Hi, and welcome to Fix the Planet. Last year’s Amazon fires might seem remote now, but they caught the attention of world leaders and citizens concerned about climate change. This year, some blazes have already been detected in the world's greatest rainforest, months before the traditional fire season begins. And Indonesia is already amid its fire season.
Forest fires are bad enough in “normal” times – they release carbon emissions, exacerbate air pollution and can wipe out the homes of indigenous people, wildlife and plants. But this year the covid-19 pandemic makes them even more concerning because smoke from fires can worsen the respiratory problems that the illness can cause.
That’s why this week’s Fix is about what can be done to reduce forest fires.
|
|
|
|
The Amazon saw extraordinary fires last year. Photo: JOAO LAET/AFP via Getty Images
|
|
What have wildfires been like this year?
Globally, 2020 has been pretty average so far, as the chart below from Mark Parrington at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts makes clear. The unprecedented bushfires in Australia pushed carbon emissions from wildfires up dramatically in January. But an April and May with below average fires in the tropics has balanced that out. Indonesia is two months into its fire season.
The scale of fires there is largely influenced by how dry conditions are, which is why an El Niño year fuelled the nightmare blazes of 2015, the worst the country has experienced. “Fortunately, this year is not projected to be an extremely dry year,” says Ruth DeFries at Columbia University in New York. The Amazon, where fires don’t occur naturally but are caused by human activity, looks more ominous. Major fires have already been spotted with satellites in recent weeks, well ahead of the main fire season, which starts around August.
|
|
|
|
Photo: ECMWF/Copernicus
|
|
How does covid-19 compound the impact of fires?
The smoke and soot that fires release exacerbate respiratory infections. Harvey Fineberg at Harvard University says that means covid-19 infections are likely to be more serious among people affected by the fires, including indigenous groups. “We have a [fire] season which is going to destroy ecosystems that are vital to the long-term well-being of the planet, and this year is very likely to exacerbate the presence and severity of the covid-19 pandemic,” he says. Attempting to quantify that impact is tricky. However, Fineberg says based on preliminary studies, he thinks mortality rates could increase up to 8 per cent for every one part per million increase in the particulate matter that makes up pollution from forest fires.
What happened after the outrage at last year’s Amazon fires?
There were two big policies that helped reduce fires in the Amazon last year, says Ane Alencar at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute in Brazil. One was the Brazilian army being made available to the country’s states to fight the fires. The other was the Brazilian government imposing a two-month moratorium on fires – a step that saw fires in October burning the smallest area they have done for two years.
What else can be done to stop fires?
Alencar says the key thing to stopping the Amazon fires would be political will from the Brazilian government. “The ideal thing is the president [Bolsonaro] to say we won’t allow illegal deforestation in the Amazon anymore. This would have an effect.” For now, the opposite signal on enforcement is being sent to criminals. She cites the case of a Brazilian environment agency action against illegal deforestation in April that was televised at prime time. The next day, the person who ran the operation within the agency was fired.
Enforcement and policy aren’t the only options. “Enforcement is important, but incentives might be more important,” says DeFries. She says one of the main reasons that companies and individuals use fires to clear land in Indonesia is because they are cheap and easy. By comparison, in Malaysia, clearing of forest is largely done without fire and using mechanisation, which is more expensive. Incentives could change the approach in Indonesia, she says.
What can we as individuals do to reduce forest fires?
International pressure is powerful, says Alencar. She points to the trade deal agreed in principle between the European Union and Mercosur, a group of South American countries that includes Brazil. She says the agreement, which France has threatened to reject if Brazil fails to do more to tackle fires in the Amazon, “has put a lot of pressure on Brazil, on leadership, on the environmental agenda”. So, EU citizens lobbying their politicians is one route to push for change. In Indonesia, DeFries says big companies also respond to international pressure. “We’ve seen that in deforestation pledges and sustainability certifications,” she says.
The other lever, says Alencar, is the choices that individuals make about their diet. The big driver for Amazon fires is people wanting to clear land to produce beef, much of which is exported. “People should think about their consumption,” she says. Fineberg echoes that point: “It’s important to insist on deforestation-free products. Reducing demand is a very powerful financial incentive. Consumers worldwide could be a much more powerful influence.”
|
|
|
|
The first major fire detected in the Amazon in 2020. Photo: MAAP
|
|
1.
Energy storage using liquid air is unlikely to eclipse lithium-ion batteries any time soon, simply due to economics. But there is still promise in a project in north-west England that hopes to help electricity grids manage wind and solar power, using excess or off-peak electricity to chill air to a liquid state, which can later be expanded to generate electricity at times of need. The scheme got a £10 million grant from the UK government this week.
2.
Talking of solar power, a report this week found it accounted for 48 per cent of all new electricity generation capacity globally last year.
3.
Anyone still fretting over “range anxiety” about electric cars – which is overblown anyway, given the length of most journeys and rapidly-growing charging infrastructure – can now buy a Tesla with a 402-mile (647 kilometre) range. It is the first electric car capable of doing more than 400 miles (643 kilometres).
4.
And if you can afford to buy one of them in the UK, you’ll also have the option of a green number plate, under plans confirmed this week. In the future, that could make you eligible for discounted parking and other incentives.
|
|
|
Thanks for reading. I know a lot of you are interested in other aspects of the role forests can play in curbing climate change, so I’ll dig into those for future Fix dispatches.
Let me know what you’d like to read about next month – email me on the address below, tweet me or send me a message on Facebook.
In the meantime, check out this New Scientist online event on 25 June, in which author Helen Pilcher will explore how humans have been altering the course of evolution with selective breeding, genetic technologies and our impact on the biosphere.
|
|
|
|
