Recent Figures show a dramatic increase in deforestation in the Amazon rain forest. Brazil’s government asks for the data of the space research Institute, INPE, whose reliability is recognized internationally.
President Jair Messias Bolsonaro and his environment Minister, Ricardo Salles have attacked in the last few weeks, the space research Institute INPE sharp. The Brazilian Institute for the satellite images to evaluate the condition of the Amazon rain forest, was unpatriotic and was controlled by foreign NGOs and the scandals, the greed, the ends of the press, in order not to damage Brazil’s Image. Triggers of of INPE determined increase in deforestation: plus 88 percent in June and plus 278 percent in July compared with the same months of last Year. His feeling tells him that the data were wrong, so Bolsonaro.
Now the government wants to shop for a new monitoring system. In addition, Bolsonaro wants to be first about the Pay informed, which should not be automatically released, as in the past. INPEs Director Ricardo Galvão had to go under the.
For Marcio Astrini, Greenpeace Brasil, there are currently two pieces of bad news at the same time. “Deforestation is increasing, and the government wants to hide the Figures,” complained he. For 30 years, fair INPE, the deforestation, without the former President contested the data. Instead, they directed their policy to the Numbers.
“This government is doing everything exactly the other way around. She provokes the deforestation, and as you saw the Numbers rise, they wanted to hide the truth, and the INPE silenced,” says Astrini, and to the Deutsche Welle (DW).
“No government likes to hear bad news“
“I believe that the government was angry, and, as we say in English, killed the messenger of bad news,” says the climate researcher Dr. Carlos Nobre, compared to the DW, who worked for 32 years in the INPE. “No government likes to hear bad news”. Nobre feared that in Brazil a Science hostility to make wide, as she was already to be found in the US under Donald Trump. Here, as there, the government, through the Faith of the climate lie.
A concern also Professor Dr. Meinrat O. Andreae, the former Director of the Max Planck Institute for chemistry in Mainz, the shares. In the United States, he learned that parts of the population of the theory of evolution and climate change would be skeptical to hostile. The current Situation in Brazil, make him Worry, so Andreae, compared to the DW.
The INPE, the renowned researcher from the highest notes. In South America, bar a unique work. “The Institute has rendered outstanding services in remote sensing, particularly fire Monitoring of Vegetation and deforestation concerns,” is one of Andreae. Technical errors, like Bolsonaro and Salles argued, can also not recognize Carlos Nobre.
The DETER System, which determined the most recent data, is an alarm system that synchronizes in real-time, 120 million points in Amazonia, and the officials of the environmental Agency Ibama informed. It achieves an accuracy of 88 percent. False alarms are quite possible. “It has never claimed to be,” said Nobre, “that DETER would measure the deforested area exactly. But it detects a trend that is mostly confirmed by the satellite monitoring system PRODES.”
The PRODES System calculates the annual deforestation with an accuracy of 95 percent. This months long work, as determined PRODES-value is usually 20 to 30 percent above the real-time calculated DETERMINISTIC value. DETER had determined for the last 12 months, an increase of 40 percent. For November, expected PRODES-value is likely to be even higher, predicts Nobre.
Higher resolution, less accuracy
The introduction of a completely new system with a much higher resolution, as of Salles announced, was not a solution, as Nobre. “When you are working with a higher resolution, you will suddenly see all sorts of things. As you can see, if someone cuts in his garden, the hedge. Therefore, it is necessary to adapt the algorithm to edit a day, 15 billion measuring points. This is not so easy.”
Minister for the environment, Salles wool pins with the new measuring system, only confusion, believes Claudio Angelo, communications coordinator at the non-governmental Initiative Oberservatório do Clima (Initiative for climate monitoring). “He wants to buy a new System, in order to increase the uncertainty about the actual Numbers.”Marcio Astrini of Greenpeace agrees. “The government wants to manipulate the Numbers.”
Destruction of the rain forest in Para, Brazil in 2019
The success of the government will not have, however, believes Angelo. “The whole world knows now that you want to censor the Figures of INPE, is that no transparency is desired.” In addition, other Monitoring systems, which would be the cooked Numbers the government is immediately behind the questions existed in the world. Brazil’s government is as credible as that of Venezuela, so Angelo.
Brazil’s reputation has already suffered. The neo-liberal business magazine The Economist made the clearing to the cover story. However, criminal elements have on the Amazon’s free Hand, so Marcio Astrini. “Since Land raiders are on the road, illegal gold miners, illegal timber traders, all the people, the environment, crime, business. And these people feel that the government protects and encourages. Therefore, the deforestation figures are increasing in such a way”, he concludes.
Environmental protection and trade Hand in Hand
Instead of against the environment, crime, attack, however, the government control authorities. “The discourse of the President is that the control authorities and the NGOs are wrong, and that the fines are too juicy. The government has no interest in the deforestation curb. Their interest is to bring the Figures to Silence.”
Now, it is time that the Rest of the world make the protection of the environment as the basis for trade with Brazil. The only way the pressure could be on the government to act, believes Astrini. Meanwhile, Claudio Angelo draws a bitter conclusion. “Brazil was a global pioneer in environmental protection. It had the potential to be the solution to the Problem. Now you yourself are part of the problem, and a crucial part of this.”