Search Results for “rainforest ”

‘Crimes against humanity’: Brazil Prez Bolsonaro could face charges in The Hague over Amazon rainforest – But forest reality debunks charges

January 24, 2021

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/23/jair-bolsonaro-could-face-charges-in-the-hague-over-amazon-rainforest Jair Bolsonaro could face charges in the international criminal court (ICC) after being accused of crimes against humanity. Indigenous leaders in Brazil and human rights groups are urging the court to investigate the Brazilian president over his dismantling of environmental policies and violations of indigenous rights, which they say amount to ecocide. William Bourdon, a Paris-based lawyer, submitted a request for a preliminary examination to the tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, on Friday. The chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, will then determine whether there are grounds for an investigation against Bolsonaro. There is no deadline for a decision but “it is a matter of great urgency”, Bourdon said. “We are running against the clock, considering the devastation of the Amazon.” Since Bolsonaro took office in 2019, vast stretches of the rainforest have been destroyed and traditional communities threatened. Deforestation has soared nearly 50% in two years and has reached its highest level since 2008. Invasions of indigenous territories increased 135% in 2019, and at least 18 people were murdered in land conflicts last year. Despite that, fines for environmental crimes dropped 42% in the Amazon basin in 2019, and the federal government cut the budget for enforcement by 27.4% this year, a report revealed. “While the scenario is getting worse and worse, the government is reducing enforcement,” said Marcio Astrini, the executive director of Climate Observatory, the group of NGOs behind the report. “It is frightening to see that there is a coordinated attack on the climate, the forest and its people.” The UN-backed court has mostly ruled on cases of genocide and war crimes since it was created in 2002. However, after facing criticism it decided in 2016 to assess offences in a broader context, which could include major environmental and cultural crimes. # Reality check: ‘We’re being lied to about the rainforest. The fires are not out of control…the Amazon is not the lungs of the world’…’More trees on Earth today than 35 years ago’ – Brendan O’Neill: ‘We’re being lied to about the rainforest. The fires are not out of control. This is not ecocide. The Amazon is not the lungs of the world. And there are more trees on Earth today than there were 35 years ago. Don’t believe the greens’ Michael Shellenberger: Why Everything They Say About The Amazon, Including That It’s The ‘Lungs Of The World,’ Is Wrong Macron, Celebrities Get Hysterical: Burning Amazon Rainforest The ‘Lungs Of The World.’ Rainforest Expert: That’s ‘Bullsh*t’ – Dan Nepstad, the President and Founder of Earth Innovation Institute and the co-founder of The Amazon Environmental Research Institute had a blunt response about the “Lungs” claim, saying, “It’s bullshit. There’s no science behind that. The Amazon produces a lot of oxygen but it uses the same amount of oxygen through respiration so it’s a wash.” You have been Amazon.CONNED – NASA: Amazon Rainforest Burning At ‘Below Average’ Rates, Worst Since 2010 – Fires mostly farms, not forests – Bolivia’s ‘socialist’ Wildfires Ignored NASA: Amazon Is Burning At ‘Below Average’ Rates Update: NASA: Uptick in Amazon Fire Activity in 2019 – August 19, 2019: “With the fire season in the Amazon approaching its midpoint, scientists using NASA satellites to track fire activity have confirmed an increase in the number and intensity of fires in the Brazilian Amazon in 2019, making it the most active fire year in that region since 2010.” Amazon rainforest fires at record high levels? ‘This is a blatant lie’ – Fires ‘nowhere close to a record so far in 2019’-“The NY Times claims 2019 fires are way up, over 2018. That is correct. What they don’t say, is that about 1/2 the years BEFORE 2019 are higher, and about 1/2 are lower. Cherry picking of the first order.” FALSE ALARM: AMAZON BURNING IS MOSTLY FARMS, NOT FORESTS Bolivia’s Wildfires Ignored By The BBC – The Reason? ‘Evo Morales is a socialist, unlike Brazil’s Bolsonaro’ –Of course, Evo Morales is a socialist, unlike Brazil’s Bolsonaro. But I am sure that had nothing to do with the BBC’s lack of interest in this story! “The Amazon rainforest is not the “lungs of the Earth” – It does NOT produce 20 per cent of the world’s oxygen. The Amazon rain forest is a closed system that uses all its own oxygen and carbon dioxide.” Wash Post shoddy Amazon fire reporting: Resorts to anecdotal ‘memories’ instead of actual scientific data: ‘I cannot remember any other big fire’ & the highest ‘I have ever seen’ Lies, Damn Lies, And Amazon Rainforest Fear-Mongering Brazil’s Bolsonaro gets blamed for same Amazon fires also plaguing socialist Bolivia – But Media Ignores! “The left is doing its level best to blame Brazil’s bush fires on Brazil’s conservative, Trump-like president, Jair Bolsonaro, and get him thrown out of office…Socialist President Evo Morales has openly encouraged what’s known, at least in Venezuela, as “conuco” agriculture, telling subsistance farmers it’s fine to set of fires to gather charcoal to sell for fuel or clear the land of brush for planting, and now he’s refusing international firefighting help.” “Now Bolivia is robbing them of their rimshot argument. No more Sting and the rainforest man for their “narrative” now. What appears to be a far more desperate and mismanaged situation is going on Bolivia, and we don’t see any eurochicken clucking about the “lungs of the world” or sanctioning the socialist hellhole. The European Union and much of the G-7 are focused exclusively on Brazil and putting the screws to Bolsonaro blaming him for a broader temporary weather phenomenon. It’s starting to look political and it would be a welcome thing if President Trump sticks up for the man among the clucker. Bolivia makes their hypocrisy show.” Watch: Morano on Fox with Varney: You have been Amazon.CONNED about rainforest fires & the Democratic Party is ducking climate debates & Inslee fails Amazon rainforest fires at record high levels? ‘This is a blatant lie’ – Fires ‘nowhere close to a record so far in 2019’ NASA: Amazon Is Burning At ‘Below Average’ Rates # Flashback: No, We Are Not Running Out of Forests: ‘Once nations hit around $4,500 GDP per capita, forest areas begin to increase.’ – ‘Historically unprecedented poverty alleviation that has occurred in the last 50 years means that more countries are increasing their forest area.’ Enviro Shellenberger: How The EU, Greenpeace, And Celebrities Worsen Fires And Deforestation By Dehumanizing The Amazon In 2016, the Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen flew over the Amazon forest with the head of Greenpeace Brazil as part of a National Geographic series called “Years of Living Dangerously.” She is horrified by what comes next. Down below her are fragments of forest next to cattle ranches. “All these large geometric shapes carved into the landscape are because of cattle?” “Everything starts with logging roads,” Adario explains. “The road stays and cattle rancher comes and cuts the remaining trees.” “And the cattle is not even natural to the Amazon!” says Bündchen. “It is not even supposed to be here!” “No, definitely not,” confirms Adario. “Imagine the destruction of this beautiful forest to produce cattle,” he says. “When you eat a burger you realize your burger is coming from rainforest destruction.” Bündchen starts to cry. “It’s shocking isn’t it?” says Adario. But is it, really? If it is, does that mean Bündchen cries even harder when she flies over France and Germany? After all, those two countries deforested their landscapes centuries ago and all that’s left are cattle ranches and farms with far fewer protected areas and far smaller fragments of forest than the ones Bündchen looked down upon in the Amazon. Germans produce four times more carbon emissions per capita, including by burning biomass, than do Brazilians, and yet they don’t hesitate to lecture Brazilians about the need to stop deforesting and stop the fires”

