responsible for the destruction of the rainforest, even though we might not be aware of this fact.
"Burn the Forest if you will, but you will only scorch your lungs." -- Anthony T. Hincks
Stories from the Indigenous People
The History of Exploitation of the Rainforest
The “tradition” of exploitation of the Amazon Rainforest didn’t just happen in one day. The over-exploitation and deforestation are practiced and processed through space and scale. It could be traced throughout history. For example, during the colonial period, Brazil's military dictatorship expanded its ambitious colonization program centered around the construction of the 2,000-mile Trans-Amazonian Highway, which would bisect the Amazon, opening rainforest lands to settlement by poor farmers from the crowded, and enabling the exploitation of timber and mineral resources. Under the program, colonists would be granted a 250-acre lot, six-months' salary, and easy access to agricultural loans in exchange for settling along the highway and converting the surrounding rainforest into agricultural land. Even though Brazil’s colonial period ended, the legacy of the colonization, Trans-Amazonian Highway, continue to impact the destruction of the forest and increase the exploitation speed of the Amazon Forest. The image below shows the Trans-Amazonian Highway, and from its size, we could obviously see how much forest was cut down because of it, and how ironic that the purpose of the highway is to further and more effectively destroy the forest.
Trans-Amazonian Highway
Brazil’s government’s allowance for the exploitation of the Amazon Forest could also link back to the history it has. One concept applied to this condition is the developmentalism mentioned in Jone Reece’s Violent Border. The term argues that in order for a poor country to “transition into the industrialized world,” the sacrifices are necessary, and it’s also necessary for them to take the “same steps to development that Europe took in the past” (Jones, 136). Therefore, it is not surprising to see that Brazil was taking Europe’s path to gain profit and benefits, in the cost of the forest and climate change.
Working with Indigenous Group
The exploitation of the Amazon Forest also brought many issues regarding to human rights. For example, RAN has a program of Protect An Arc (PAA) that seeks to provide rainforest protection by buying tracts of land. The picture above shows that RAN is working with indigenous people protesting for their land. However, sometimes, those programs fail to address the priorities and rights of local Indigenous peoples. It is not uncommon for loggers, oil and gas companies, cattle ranchers and miners to illegally extract resources from areas “protected” by these programs. As RAN mentioned the importance of keeping the environment protected, the indigenous people’s way of life depends upon the health of their environment. Recent studies add to the growing body of evidence that Indigenous peoples are better protectors of their forests than governments or industry. However, they still receive many mistreatments and neglect, as “the recognition of aboriginal land rights has received little political attention” ( (Fairweather, 3).
The Rainforest and Climate under Globalization
According to the RAN, the coal industries and other companies contributing to the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest are bankrolled by wall street. Nine major US and European banks are financing these industries in order to gain profit. However, as RAN and its alliance pressure these banks and financial institutions, the major banks were adopted broad-based commitments to reduce financing in the coal industry.
In the world nowadays, the local destruction of the Amazon Forest is interrelated with the rest of the globe. The destructions of the forest become more and more systematic and global related. More and more people around the world see the opportunities and profit hidden under these trees, so more and more money would then flow into the industry to further promote such bad behavior. Just like what Amitav Ghosh mentioned in his book The Great Derangement that “Money flows toward short term gain, and toward the over-exploitation of unregulated common resources. These tendencies are like the invisible hand of fate, guiding the hero in a Greek tragedy toward his inevitable doom” (Ghosh 111). This short-sighted investment and profit draw and attracts investors and banks all around the globe to come to exploit the “unregulated common resources.
The map shows the wealth of the European countries and the wealth inequality generated through the history of colonization. It is because of the investment from Europe and America that the speed of exploitation of the Amazon Forest is increasing.
What these investors don’t consider is climate change and damage that deforestation brought to earth. The map on the right shows the coal mining area in the Amazon Forest. With the data and extent of the tree loss in the area, it is obvious to see the amount the carbon dioxide released into the globe, causing climate change. Coal mining and forest operations not only have serious consequences for the climate, but many also violate fundamental human rights.These violations include forced resettlement, contaminating critical drinking water supplies, destroying the livelihoods that support communities, or responding to peaceful protests against environmental damage with violence. Moreover, the global climate crisis is evolving into a human rights crisis, with tens of millions of people around the world already facing impacts from drought, storms and rising sea levels. Cities such as Mumbai, as Ghosh mentioned, are already experiencing such conditions. The climate change is indeed influencing his family’s lives as he is concerned with his mother’s health condition when there is a flood coming and medical support is in short.
Therefore, climate change influenced by the deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest is already influencing the whole global community. Everyone in this global community should take responsibility to lower the release of carbon dioxide. There shouldn’t be blamed for “other countries,” and makes themselves out of responsibility. Like what Morrissey said that the territoriality was to “a powerful register of difference, ignorance, fear, and hate” as well as “separate us from them” (Imaginative Geographies and Geopolitics; Morrissey, 84). Therefore, we shouldn’t separate us from them in this issue because we have the same responsibility and live on the same earth.
Current Events
The destruction of the Amazon rain forest in Brazil has increased rapidly since the nation’s new far-right president took over and his government scaled back efforts to fight illegal logging, ranching, and mining. With the election of President Jair Bolsonaro, a populist who has been violating environmental regulations, Brazil has changed course substantially, retreating from the efforts it once made to slow global warming by preserving the world’s largest rain forest.
President Jair Bolsonaro
“The Amazon is ours, not yours.” as he told a journalist, and he also dismisses the new data on deforestation, calling his government’s figures “lies.” This president obviously ignores the sense of global that the amazon belongs to the whole global community.
Conclusion
The Amazon Rainforest nowadays are still experiencing exploitation. As the lungs of the planet, the Amazon Rainforest is critical in our ecosystems as it almost produces up to 20% of the oxygens in the world. Therefore, we should take the responsibility to protect ourselves, and protect our future generations. Together, we can preserve the rainforest, protest the climate and uphold human rights; Together, we can make a huge impact.
Credit
Morrissey, John, et al. Key Concepts in Historical Geography. Sage Publications, 2014.
Jones, Reece. Violent Borders: Refugees and the Right to Move. New York: Verso Books, 2016.
Ghosh, Amitav. The Great Derangement : Climate Change and the Unthinkable, 2016.
Amazon Destruction https://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/amazon_destruction.html
Earth is a spaceship, and the Amazon is a crucial part of our life-support system https://www.businessinsider.com/why-amazon-rainforest-is-important-life-support-is-burning-2019-8
Under Brazil’s Far-Right Leader, Amazon Protections Slashed and Forests Fall https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/28/world/americas/brazil-deforestation-amazon-bolsonaro.html
RAN30: 30 Years of Rainforest Action Network https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlNuOytF3RQ
