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Deforestation in Brazilian Amazon Down 22% in a Year

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 22.3% in the twelve months to July, the best result in four years, the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva reported on November 9, 2023. MICHAEL DANTAS / AFP/File
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 22.3% in the twelve months to July, the best result in four years, the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva reported on November 9, 2023. MICHAEL DANTAS / AFP/File
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Deforestation in Brazilian Amazon Down 22% in a Year

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 22.3% in the twelve months to July, the best result in four years, the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva reported on November 9, 2023. MICHAEL DANTAS / AFP/File
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 22.3% in the twelve months to July, the best result in four years, the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva reported on November 9, 2023. MICHAEL DANTAS / AFP/File

Brazilian Amazon deforestation fell 22.3 percent in the year through July, hitting a five-year low, officials said Thursday, as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government fights to curb destruction of the world's biggest rainforest.

Satellite monitoring found 9,001 square kilometers (3,475 square miles) of forest cover was destroyed in the Brazilian Amazon from August 2022 to July 2023, according to national space agency INPE's annual deforestation tracking program, PRODES.

It was the first time the figure came in at less than 10,000 square kilometers since 2018, before the presidency of far-right ex-leader Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), who presided over a sharp increase in clear-cutting in the Amazon, AFP said.

Under Bolsonaro, there was "an explosion of crime, following a complete dismantling of the government's environmental structures," Environment Minister Marina Silva told a news conference.

Since taking office on January 1, the Lula administration has dramatically increased anti-deforestation operations and fines for environmental crimes.

However, Silva admitted the government faces a tough battle to fulfill Lula's committment to achieve zero deforestation by 2030, citing "a mix of drug- and arms-trafficking, land grabs, and illegal mining and fishing" that are fueling the destruction of the rainforest.

The Amazon is a key resource in the fight against climate change, with hundreds of billions of carbon-absorbing trees that help curb global warming.

But experts say it is increasingly fragile, and risks hitting a "tipping point" where large portions die off and turn to savanna.

"This is a forceful result that seals Brazil's return as a partner in the fight against climate change," Marcio Astrini, the head of the Climate Observatory, a coalition of environmental groups, said in a statement.

But conservationists urged the government to step up its crackdown on environmental crime.

"This is still a high rate" of deforestation, said Mariana Napolitano, of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Brazil office.

"The Amazon is suffering from a very high level of degradation, which makes the forest more susceptible to fires."

The figures came days after INPE reported more than 22,000 fires in the Brazilian Amazon in October, the worst in 15 years for the month, amid a severe drought in the region.

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Scientists: Melting Sea Ice in Antarctica Causes Ocean Storms

Scientists know the damaging consequences of the loss of Antarctic sea ice. Juan BARRETO / AFP
Scientists know the damaging consequences of the loss of Antarctic sea ice. Juan BARRETO / AFP
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Scientists: Melting Sea Ice in Antarctica Causes Ocean Storms

Scientists know the damaging consequences of the loss of Antarctic sea ice. Juan BARRETO / AFP
Scientists know the damaging consequences of the loss of Antarctic sea ice. Juan BARRETO / AFP

The record-breaking retreat of Antarctic sea ice in 2023 has led to more frequent storms over newly exposed parts of the Southern Ocean, according to a study published Wednesday.
Scientists know that the loss of Antarctic sea ice can diminish penguin numbers, cause ice shelves to melt in warmer waters, and impede the Southern Ocean from absorbing carbon dioxide, AFP reported.
But this new research, published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, explores another consequence: increased heat loss from the ocean to the atmosphere, and an associated rise in storms.
Since 2016 there has been a large-scale reduction in Antarctic sea ice, but nothing like 2023 when a record amount failed to reform over the winter.
For this study, Simon Josey of the UK's National Oceanography Center and colleagues focused on three regions that experienced unusually high levels of sea-ice retreat that year.
Using satellite imagery, ocean and atmospheric data, and wind and temperature measurements, they found some newly ice-free areas experienced double the heat loss compared to a stabler period before 2015.
This was accompanied by "increases in atmospheric-storm frequency" over previously ice-covered regions, the authors found.
"In the sea-ice-decline regions, the June–July storm frequency has increased by up to 7days per month in 2023 relative to 1990–2015."
The loss of heat caused by reduced sea ice could have implications for how the ocean circulates and the wider climate system, the study added.
Oceans are a crucial climate regulator and carbon sink, storing more than 90 percent of the excess heat trapped near Earth's surface by greenhouse gas emissions.
In particular, sea-ice retreat could mean changes in how a deeper layer of cold, dense Antarctic bottom water absorbs and stores heat.
The authors said further in-depth analysis of possible climate impacts were needed, including if sea-ice retreat could have even further-reaching consequences.
"Repeated low ice-cover conditions in subsequent winters will strengthen these impacts and are also likely to lead to profound changes further afield, including the tropics and the Northern Hemisphere," it said.