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This is urgent. Forest fires are currently raging in the Amazon, threatening to consume the rainforest and (seriously) threaten our existence on earth.
As humans, we cannot survive without the Amazon, which experts call "the earth's lungs" because it produces 20% of the world's oxygen and absorbs a massive amount of climate-warming carbon dioxide.
This will seem crazy, but Brazil's right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro is refusing to fight the fires. And as the Amazon rages in flames, the American TV networks are largely ignoring that this is even happening.
We need attention on this disaster and the powerful corporations that are profiting from the destruction of the Amazon. There ARE steps Congress and others can take to influence Brazil’s president, but only if there is public pressure to act...pressure that comes with TV coverage.
After you sign, you'll get info to tweet at a key TV news director who is calling the shots at a major network about how this story should be covered.
President Bolsonaro, who took office in early 2019 and has been called the "Trump of the Tropics", campaigned by saying Brazil’s economic development had been limited by the world’s affection for the Amazon. He’s already pushed policies that would further deforestation by opening up the Amazon’s indigenous lands to mining, ranching, and logging.
Since Bolsonaro took office, the Amazon has lost over 1,330 square miles of forest cover, a 39 percent increase over the same period last year.
In addition to being home to about three million species of plants and animals, the Amazon also supports one million indigenous people who live there.
Bolsonaro’s environment policies are tied to racist attitudes toward people of color and Brazil’s indigenous peoples. Just a year ago he said: “Minorities have to bend down to the majority … The minorities [should] either adapt or simply vanish.”
This is not okay. The Amazon must be protected, both for the sake of each and every one of us across the globe who are threatened by climate change and out of respect for the indigenous communities that are increasingly threatened.
As reporter Ryan Grim said on Twitter yesterday morning: "Humanity's last hope is hanging by a thread." We can't go on with life as usual.
After you sign, we'll help you tweet at the one of the key news directors who is deciding how to cover this story.
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