‘We’re being lied to about the rainforest. The fires are not out of control…the Amazon is not the lungs of the world’…’More trees on Earth today than 35 years ago’

August 27, 2019

https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/08/27/the-myth-of-ecocide/ The myth of ecocide: So many lies are being told about the Amazon fires. By Brendan O’Neill So now we know: the idea that the Amazon rainforest is burning on an unprecedented scale and that these fires will rob humanity of one of its key sources of oxygen is fake news. It is hard to think of any other global event this year that has been as awash with misinformation as the rainforest fires. We’ve been told these fires are a calamity, an act of ‘ecocide’; they’re proof of humanity’s contempt for the environment; they will blacken and possibly even destroy ‘the lungs of the world’, as the rainforests are referred to, given they produce 20 per cent of the world’s oxygen. It’s all untrue. We are being misled. We’re being lied to about the rainforest. The fires are not out of control. This is not ecocide. The Amazon is not the lungs of the world. And there are more trees on Earth today than there were 35 years ago. Don’t believe the greens, says Brendan O’Neillhttps://t.co/z6GHg9zSqa — spiked (@spikedonline) August 27, 2019 Everything – from the photos of fires being shared by heartbroken celebs to the wild claims about these fires harming the whole of humanity – is false. Some of the photos of the fires being tearfully shared on social media are 10 or 20 years old. Many are not pictures of the Amazon at all. Some are from south Brazil, others from India and Sweden. The idea that millions of glorious, oxygen-producing trees are been burnt to a cinder by evil humans is nonsense, too. To the extent that there has been an increase in fires in the Amazon – and this itself is a deceptive claim – many of this year’s new fires are of dry scrubland, where trees have already been felled. It is untrue that the fires are historically huge or unprecedented. NASA says the Amazon fires are ‘slightly below average this year’. Many are pointing out that we are witnessing the highest number of fires in the Amazon for seven years. But as meteorologist Jesse Ferrell reports, prior to 2012 there were many years in which the Amazon had worse fires than this year’s: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2010. As Ferrell says, there are always fires on Earth: ‘Thousands of fires are continually burning across the Earth every day of every year, and they always have.’ The idea that what is currently happening in the Amazon is shockingly unusual or apocalyptic or proof of man’s fascistic disdain for his environment is an entirely politicised interpretation of a perfectly normal event. The claim that the Amazon rainforest is the ‘lungs of the world’, producing 20 per cent of the Earth’s oxygen, is also bunkum. It has been cited everywhere, by people who want us to believe that these fires will have a dire impact on all of humanity and perhaps on the very survival of our species. But as even the Guardian felt moved to report, ‘it is not clear where this figure originated’. Climate expert Michael Mann says ‘the true figure is likely to be no more than six per cent’. The Guardian also points out that the crops being planted in place of felled trees in the Amazon – by farmers who are talked about as pure evil by Western greens – will also produce oxygen, and ‘quite likely at higher levels’ than the trees they replace. So the ‘oxygen crisis’ is complete fantasy. More broadly, it simply isn’t true that mankind is at war with forestland. As made clear by a substantial report in Nature, published last year, the world’s tree cover has increased over the past 35 years. In three decades, 2.24million square kilometres of trees – an area the size of Texas and Alaska combined – have been added to the world’s already existing tree-covered land. The study, involving satellite analysis of the Earth from 1982 to 2016, found that while there has been some tree loss in subtropical areas, this has been ‘outweighed by tree-cover gain in subtropical, temperate, boreal, and polar regions’. Part of this vast expansion is down to China’s historic tree-planting programme. The UN refers to it as mankind’s largest ‘tree-planting crusade’, in which China’s forest coverage has increased from 8.6 per cent in 1949 to 21 per cent in 2017. So much for the Chinese being evil polluters. All these new trees to have swarmed the Earth since 1982 will be producing oxygen, so the apocalyptic Western middle-classes can calm down about not being able to breathe. In the words of Michael Shellenberger, one of the critical voices on the increasingly hysterical discussion of the rainforest fires, ‘Everything they say about the Amazon… is wrong’. Out-of-control fires, trees disappearing, oxygen in crisis, the climate being pushed to the edge – it is all wrong, all based in fear, not facts. Perhaps the most destructive myth is that Brazilians and others are engaged in ‘ecocide’. This emotive word, cynically designed to invoke thoughts of the evil of genocide, is designed to demonise human activity that impacts on the environment. It is motored by an arrogant, intolerant view among Western greens in particular that says people in the developing world who do what we have already done – fell forests, clear land for agriculture, elevate human needs over a sanctified view of nature – are guilty of a crime and deserve to be punished. There is a neo-colonial instinct behind this accusation. It is a slur wielded by privileged Westerners who have already benefited from industrial revolutions and decades of modernisation against emergent economic powerhouses who want to do likewise: Brazil, China, India. Worse, it sets these nations up for outside intervention. The G7 has already agreed to send resources to resolve the rainforest fires, and some Western greens are fantasising about armed forces – ‘green helmets’ – going around the world to save nature from the destructive activity of the developing world’s inhabitants. What an ugly, borderline imperialist notion. The global condescension of the modern environmentalist movement is captured perfectly in this suggestion that we should treat foreigners as criminals simply because they want what we already have. Brendan O’Neill is editor of spiked and host of the spiked podcast, The Brendan O’Neill Show. Subscribe to the podcast here. And find Brendan on Instagram: @burntoakboy

