According to Jornal Nacional, Brazil's largest television news program, the smoke from car exhaust or power plants is not the biggest polluter of the Brazilian atmosphere. The big villain in this regard is deforestation in Brazilian forests, which accounted for 44% of the country's total greenhouse gas emissions in 2018, according to a study by the Observatório do Clima, which brings together 43 civil society organizations.
In August 2019 alone, the Amazon rainforest lost 1,698 square kilometers of vegetation, according to Inpe (National Institute for Space Research of Brazil).
This represents a 222% growth over the same period in 2018. In August 2018, it was 526 square kilometers. In the first eight months of 2019, the deforested area was 92% higher than in the same period of 2018.
According to economists interviewed by Reuters, the historic low-interest rates and the devaluation of the real against the dollar threaten to accelerate deforestation in the Amazon, as they are both favorable to agribusiness growth in the country. This, coupled with the lax oversight by the Jair Bolsonaro government, puts the Amazon rainforest at grave risk.
