Brazil sets ‘concerning’ new deforestation record in Amazon

According to government statistics, Brazil reached a new low for Amazon deforestation in the first three months of 2022, compared to the same period the previous year, causing anxiety and warnings from environmentalists.

According to statistics from the Brazilian satellite agency Inpe, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon increased by 64 percent from a year earlier to 941 square kilometers (363 square miles).

That region, which is larger than New York City, has experienced the greatest loss of forest cover since the data series began in 2015.

Since President Jair Bolsonaro entered office in 2019, deforestation of the world’s biggest rainforest has increased, and environmental regulations have been removed on the grounds that they impede economic development and thereby poverty reduction in the Amazon area.

Governments are not doing enough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the worst impacts of global warming, according to a UN climate panel assessment released on Monday.

While fossil fuel consumption is mostly to blame, deforestation is responsible for around 10% of global emissions, according to the paper.

“Brazil is an example of what the UN climate report says when it says governments aren’t taking the essential steps,” said Cristiane Mazzetti, a Greenpeace forest activist in Brazil. “We have a government that actively opposes taking the essential climate-change mitigation measures.”