[Bill S (OP)]

Wildfires 2019
https://fires.globalforestwatch.org/map/#activeLayers=viirsFires%2CactiveFires&activeBasemap=topo&activeImagery=&planetCategory=PLANET-MONTHLY&planetPeriod=null&x=-129.638672&y=34.513058&z=2

It seems that every continent, except Antarctica, is on fire.

We have the weapons to reduce this planet to a nuclear desert, but we lack the equipment necessary to stop these fires from destroying the forests that are vital for so much of our oxygen. 

What are World Governments thinking of?

No problem answering that for the British Government.  Various neo-Nazis and latter-day Fascists are seriously threatening to rob us of the last vestiges of our tattered Democracy, while the World burns. 

Come back Nero, all is forgiven! 

[Bill S (OP)]

Foda-se, não precisamos da sua ajuda.


https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02515-6?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20190829&utm_source=nature_etoc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20190829&sap-outbound-id=2300CEF3834DBEEB1FC882533F0BFD4CEFF80EDD&utm_source=hybris-campaign&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=000_SKN6563_0000014441_41586-Nature-20190829-EAlert&utm_content=EN_internal_32046_20190829&mkt-key=005056B0331B1EE889BBA939F6F61914

Amazon funds: Brazil has rejected an offer from the world’s seven largest economies (G7) to provide US$22 million in immediate funding to help put out fires in the Amazon (see ‘Trend watch’). The fund was put together by France’s President Emmanuel Macron and pledged at the G7 annual meeting in Biarritz, France, on 26 August. After initially accepting the funding, the Brazilian government declined the offer. Earlier, Macron’s decision to put the Amazon on the G7 agenda angered Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, who accused France of acting in a colonial way. Bolsonaro said that he is mobilizing Brazil’s military to drop water on burning regions, and that Amazon countries should be able to deal with the issue without outside help. The G7 meeting had a strong focus on the environment and development, and also produced an agreement between the European Union, the G7 and international funding agencies to provide more support for the countries of the Sahel.

[alancalverd]

At the last count, Brazil had mobilised 700 soldiers to fight the fires. That's about one soldier for every 15 fires. Or, given normal crewing levels, one firefighting plane for every 100 fires.

In answer to the question, yes. Every living thing eventually destroys its environment and dies, or works its way into an ecological niche that disappears. Homo sapiens is probably the first species to evolve with the ability to know, predict and mitigate this law of nature, thanks to science, but appears to be the least capable of actually organising itself to do so, thanks to politics, philosophy and economics. 

[jeffreyH]

For politics read narcissism, for philosophy read distraction and for economics read greed. There you have it. The greedy narcissists are distracting the majority and while no one is looking they run off with all the money.

[evan_au]

I heard a suggestion that most of the intentional fires in the Amazon are farmers intending to extend cattle-ranching areas...
Maybe the president likes his churrasco beef kebabs?

[alancalverd]

Not just cattle ranching, for which you need a lot of space and time to replace the forest with suitable grass. And you'd burn on a wide, controlled front with good access.  Anyway, the big ranchers are already supporting the President, and the world beef market is pretty static. It seems that the current mess is caused by small subsistence farmers whose votes can't always be relied on, being given tacit if not overt approval to increase the arable area of their holdings.

All the fault of the internet, mobile phones, etc. Now everybody knows everything and all votes count, you have to lick the arses of the peasants (or at least the lower middle class) to stay in power.