By KARIN BRÜNING*
Are we facing an ecocide or a mass suicide? Because, after all, we all know that we don't choose the air, but we breathe what we have.
The term “ecocide” refers to the mass destruction or severe damage to ecosystems, typically caused by human activities, which may involve actions such as deforestation, pollution, overfishing and the use of chemicals, with widespread and long-term impacts on the environment. The term essentially means “killing the environment” and has received support for treatment as an international crime, similar to genocide.
In recent days, smoke in the skies of Brazil has reached five million square kilometers, according to data from INPE, corresponding to 60% of our territory. São Paulo has become the city with the worst air in the world, Belo Horizonte was covered in soot, Rondônia had flights canceled due to smoke, in Acre physical activities were suspended in schools and Brasília reached only 7% humidity, to cite some data from the worst drought ever recorded in the country.
Are we facing an ecocide or a mass suicide? After all, we all know that we don't choose the air we breathe, but we breathe what we have. So, whether the fires are the result of climate problems, the cause of which is decades of deforestation, or the specific actions of criminals, the result is the same: the destruction of us all.
In March 2023, the European Parliament proposed including ecocide-level offences in the Environmental Crime Directive. These offences involve actions that cause serious, long-term, widespread or irreversible damage to the environment, such as damage to air, soil, water quality or biodiversity.
The Amazon has so far lost about 18% of its original forest area due to logging, agriculture and cattle ranching. At current deforestation rates, the so-called “point of no return” of 20-25% forest destruction could be reached within a few years, potentially triggering irreversible changes, since as trees are cut down, the remaining forest becomes more vulnerable. Deforestation reduces the forest’s ability to generate its own rainfall, leading to drought conditions that stress the ecosystem and make it harder for the forest to regenerate.
Many people are not touched by this information because they are unaware that even to have a cell phone we need water. It is the so-called “invisible water”, necessary for the production of practically everything we have on our planet and even for data transmission. Google’s data center, for example, consumed approximately 2020 terawatt hours in 12,4 and cooling these machines requires water.
The Amazon plays a critical role in regulating Earth’s climate. On August 28, the Copernicus satellite captured an image of a patch of fire, about 500 km high and 400 km wide, located in the southern Amazon. The collapse of this biome would release enormous amounts of stored carbon, accelerating climate change and triggering more extreme weather patterns across the planet.
In recent years, the region has been experiencing longer and more intense dry seasons, previously lasting 2 to 3 months and more recently lasting 4 to 5 months. As temperatures rise due to global warming, the forest is weakening, making it more susceptible to fires and deforestation.
We can no longer act as if nature, flora and fauna, were something “external” that does not directly affect us, since the evidence is shown to us daily. Are we so resigned that we cannot conceive of any other option than having 50% of the world’s population suffering from allergies by 2050 (UN) due to pollution? Would the SUS be able to deal with this situation?
It is important to believe that there is still time to change this toxic apathy towards the apocalyptic environmental news that we receive every day. We are all essential in this process, whether by planting trees, saving energy, developing sustainable technologies, but above all, by spreading the word, in our environment or through social media, that we cannot continue to act inconsequentially towards nature and environmental issues, for the simple fact that without it we do not exist. This is not a question of ideology or politics, but of wisdom.
*Karin Brüning is a scientist and environmentalist, with a PhD in chemistry from UFRJ. Founder of Play Recycling, an environmental education platform.
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