‘World must share responsibility for Amazon fires’

As global citizens the international community must come forward and share responsibility for the human-caused forest fires raging through the Amazon rainforest and take immediate steps to

curtail it, said non-profit Amazon Watch.

The burden of curbing fires in the rainforest is not “on the Brazilian government alone”... but “we are all global citizens of our shared planet and must take shared responsibility for its

preservation,” Amazon Watch Programme Director, Christian Poirier said on August 26, 2019.

The international community must do “our part in protecting our rainforests and planet for generations to come”, he added.

While asking Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to take immediate steps to extinguish the raging fires, Poirier demanded a curb on the “recklessness of the profit-seeking agribusiness

industry” to end the catastrophe from its root.

Poirier also admonished the American and European corporations for their promotion and funding of deforestation activities in Brazil.

The Amazon rainforest has been on fire for the past three weeks, the media reported.

The frequency of fires in the Amazon has spiked nearly 83 per cent this year over the previous, news agency Thomson Reuters reported citing Brazil's space research centre INPE.

According to broadcaster CNN, there have already been over 72,000 fires in Brazil this year.

Meanwhile, the Group of Seven (G7) leaders — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States — have agreed to provide logistical and financial aid to help

fight fires in the Amazon rainforest, the BBC reported.

“While the raging fires in the Amazon have rightfully grabbed the attention of the G7 leaders, we must ensure a long-term global response that lasts long after these headlines pass,” Poirier

said.