Macron, Celebrities Get Hysterical: Burning Amazon Rainforest The ‘Lungs Of The World.’ Rainforest Expert: That’s ‘Bullsh*t’

August 27, 2019

https://www.dailywire.com/news/51055/macron-celebrities-get-hysterical-burning-amazon-hank-berrien By HANK BERRIEN August 26, 2019 As the largest rainforest in the world, situated in Brazil, is burning, politicians and celebrities are exhibiting growing hysteria and making claims they believe will galvanize the world into joining their perspective on climate change. There’s one problem: Some of those hysterical claims adducing supposed facts simply aren’t true, one Amazon rainforest expert says. Writing in Forbes, Michael Shellenberger, a Time Magazine “Hero of the Environment” and Green Book Award Winner, quotes Dan Nepstad, the President and Founder of Earth Innovation Institute and the co-founder of The Amazon Environmental Research Institute, a scientific, non-governmental, non-partisan and non-profit organization that has worked for the sustainable development of the Amazon since 1995, according to its website. Nepstad proceeds to demolish some of the most strident claims made about the Amazon rainforest burning. Prior to the comments by Nepstad, Shellenberger notes, “Celebrities, environmentalists, and political leaders blame Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro for destroying the world’s largest rainforest, the Amazon, which they say is the ‘lungs of the world.’” French President Emanuel Macron tweeted, “The Amazon rain forest — the lungs which produce 20% of our planet’s oxygen — is on fire.” Shellenberger references a photo shared with the public by actor Leonardo DiCaprio and French President Emanuel Macron, which he points out is over 20 years old, soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo sharing a photo that was actually taken in southern Brazil, nowhere near the Amazon, in 2013 as well as tweeting, “The Amazon Rainforest produces more than 20% of the world’s oxygen,” and a photo Madonna and Jaden Smith shared that was over 20 years old. Shellenberger noted that although CNN pointed out “Deforestation is neither new nor limited to one nation” and The New York Times wrote, “These fires were not caused by climate change,” both publications repeated the claim that the Amazon is the “lungs” of the world. CNN: “The Amazon remains a net source of oxygen today.” The Times: “The Amazon is often referred to as Earth’s ‘lungs,’ because its vast forests release oxygen and store carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas that is a major cause of global warming.” Nepstad had a blunt response when he spoke to Shellenberger about the “Lungs” claim, saying, “It’s bullshit. There’s no science behind that. The Amazon produces a lot of oxygen but it uses the same amount of oxygen through respiration so it’s a wash.” Nepstad addressed the Times’ claim, in which they stated, “If enough rain forest is lost and can’t be restored, the area will become savanna, which doesn’t store as much carbon, meaning a reduction in the planet’s ‘lung capacity.’” Nepstad snapped: “The Amazon produces a lot of oxygen, but so do soy farms and [cattle] pastures.” Shellenberger also spoke to Leonardo Coutinho, a leading Brazilian environmental journalist, who asserted, “What is happening in the Amazon is not exceptional. Take a look at Google web searches search for ‘Amazon’ and ‘Amazon Forest’ over time. Global public opinion was not as interested in the ‘Amazon tragedy’ when the situation was undeniably worse. The present moment does not justify global hysteria.” Knowing that many of the fires in the Amazon are hidden by the tree canopy, Nepstad stated, “We don’t know if there are any more forest fires this year than in past years, which tells me there probably isn’t. I’ve been working on studying those fires for 25 years and our [on-the-ground] networks are tracking this.” Shellenberger points out, “What increased by 7% in 2019 are the fires of dry scrub and trees cut down for cattle ranching as a strategy to gain ownership of land.” Nepstad explains that accidental forest fires in drought years pose the greatest threat to the rainforest, adding, “Macron’s tweet had the same impact on Bolsonaro’s base as Hillary calling Trump’s base deplorable. There’s outrage at Macron in Brazil. The Brazilians want to know why California gets all this sympathy for its forest fires and while Brazil gets all this finger-pointing.” He added, “Brazilian farmers want to extend [the free trade agreement] EU-Mercosur but Macron is inclined to shut it down because the French farm sector doesn’t want more Brazilian food products coming into the country.”

