COMMENTARY As America boils, Brazil's Amazon summit is a reminder that protecting Latin America's carbon capturer is as important to places like Miami as preserving the Everglades is.
Global warming-induced heat this summer in the U.S. is so relentlessly miserable鈥�
How relentlessly miserable is it?!
It鈥檚 so relentlessly miserable that Americans 鈥� many of whom couldn't locate a Latin American country on a map even if you offered them that $1.58 billion Mega Millions ticket 鈥� might actually have paid attention to an Amazon rainforest conference that took place this week in Brazil.
Just kidding, of course. A recent does show that two-thirds of Americans do finally acknowledge global warming and even want the U.S. to become carbon-neutral (a country that releases no more carbon into the atmosphere than is removed) by 2050. But getting them to recognize the pivotal role the besieged but faraway Amazon plays in averting the planetary thermostat hell 飞别鈥檙别 staring at? That鈥檚 probably a stretch.
And yet, arguably, nothing mattered more this week 鈥� not even Barbie reaching $1 billion in box office sales 鈥� than what Brazil and seven other South American countries that steward the Amazon rainforest did.
READ MORE: How bad an Amazon steward in Brazil? Worse than even Miami politicians would be
Their summit in Bel茅m, Brazil, revived the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, which had been all but dead since 2009. That鈥檚 important because they鈥檙e ultimately responsible for carrying out the Amazon preservation projects that could check the ecosystem鈥檚 harrowing deforestation 鈥� and its just as harrowing effects on climate change.
Harrowing because the massive Amazon, the world鈥檚 largest tropical rainforest, is the most important carbon dioxide vacuum cleaner we鈥檝e got on land. It absorbs about a quarter of all the carbon dioxide 鈥� the primary greenhouse gas responsible for global warming 鈥� in the earth鈥檚 atmosphere. That鈥檚 as much CO2 as all the oceans combined suck up.
But in the past half century, of the Amazon has been deforested. That鈥檚 thanks largely to reckless slash-and-burn development in Brazil, which hit a sinister peak under former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro during his 2019-2023 administration, and the sort of rapacious mining and insidious degradation that leaders like left-wing Venezuelan President Nicol谩s Maduro enable.
Aiding the Amazon should be a no-brainer when health officials are warning it鈥檚 an infernal hazard just to go out and get the mail in the afternoon.
As a result, scientists estimate the Amazon today absorbs at least a third less CO2 than it absorbed at the turn of this century. In fact, it may now be emitting more CO2 than it captures.
That鈥檚 not the only reason our real-feel temperatures in recent summers have been rocketing into the triple digits day after day after day 鈥� but it鈥檚 certainly a real factor.
Battle plan
The good news is, Bolsonaro鈥檚 defeat in Brazil鈥檚 presidential election last October has led to a reversal of sorts. Under his successor, Luiz In谩cio Lula da Silva, the country saw Amazon deforestation last month than it did in July of 2022. Lula has, in fact, set a zero-deforestation target for the end of this decade.
That had to buoy the Amazon summit he hosted this week. And it should make countries like the U.S. more willing to contribute to the preservation effort it promoted 鈥� especially since it鈥檚 the world鈥檚 rich nations, including China, that belch the most CO2 into the greenhouse ether.
This year President Biden pledged $500 million to the Amazon Fund, which was created in Brazil in 2008 to protect the rainforest and the eco-aware indigenous populations who live there. That donation should be a no-brainer 鈥� especially amid a heat emergency that鈥檚 got health officials warning it鈥檚 an infernal hazard to go out and get the mail in the afternoon 鈥� but a divided Congress has yet to confirm it.
That鈥檚 largely because 70% of Republicans, according to , think global warming is essentially a hoax. Conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C. are pushing GOP presidential candidates to embrace a 鈥渂attle plan鈥� that scraps climate change mitigation policies and preaches the flat-earth medievalism that climate change poses no danger.
READ MORE: This month's election finally makes the Amazon a top issue for Brazil. And for Miami?
But we also do our share here in South Florida to encourage that denialism. This past year the Miami-Dade County Commission voted once again to loosen the Urban Development Boundary, the do-not-cross line that defines where the Everglades begins 鈥� despite the fact that the massive and precious ecosystem 飞别鈥檙别 supposed to steward is itself a major CO2 suction pipe.
The irony is, Miami is a majority Latino community. We should know where and what the Amazon is.
And we should know better.
