The Great Amazonian Land Grab

Brazil’s rainforest is being stolen and cleared at an accelerating pace. Learn more: www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-07-29/amazon-…

how ironic is that nowadays a cup of coffee costs several dollars while the farmers who plant them are shockingly poor. WIth that being said, now the people who drink coffee everyday points the finger to the poor farmers in these underdeveloped countries and accuse them destroying the forest.

The video starts... "The Amazon forest is one of the largest if not the largest rainforest in the world..." What is the doubt? The Amazon rainforest is ca. 5 million km², about 40% larger than the second-largest, the Congo rainforest.

Dont worry, we still won't do anything about it lol

Politicians: shocked Pikachu face despite decades of research

Americans: “stop developing and preserve rain forests!” Also Americans: “we want more steaks”

We can't demand another country to stop using their resources because it's their country. So, unless we pay for them not to cut the forest, I don't see why they would stop.

Just like the philippines ... our rainforest are converted into farmlands, yet most who work hard for it are poor... ironic that we had natural resources, plenty of sunlights, produce crops whole year round but still my people remains under poverty & suffer government corruption

Having worked in eastern Ecuador I have experienced this first hand. The overwhelming problem with encouraging development of these lands is that they are of little or no use to agriculture. Although initially viewed as teeming with life and vitality, as soon as they cut and burn the jungle and plant they find that the ground quickly pays out, and soon will not support a crop. This is not new news. I have seen the smoke from the slash and burn farmers as they keep moving deeper and deeper into the jungle as the soil plays out after a couple of crops. Eventually they will meet the settlers from Brazil as they all close to a common point in the middle of the continent. These are just poor people trying to feed their families. It is an economic problem causing an ecological disaster.

Next time you are having a barbecue, its your fault Amazon forest is getting deforested. What a spin and need to make feel ordinary people guilty. Instead of throwing guilt on people how about USA goverment actual does something about it, when you suddenly care so much. Its Brazil's forest, they can do the whatever they want with it. if you want to fix it you better offer them better alternative how to get out of poverity. Telling Brazil to stop using their natural resources is like telling USA to stop using their natural resources and shutting down their biggest companies. If your solution is telling people to stop buying things, you might as well ask Santa on Christmas. Unless Brazil has alternative to make more money in other way and they see value in keeping Amazon forest intact and protected, it wont happen.

As a Brazilian, this is terrible, and even worse: it's the progression of Brazilian history as we know it since 1500, with extractivism draining natural resources and destroying the environment. First, we had sugar cane plantations, which wiped out most of the Northeastern coastal forests. Then, mining, especially gold but also diamond and silver, became a thing in Minas Gerais (Southeast) and the region's Atlantic forest has lost most of its original area. After some time, the coffee plantations in São Paulo (just south of MG) became the nail on the coffin of the Atlantic forest. Also, Southern Brazil has some fields and pampas, which were deforested in mass to make cattle herding, profitable in these areas, a huge business in this area. Beef production, together with soy plantations in the following case, also contributed to a lot of deforestation in the cerrado, the Brazilian savana (which borders the Amazon btw). Now, we're here. I won't say that hope is lost: there is still a lot of preserved area here, even after deforestation. And we can replant in many areas where export-oriented agriculture dominates. From this, we can see that the Amazon is the next (and only) target. There are the Northeastern semiarid areas (more inland), but they lack infrastructure, even for basic needs (poverty is strong there), and the climate is not favourable. We need to change the course of our history from a resource export giant to a more sustainable, preserved, self sufficient and developed country. Bolsonaro's policies are ignorant of the situation, unwise and unfit, but they're a symptom much more than the main cause of deforestation. Looking back at history, just like I said, makes us see how we got here, and what we need to change in the economy to avoid destroying the environment, both the Amazon and other biomes.

I'm Brazilian. Brazil has 63% of native forest preserved. Brazil has one of the most efetive laws to preserve the nature. Why the other countries talk a lot about my country, but no one has his own example of preservation?

And what about US and Europe's forest? So it's a typical, I can, you can't scenario. If Brazilian don't clear the Amazon, how are they going to raise livestock, grow food or plant forest like what US & Europe did?

So many lies I cannot even begin. Almost all of Brazilian Coffee (Over 95%) is produced in Minas gerais, Espirito Santo, São Paulo, Bahia and Paraná very very far from the Amazon (The Closest is almost 2000 miles from it). Almost all of Soybeans production in Brazil come from Goiás, Paraná and Mato Grosso, theres almost no production in the Amazon region because the soil is so poor. Cacao is almost exclusive from Bahia (Over 55% of the entire production, Bahia is 2000 miles always from the Amazon Rainforest) and Pará. Almost the entire Amazon rainforest is a national park, you cannot claim public land in Brazil, but since the area is huge (The Amazon Rain forest only in Brazil is almost half o the entire Continental US size), is impossible to the government to protect and preserve all of this. 40.000 hectares is a big farm. But is 0,01% of the Amazon Rainforest. Just to put some perspective in the last year over 4.000.000 acres burned in California, in the same year 5.400.000 acres burned in the Amazon. The Amazon rainforest only in Brazil is 8 times bigger than the entire California State.

The same thing is happening in Brazil that has already happened in the rest of the developed world. Look at a satellite image of Europe. Pretty much all of it used to be forested, but throughout the centuries it was cut down to make room for agriculture and industry. This is no different. It makes clear what a fool’s errand it is to try to stop it. They clearly see the wealth of the more developed places and want their piece of the pie.

There’s only 12 or so countries in the world that care about the environment. They’re all either English speaking countries or Nordic/German. It’s no a coincidence that they’re all the riches countries in the world. Making poor countries poorer isn’t a solution

Shouldn't the world pay Brazil to not cut down the rainforest if thats one way to stop the destruction. It seems like it's what Bosanaro suggests he would accept and if the cost was spread among nations it should be manageable. It's in all countries interests to work something out before it's too late.

"People around the Amazon are poor" as if cutting it down would help them instead of the rich farm owners

The 232 dislikes are probably ranchers

Ya, but if it was America, we would have cut it all down too. The only reason we haven't is teddy. The rainforest IS theirs to develop and if you want to stop them from doing that then you need to make the forest unprofitable.