You have been Amazon.CONNED – NASA: Amazon Rainforest Burning At ‘Below Average’ Rates, Worst Since 2010 – Fires mostly farms, not forests – Bolivia’s ‘socialist’ Wildfires Ignored

August 26, 2019

Amazon Rainforest Round-Up Amazon Fires – A Big, Fat Nothingburger of a #FakeNews Scare Story – The fires are mainly in agricultural areas as farmers prepare their land for planting. The land was cleared in the past. An informative article and very informative map by NYT on Amazon fires. Map shows that fires in previously cleared land. Nothing new. Furore is yet another fraud by enviro activists. https://twitter.com/phl43/status/1165341025151389702 … Deforestation has decreased markedly compared to the 1990-2005. The Amazon rainforest is not the “lungs of the Earth” – It does NOT produce 20 per cent of the world’s oxygen the Amazon rain forest is a closed system that uses all its own oxygen and carbon dioxide. Day After Stating No Link, NY Times Blames Amazon Fires on ‘Global Warming’ Lies, Damn Lies, And Amazon Rainforest Fear-Mongering FALSE ALARM: AMAZON BURNING IS MOSTLY FARMS, NOT FORESTS – So why are there so many fires? “Natural fires in the Amazon are rare, and the majority of these fires were set by farmers preparing Amazon-adjacent farmland for next year’s crops and pasture,” soberly explains The New York Times. “Much of the land that is burning was not old-growth rain forest, but land that had already been cleared of trees and set for agricultural use.” It is routine for farmers and ranchers in tropical areas burn their fields to control pests and weeds and to encourage new growth in pastures. What about deforestation trends? Since the right-wing nationalist Jair Bolsonaro became Brazil’s president, rainforest deforestation rates have increased a bit, but they are still way below their earlier highs: Brazil’s Bolsonaro gets blamed for same Amazon fires also plaguing socialist Bolivia – But Media Ignores! – “The left is doing its level best to blame Brazil’s bush fires on Brazil’s conservative, Trump-like president, Jair Bolsonaro, and get him thrown out of office…Socialist President Evo Morales has openly encouraged what’s known, at least in Venezuela, as “conuco” agriculture, telling subsistance farmers it’s fine to set of fires to gather charcoal to sell for fuel or clear the land of brush for planting, and now he’s refusing international firefighting help.” “Now Bolivia is robbing them of their rimshot argument. No more Sting and the rainforest man for their “narrative” now. What appears to be a far more desperate and mismanaged situation is going on Bolivia, and we don’t see any eurochicken clucking about the “lungs of the world” or sanctioning the socialist hellhole. The European Union and much of the G-7 are focused exclusively on Brazil and putting the screws to Bolsonaro blaming him for a broader temporary weather phenomenon. It’s starting to look political and it would be a welcome thing if President Trump sticks up for the man among the clucker. Bolivia makes their hypocrisy show.” Bolivia’s Wildfires Ignored By The BBC – The Reason? ‘Evo Morales is a socialist, unlike Brazil’s Bolsonaro’ – Of course, Evo Morales is a socialist, unlike Brazil’s Bolsonaro. But I am sure that had nothing to do with the BBC’s lack of interest in this story! Climate Depot note: “The Brazilian president has been labeled a “climate denier” by the media, thus he must be stopped. The Amazon fires are being used to crush Bolsonaro politically and vilify him. The fires in Bolivia are being ignored by the media because Bolivia’s government is socialist and does not fit the narrative of evil “right-wing.” Bolivia is protected from media criticism because they are the politically correct political leaders.” See: 2015: Bolivian President: ‘Capitalism is Mother Earth’s Cancer’ & Bolivian president: ‘The origin of global warming lies in capitalism’Bolivian President slams capitalist debt to global warming: ‘Either capitalism dies, or it will be Mother Earth’ Bolivia Climate Proposal: We want to abolish Capitalism – so Give Us All Your Stuff Former NYT reporter Andrew Revkin: “Needs to be emphasized. Amazonia is many wonderful things. It is not ‘lungs of the world.’” Needs to be emphasized. Amazonia is many wonderful things. It is not "lungs of the world"… https://t.co/y7MBkZlHnJ — Andrew Revkin 🌎 ✍🏼 🪕 ☮️ (@Revkin) August 24, 2019 NYT tamps down hysteria: ‘Much of the land that is burning was not old-growth rain forest, but land that had already been cleared of trees and set for agricultural use’ – But for current Amazon fires, we want to know: not just the number of fires (for which the NY Times has quite a different number than Global Fire Data, which is shown above). . . .but instead: What is burning? However, that is not true, according to a brave journalist — Alexandria Symonds — at the NY Times. She reports: “Natural fires in the Amazon are rare, and the majority of these fires were set by farmers preparing Amazon-adjacent farmland for next year’s crops and pasture. Much of the land that is burning was not old-growth rain forest, but land that had already been cleared of trees and set for agricultural use.” Our brave journalists skates close to the dangerous edge of violating Editorial Mandates by telling readers: “Did climate change cause these fires, and how will they affect climate change? These fires were not caused by climate change. They were, by and large, set by humans. However, climate change can make fires worse. Fires can burn hotter and spread more quickly under warmer and drier conditions.” [Note: there is no mention of actual conditions of temperature or rainfall concurrent with these fires in the article, as usual for when climate is being blamed — just the implication that “climate change will makes things worse” without any data. — kh] Dear hysterical media & celebrities: We regret to inform you that NASA declared Amazon fires to be ‘close to the average in comparison to the past 15 years’ Watch: Morano on Fox with Varney: You have been Amazon.CONNED about rainforest fires & the Democratic Party is ducking climate debates & Inslee fails Amazon rainforest fires at record high levels? ‘This is a blatant lie’ – Fires ‘nowhere close to a record so far in 2019’ NASA: Amazon Is Burning At ‘Below Average’ Rates Update: NASA: Uptick in Amazon Fire Activity in 2019 – August 19, 2019: “With the fire season in the Amazon approaching its midpoint, scientists using NASA satellites to track fire activity have confirmed an increase in the number and intensity of fires in the Brazilian Amazon in 2019, making it the most active fire year in that region since 2010.” Amazon rainforest fires at record high levels? ‘This is a blatant lie’ – Fires ‘nowhere close to a record so far in 2019’ – “The NY Times claims 2019 fires are way up, over 2018. That is correct. What they don’t say, is that about 1/2 the years BEFORE 2019 are higher, and about 1/2 are lower. Cherry picking of the first order.” NASA: Amazon Is Burning At ‘Below Average’ Rates – August 16, 2019 NASA’s caption: “As of August 16, 2019, satellite observations indicated that total fire activity in the Amazon basin was slightly below average in comparison to the past 15 years. Though activity has been above average in Amazonas and to a lesser extent in Rondônia, it has been below average in Mato Grosso and Pará, according to the Global Fire Emissions Database” More water or more growth? Trees change their mind as CO2 grows New Paper: CO2 Rise + Warming Are 91% Responsible For The Earth’s Accelerated Greening Trend Since 1990 Climate Depot Flashback Report: Rainforest Factsheet: Clear-Cutting the Myths About the Amazon and Tropical Rainforests – ‘Reverting back to nature’: ‘For every acre of rainforest cut down each year, more than 50 acres of new forest are growing’

