A growing number of Indigenous communities in Central and South America are harnessing the power of high-resolution satellite imagery, sophisticated drone equipment, and the latest smart-phone technology to precisely document and act on threats to their lands such as fires, gold-mining, logging, and deforestation for agriculture.
But it’s not without its risks: community forest monitors have had their lives threatened.
Rainforest Alert explores the groundbreaking research linking community-based monitoring and forest protection from the Eden de la Frontera community in the Peruvian Amazon.
I have been watching the images of fires burning in the Amazon with horror. Not only are trees that are hundreds of years old burning, and the animals that live in them, but the forest homes of the Indigenous people are burning, too.
Losing parts of the Amazon rainforest affects the whole planet. The Amazon rainforest is one of the most unique, bio-diverse ecosystems on the planet, and it absorbs large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, something that helps reduce climate change. So, when we lose parts of the forest we lose something that helps sustain our planet. The fires burning in the Amazon are not due to climate change.
The fires are being started by people who want to clear the forest so they can grow soy and raise cattle. And these people are emboldened by the President of Brazil, who wants the forest to be cleared to increase economic activity. He said he wants to weaken the rights of Indigenous people who live in the forest and he wants to reduce the amount of their land.
The choices we make can make a difference. It’s not enough to be outraged at the loss of the forest and the cruelty to the Indigenous people. But reducing the amount of beef that we consume we will reduce the incentive to burn forest land. And, it turns out, reducing our consumption of beef will also dramatically help reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which will make a huge impact on climate change.
By making smart decisions and changing our lifestyles we will be able to look our kids in the eyes and say that we are doing everything we can to help pass on a healthy planet. And we will be supporting Indigenous people who are asking for our help. I am compelled to walk upon this Earth more gently and I hope you will join me, too.
Jean-Michel Cousteau, President, Ocean Futures Society
Fires burning across the Amazon rainforest have renewed the debate about solutions to climate change. Bill Gates is backing the first high-altitude experiment of one radical approach called solar geoengineering. It’s meant to mimic the effects of a giant volcanic eruption. Thousands of planes would fly at high altitudes, spraying millions of tons of particles around the planet to create a massive chemical cloud that would cool the surface.
“Modeling studies have found that it could reduce the intensity of heat waves, for instance, apparently it could reduce the rate of sea level rise. It could reduce the intensity of tropical storms,” said Andy Parker, project director at the Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative.
The technology is not far from being ready and it’s affordable, but it could cause massive changes in regional weather patterns and eradicate blue sky.
“These consequences might be horrific. They might involve things like mass famine, mass flooding, drought of kinds that will affect very large populations,” said Stephen Gardiner, author of “A Perfect Moral Storm: The Ethical Tragedy of Climate Change.”
