Brazil sees 150pc rise in December

GBNEWS24DESK//

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rose 150 percent in December from the previous year, according to government figures released Friday, a final bleak report for far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro in his last month in office. Satellite monitoring detected 218.4 square kilometers of forest cover destroyed in Brazil’s share of the world’s biggest rainforest last month, according to the national space agency’s DETER surveillance program. The area — nearly four times the size of Manhattan — was up more than 150 percent from the 87.2 square kilometers destroyed in December 2021, according to the agency, INPE. Under Bolsonaro, an agribusiness ally, average annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rose by 75.5 percent from the previous decade. Deforestation in 2022 was also at or near record highs during the crucial dry-season months of August, September and October, when clear-cutting and fires often surge because of drier weather.