Lies, Damn Lies, And Amazon Rainforest Fear-Mongering

August 25, 2019

https://lidblog.com/rainforest-fear-mongering/ by Jeff Dunetz 158SHARES Share Tweet The MSM and other liberals are going nuts about the Amazon wildfires, but instead of being honest, they are rainforest fear-mongering. The fires are bad but not as bad as we are being told, many of the pictures being used to show the fire are from older Amazon wildfires or are showing wildfires that arent from the Amazon, but totally different parts of the world. French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted out that he wanted to put the Amazon fires on the agenda for the G-7. Emmanuel Macron ✔@EmmanuelMacron Our house is burning. Literally. The Amazon rain forest – the lungs which produces 20% of our planet’s oxygen – is on fire. It is an international crisis. Members of the G7 Summit, let’s discuss this emergency first order in two days! #ActForTheAmazon 160K 3:15 PM – Aug 22, 2019 Twitter Ads info and privacy 89.8K people are talking about this take our poll – story continues below Will Joe Biden’s speaking gaffes negatively affect his run for President? The picture Macron tweeted was not of the 2019 wildfires, they can’t be because the photographer who took the picture, passed away in 2003. Macron followed that tweet by raising a white flag (France wasn’t attacked, but surrendering is a French tradition). Truth be told, the reports by the MSM and leftist politicians and celebrities can be explained by the famous Rahm Emanuel line, “never let a crisis go to waste.” The New York Post reported: Fires are common in Brazil in the annual dry season, but they are more widespread this year. Brazilian experts reported nearly 77,000 wildfires across the country so far this year, up 85% over the same period in 2018. It is unclear how much of what is burning was already deforested for agriculture. The NY Times answers: Much of the land that is burning was not old-growth rain forest, but land that had already been cleared of trees and set for agricultural use. Gee, I guess that means it’s not the end of the world. This time of year, farmers and ranchers in tropical areas burn their fields to control pests and weeds and to encourage new growth in pastures. How bad is the fire activity? According to data from NASA, available on Global Forest Watch, Brazil had 39% more fires between January and August 2019 than in the same period in 2018. However, the years with the most fires recorded were primarily in the early 2000s, probably linked to a high rate of agriculture-related deforestation in the Amazon at that time. This year’s fires are well below that level for the period January through August (though note that 2019 figures only include data through August 22). So far, 2019 is on track to be the third-highest year for fires since 2010. Before 2010 the fire activity was much worse: If the Amazon didn’t burn away in 2005, 2007, or 2010, the 2019 levels aren’t going to wipe out the rainforest either. But there’s more, per the MSM, it’s not just that the Amazon Rainforest is going to burn up and disappear, but we are going to run out of oxygen and suffocate. ABC News ✔@ABC · Aug 22, 2019 Replying to @ABC “You’re talking about an area that’s truly one of the greatest celebrations of life on this planet —that literally cleans our water, purifies our air. We gotta get worried.” http://abcn.ws/31Us1gP ABC News ✔@ABC The Amazon is often referred to as “the lungs of the planet.” It’s home to 10% of the world’s species and creates 20% of our oxygen. There have been more than 74,000 fires in the Amazon since January, a massive increase over last year. http://abcn.ws/31Us1gP 2,348 2:01 PM – Aug 22, 2019 Twitter Ads info and privacy 1,629 people are talking about this CNN ✔@CNN · Aug 23, 2019 Brazil’s Amazon rainforest is in flames, burning at the highest rate since 2013, when that nation’s space research center first began tracking fires there https://cnn.it/2ZdeRP5 CNN ✔@CNN The Amazon, which produces about 20% of earth’s oxygen, is often referred to as “the planet’s lungs.” An inferno in the world’s largest rainforest, two-thirds of which is in Brazil, threatens the ecosystem there and also affects the entire globe. https://cnn.it/30v1aaS 368 3:44 PM – Aug 23, 2019 Twitter Ads info and privacy 299 people are talking about this Like Macron, Sky News’ pictures were not of this year’s fires. Sky News ✔@SkyNews Brazilian troops have been deployed in an attempt to fight a record number of forest fires in the #Amazon. 20% of the world’s oxygen is provided by the rainforest. And it’s burning. Read why you should care here: http://po.st/iEeeUu 498 8:47 AM – Aug 25, 2019 Twitter Ads info and privacy 424 people are talking about this Liberal politicians joined in on the freak-out. Rep. Barbara Lee ✔@RepBarbaraLee The Amazon produces 20% of the oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere. If we fail to combat climate change now, soon we won’t have clean air to breathe. We must take #ClimateActionNow. This is not a drill or a hoax. https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/21/americas/amazon-rainforest-fire-intl-hnk-trnd/index.html … Brazil’s Amazon rainforest is burning at a record rate Fires are raging at a record rate in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, and scientists warn that it could strike a devastating blow to the fight against climate change. cnn.com 258 2:36 PM – Aug 23, 2019 Twitter Ads info and privacy 135 people are talking about this Kamala Harris wants universal healthcare for rain forests–well until she changes her position. Kamala Harris ✔@KamalaHarris Brazil’s President Bolsonaro must answer for this devastation. The Amazon creates over 20% of the world’s oxygen and is home to one million Indigenous people. Any destruction affects us all. 19.5K 9:16 PM – Aug 23, 2019 Twitter Ads info and privacy 7,463 people are talking about this Liberal celebs also tried to convince everyone that the world was ending: Dr. Jonanathan Foley, Global environmental scientist and Executive Director of Project Drawdown, which focuses on climate solutions, destroys the 20% myth. Dr. Jonathan Foley ✔@GlobalEcoGuy · Aug 22, 2019 Replying to @GlobalEcoGuy Despite the widespread claim, the Amazon doesn’t produce 20% of the world’s oxygen. It’s more like ~6% Dr. Jonathan Foley ✔@GlobalEcoGuy Also, the forests are being replaced by pastures and croplands, which also do photosynthesis and produce similar amounts of oxygen. 149 10:52 PM – Aug 22, 2019 Twitter Ads info and privacy 52 people are talking about this Dr. Jonathan Foley ✔@GlobalEcoGuy Replying to @GlobalEcoGuy It’s biologically and physically impossible for the Amazon to produce 20% of the world’s oxygen. Plus, those rainforests will be replaces with soybean fields and pastures that also do photosynthesis and produce oxygen at similar, or higher, rates. This is not an issue. 132 1:32 AM – Aug 23, 2019 Twitter Ads info and privacy 61 people are talking about this Dr. Jonathan Foley ✔@GlobalEcoGuy · Aug 23, 2019 Replying to @GlobalEcoGuy Also, @airscottdenning reminds us that the levels of oxygen in the atmosphere are so large, the biosphere’s year to year impacts on atmospheric O2 levels is small. It would take many thousands of years to make a big change in it. It’s more controlled by long-term geology. Dr. Jonathan Foley ✔@GlobalEcoGuy And, this doesn’t even address oxygen *consumption* by living things — like animals and microbes. It turns out that the Amazon ecosystem consumes, on average, about as much oxygen as it produces. That’s true for most ecosystems. 82 7:51 PM – Aug 23, 2019 Twitter Ads info and privacy 32 people are talking about this And for those planning to blame the wildfires on the climate change hypothesis, I invite them to refer to professional meteorologist, weather forecaster, and a twitter feed you should regularly read— Joe Bastardi: Joe Bastardi ✔@BigJoeBastardi Does @LeoDiCaprio et al and all the rainforest burning hypers know much of the area has had above normal rainfall this year, or the oceans around S America are cooling, and much of S America normal to below temps? I didnt think so Once again shallow thought no looking at data 77 8:30 AM – Aug 23, 2019 Twitter Ads info and privacy 45 people are talking about this Here’s the bottom line folks. No one wants to see the fires in the Amazon Rainforest continue. But the media and other liberals are not being honest with you. They are displaying pictures that are much worse than the real Amazon wildfires. This is not the worst case of wildfires in the Amazon, they were much worse a decade ago. And the Amazon does not supply 20% of the world’s oxygen levels, the real number is less than a third of that number.

Watch: Morano on Fox with Varney: You have been Amazon.CONNED about rainforest fires & the Democratic Party is ducking climate debates & Inslee fails

August 23, 2019

https://finance.yahoo.com/video/democratic-party-concerned-climate-change-164111099.html Broadcast August 23, 2019 – Varney & Co. – Fox Business – Watch here: Rush Transcript: Right now we are down 93. A few minutes ago we were down 140. >> The g7 meeting starts tomorrow and France’s president macron wants world leaders to put the fires in the amazon rain forest at the top of the agenda. We have seen a lot of coverage of this recently. Those fires are ongoing. Joining us, climate depot founder. The fires are getting political. I see a clash coming at the g7 between especially the europeans who are dead set against climate change and President Trump. There’s Politics coming up here. >> There is. The first thing you got to understand, they are punishing Brazil’s leadership for threatening to pull out of the u.n. Paris agreement, for not accepting the scientific consensus, and they have actually distorted the fires here. NASA just came out and said historically, the fires in the amazon are not unprecedented, they are only up a huge amount from last year but they are historically low and only the biggest since 2013. Brazil is being punished because of these fires because of their stance on climate change. President Trump, the same way they punished President Trump. He’s going to this meeting and he’s been vilified for years for the same exact issue. Of course, trump doesn’t help himself by, you know, his demeanor with some of the world leaders. But in the case, you know, in the case of Brazil and trump, they will sort of be on the outs at this g7 summit by all the other leaders, particularly macron. Stuart: guaranteed. Now, I’m sure you saw it. Bernie Sanders submits his green plan, his climate change plan. $16 trillion worth of cost right there. Then we heard that the democrat national committee is not going to have a single issue debate. They were going to have a single debate on climate change. Now they’re not going to do it. Seems to me that the party, the democrats, don’t want an intense discussion of climate change because the country’s not behind it. What say you? >> Absolutely, yeah. The climate candidate, governor inslee, just dropped out. He was at .2% at the latest Iowa poll. The day after he drops out, the dnc not only do they not have a debate, but biden’s campaign is quoted as saying a climate debate specifically focused on that is quote, dangerous territory for the democrats. This goes on the heels of even MSNBC saying that climate is a ratings killer, whenever they cover the issue. So the democrats are terrified of being seen as the climate-only party and bernie is just stepping up to the plate and trying to out aoc, aoc on the green New Deal, coming up with an even more expensive and ambitious plan. Stuart: is it $16 trillion? That was for bernie’s plan. >> $16.3 trillion or something. Yes. Stuart: over a ten-year period, I think. >> Yes. He also has magical thinking. 3% of our energy comes from solar and wind. By 2030 he wants it to be 100% of our electricity. This is fantasy thinking. He also wants to punish fossil fuel companies, start prosecuting them for the damage they have caused allegedly. He also is going to give $200 billion to the u.n. Green climate fund. This is a wish list of all the climate activists and political left and it’s really designed just to pressure the Democratic Party and particularly Joe Biden to kow-tow to the Democratic Party climate interests. Stuart: I think it’s a bad political strategy. Even the activists in the party who run the primaries, I don’t see them going for a $16 trillion climate plan and $31 trillion Medicare for all plan. I just don’t see that. I think they have gone so far out of line with the rest of the party that I don’t think they are going to win on this one. >> No. And I think it’s pretty transparent. There’s a whole bunch of non-climate stuff in bernie’s plan, as there was aoc. This has nothing to do with the climate. This is using the climate scare to get this radical agenda across. I think it’s even scaring the quote from the biden campaign, not only was it dangerous territory but it’s dangerous territory for middle America, for expanding the Democratic Party base, and the mainstream democrats, the establishment, they are terrified of bernie. They are terrified of this issue and the way the hardcore activists want to exploit this into a wholesale change of the american economy which by the way, would have no impact on the climate even if they are right on the science which they’re not, using the epa’s own model. There would be no impact on temperatures 100 years from now Related Links: Amazon rainforest fires at record high levels? ‘This is a blatant lie’ – Fires ‘nowhere close to a record so far in 2019’ NASA: Amazon Is Burning At ‘Below Average’ Rates Climate Depot Report: Rainforest Factsheet: Clear-Cutting the Myths About the Amazon and Tropical Rainforests Also, the Amazon is not the "lungs of the Earth" as stated over and over. "The Amazon does produce an enormous amount of oxygen, but it consumes as much as it produces." More from my film on Amazon rainforest here: https://t.co/aDMDCgqV59 — Marc Morano (@ClimateDepot) August 23, 2019 Also, the Amazon is not the "lungs of the Earth" as stated over and over. "The Amazon does produce an enormous amount of oxygen, but it consumes as much as it produces." More from my film on Amazon rainforest here: https://t.co/aDMDCgqV59 — Marc Morano (@ClimateDepot) August 23, 2019 Trump heading to G-7 summit after insulting allied world leaders Brazil’s Bolsonaro accuses French president of ‘colonialist mindset’ after calls for action on Amazon fires Amazon fires: how celebrities are spreading disinformation Global worry over Amazon fires escalates; Bolsonaro defiant ‘Practice What You Preach’: Student Asks Bernie Sanders About His Own Fossil Fuel Use – Sanders declares: ‘I’m not going to walk to California’ Bernie Sanders Unveils Massive $16 Trillion Green New Deal Plan ‘to defeat the existential threat of climate change’ Watch: Morano on Fox & Friends – Bernie & The (Private) Jets – Sanders wants fossil fuels kept in the ground, but ‘he can’t keep from using fossil fuels lavishly — in the air!’ Watch: Morano on Fox & Friends on Bernie Sanders High-Flying hypocrisy – ‘Unwilling to make an ounce of change in their lives’ Bernie Sanders’s Climate Plan More Radical Than Opponents’ – The $16.3 trillion plan would not only transition American society away from fossil fuels but renegotiate decades-old nostrums… A panel of the Democratic National Committee on Thursday rejected a proposal to host a single-issue debate on the climate crisis. – Excerpt: Inslee had no impact on front runner Biden: Symone Sanders, a senior adviser of presidential candidate Joe Biden, was among those who urged the DNC on Thursday to vote down a climate debate, saying it would be “dangerous territory in the middle of a Democratic primary process.” That contrasts with what Biden had earlier said during a campaign stop in Iowa this summer. The former vice president had endorsed having a climate debate, telling Greenpeace, “I’m all in.” 120 Iowans who cast their votes for Gov. Inslee in an unscientific poll at the Iowa State Fair this month – 66,000 votes cast, Inslee’s share of 120 votes works out to less than 0.2 percent of the total Watch: Morano testifies at Congressional Hearing On The Green New Deal as AOC Backs Out: The Dem Party has shifted ‘into serious, unscientific, nutty territory’ – Urges GOP NOT to offer ‘Green New Deal-lite’ Even EPA Climate Models Show The ‘Green New Deal’ Would Have No Detectable Impact On Global Temps OCASIO-CORTEZ’S ‘GREEN NEW DEAL’ WOULD AVERT A ‘BARELY DETECTABLE’ AMOUNT OF GLOBAL WARMING. THAT’S ACCORDING TO EPA’S CLIMATE MODEL Lomborg Blasts UN Paris Treaty’s $100 Trillion Price Tag For No Temp Impact: ‘You won’t be able to measure it in 100 years’ GREEN REVOLUTION? SOLAR & WIND PRODUCED JUST 3% OF GLOBAL ENERGY – Wind and solar energy generation is growing, but it’s still an incredibly small part of the global energy mix, according to statistics compiled by the oil giant BP. Meanwhile, fossil fuels — coal, natural gas and oil — accounted for 85% of global energy consumption in 2018, BP reported Tuesday as part of its annual energy report. In fact, BP reported the U.S. led the world in oil and natural gas production growth. U.S. petroleum output saw the biggest annual growth ever recorded in any country, BP said. In other words, shale is booming. The U.S. surpassed Saudi Arabia and Russia in 2018 to become the world’s largest oil-producing nation. “Oil remains the most used fuel in the energy mix,” BP reported in its annual energy review. “Coal is the second largest fuel but lost share in 2018 to account for 27%, its lowest level in 15 years. The share of natural gas increased to 24%, such that the gap between coal and gas has narrowed to three percentage points.” EIA data 2018: Wind & solar met 3% of U.S. energy after $50 billion in subsidies – Fossil Fuels 81%– The EIA (U.S. Energy Info Admin) AEO 2019 report shows that in year 2018 wind and solar energy resources provide about 3% of U.S. total energy consumption while fossil fuel energy resources provide about 81% of total energy use.PTC (Production Tax Credit) subsidies for renewable solar and wind projects in the U.S. have now reached about $50 billion dollars in cumulative payments through year 2018 with these resources providing about 3% of our countries total energy consumption in that year…Additionally these annual wind and solar subsidiies now total more than $8 billion dollars per year.

Amazon rainforest fires at record high levels? ‘This is a blatant lie’ – Fires ‘nowhere close to a record so far in 2019’

August 23, 2019

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/08/23/amazon-fire-history-since-2003/ By Les Johnson We are told that Amazon fires are at record levels right now. This is a blatant lie. The only “record” is that Amazonian fires have DECREASED over the “record”. This is what we are being told. Fig 1: Screen Shot of Google Search (search term: Amazon Fires at Record) This what the data actually looks like, to August 22. Yes, its updated daily. Fig 2: Amazon Fire Totals via MODIS (2019 is highlighted) This comes from a wonderful site, https://www.globalfiredata.org/forecast.html#elbeni It uses NASA MODIS data, from the Terra and Aqua satellites, and is updated daily. By going to the website, you can look at individual regions in the Amazon, or as I have done, look at the totals for the Amazon. This site also has global data, but I am only looking at the Amazon region here. The Interactive Graphs are very informative. Hovering the cursor over the graph will show the data at that point. You can highlight individual years, by clicking on a year in the legend at the bottom of the graph. That year remains bright, while the rest are dimmed. Using Eyeball Mark 1 Trend Indicator (EBM1TI), 2019 is slightly high, but not at record levels. Not even close. One thing I saw by looking at each year, was a rough pattern – one or two bad years, one or two years at much lower levels, then a bad year. This pattern is there until 2010. 2010 was the last “bad year”. Levels since 2010 have been 1/2 or less of the “bad years”. The old pattern has been broken. Not only does this site calculate number of fires, it also calculates carbon emissions (in Tg) from the fires. Note that the site issues a caveat about estimated later data, hence its grayed out. This emissions chart from the website shows what I was talking about, in alternating bad/good years. But as I said, only until 2010. It is obvious there is a reducing trend in emissions, again using EBM1TI. Again, by hovering the cursor over the bar chart, you can look at data points. Clicking on a legend at the bottom will highlight that series. Is it significant? Dunno. I need to download and trend the data. I can say definitively, that there is no increasing trend, and 2019 is a LOONNGG way from record territory. Fig 3: Annual Estimated Amazonian Emissions Note that the Annual Emissions would have to incorporate fire area, to get the total emissions. Just in case anyone would object that fire numbers are not fire area. Conclusion: Amazonian fires, using very current NASA data, show a decline over the record, and are nowhere close to a record so far in 2019. Postscript 1: As Willis often says, if you disagree with something I said, quote exactly what I said, and why it is wrong.

200 years old Rainforest Trees Cut Down For Windfarm Transmission Corridor

June 18, 2019

http://www.thegwpf.com/rainforest-trees-cut-down-for-windfarm-transmission-corridor/ Rainforest Trees Cut Down For Windfarm Transmission Corridor The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) / by bennypeiser / Rainforest trees 200 years old have been cleared to make way for a wind farm transmission line in Tasmania’s Tarkine, prompting claims of green “hypocrisy”. Forest clearing for Granville Harbour windfarm in northwest Tasmania. Picture: Andrew Denman. Myrtle and sassafras trees were among those felled along a 10.5km corridor widened for transmission lines associated with the $280 million, 112 megawatt wind farm at Granville Harbour, in Tasmania’s remote northwest. Special species timber advocate Andrew Denman, who discovered the felled trees, said it raised concerns about environmental impacts, wastage of high-value timber and wind power’s “green” credentials. He estimated that some of the felled trees, highly valued in specialty timber production, were 200 years old, given they typically grow at 0.3cm a year and were 60cm in diameter. With more wind farms planned for Tasmania, including another in the northwest requiring a 170km transmission line, he believed any further clearing, if it must occur, should be co-ordinated to ensure timber was not wasted. “With much of the special timbers in short supply … there could have been a more co-ordinated effort in utilising it to make sure that timber was going to a sawmiller in a timely manner so it could be processed and not wasted,” said Mr Denman, a boatbuilder. While not critical of the wind farm proponent, whom he did not doubt had complied with regulatory requirements, he understood clearing for electricity infrastructure was exempt from the Forest Practices Code, which seeks to mitigate impacts on keys species. He believed it was hypocritical of the Greens to oppose “sustainable” harvesting of rainforest timbers while backing the Granville Harbour wind farm and, by implication, associated logging of such trees. “An old-growth tree is an old-growth tree,” Mr Denman said. “Why is it acceptable to cut it down for a transmission line but not acceptable to cut it down sustainably and regenerate that area and put it to good use?” Full story The post Rainforest Trees Cut Down For Windfarm Transmission Corridor appeared first on The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF). SHAREVISIT WEBSITE

Carbon dioxide emissions help tropical rainforests grow faster: Study shows trees absorb more greenhouse gas than expected

January 1, 2015

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2891432/Carbon-dioxide-emissions-help-tropical-rainforests-grow-faster-Study-shows-trees-absorb-greenhouse-gas-expected.html#ixzz3NWjCUc15

Warmist Prof. Peter Cox of U. of Exeter does U-turn on Global warming & Amazon rainforest claims ‘I am no longer so worried about a catastrophic die-back due to CO2-induced climate change’

February 7, 2013

Search Results for: rainforest