The Global Petition To Protect The Amazon

The Global Petition To Protect The Amazon

Started
22 August 2019
Petition to
Signatures: 45,050Next Goal: 50,000
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Why this petition matters

Started by Climate Change

Join the fight to Protect the Amazon and stop irreversible Global Climate Change. Together we can take this crisis to the United Nations and force World Leaders to listen and take action.

#ActForTheAmazon #OneBillionStrong


The Global Petition To Protect The Amazon

全球保護亞馬遜的請願書

アマゾンを保護するためのグローバル請願

अमेज़न की रक्षा के लिए वैश्विक याचिका

La petición global para proteger el Amazonas

العريضة العالمية لحماية الأمازون

Petisyen Global untuk Melindungi Amazon

Глобальная петиция по защите Амазонки

অ্যামাজনকে সুরক্ষিত করার জন্য গ্লোবাল পিটিশন

A petição global para proteger a Amazônia

La pétition mondiale pour protéger l'Amazone

La pétition mondiale pour protéger l'Amazone                                                   

Why the Amazon Rainforest is burning - The YEARS Project 

Satire: An honest take on World Governments and their response to Climate Change

What if we cleared the Amazon?

The Amazon Crisis in the Media:

CNN Article / Video - 07.11.2019

RT America Coverage - 07.11.2019

CNN Coverage - 04.11.2019

Yale University - What Happens When the Forest Disappears? - 17.10.2019

The Intercept - Article - 20.09.2019

Time Magazine - AR Feature - 15.09.2019

The Guardian - Article - 01.09.2019

The Guardian - Article - 31.08.2019

The New York Times - Article - 30.08.2019

The Guardian - Article - 30.08.2019

BBC News - Article - 29.08.2019

ABC News Coverage - 27.08.2019

BBC News Brazil Coverage - 26.08.2019

CNN Coverage - 26.08.2019

The Atlantic - Article - 24.08.2019

Science Insider - 24.08.2019

National Geographic - Article - 23.08.2019

Rolling Stone - Article - 23.08.2019

CNN Coverage - 22.08.2019

 

We, the people of Earth demand that the UNITED NATIONS summon WORLD LEADERS to convene for a Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly in order to pass a binding resolution declaring the AMAZON RAINFOREST a permanently PROTECTED GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL SANCTUARY. And to take bold and unprecedented action to permanently protect the BIODIVERSITY and ECOLOGICAL HABITAT of the AMAZON RAINFOREST.

We demand that the Amazon be accorded the highest possible legal and environmental protections, with meaningful and enforceable safeguards in order to ensure that the underlying situation which has caused the present crisis over the future sustainability and viability of the Amazon Rainforest cannot occur ever again. The discussion surrounding this issue needs to also seek to extend the same permanent protections to all of the Earth's remaining global environmental habitats that are being destroyed for human progress and subsistence.

We also demand that immediate and overwhelming international emergency action be taken to extinguish the many thousands of human-inspired wildfires that are presently ravaging the Amazon Rainforest, and that all possible medical, veterinary, and humanitarian assistance be provided forthwith to the affected animals and indigenous peoples that call the Amazon Rainforest home. For the sake of humanity, and all living beings, those in existence, and those yet unborn. 

We, the signatories of this petition, HUMANITY, declare in one loud voice, enough, and no more.

Most pertinently, we demand that the United Nations General Assembly declare the Amazon Rainforest a permanently PROTECTED GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL SANCTUARY which is binding on all its constituent member states, and for the United Nations to appoint a special international committee of experts from the scientific community to enforce, execute and monitor the demands of the aforementioned resolution without delay in the most humane and equitable manner as urgently as possible in protection and defence of the Amazon Rainforest.

We demand that all World Leaders, The United Nations General Assembly, The United Nations Security Council, The Organisation of American States, The European Union and specifically the affected South American national governments of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Republic of Peru, the Republic of Colombia, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the Republic of Ecuador, the Plurinational State of Bolivia, the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, the French Republic and Local Government of French Guiana and their respective leaders take unprecedented and immediate emergency measures to put out all the fires that threaten the long term existence of the rainforest, to accord the Amazon Rainforest the highest international legal protections and status, and that these nations and organisations come together to take bold, decisive and unprecedented action to end deforestation for once and all and to restore the Amazon Rainforest to its original unencumbered pristine state in order to repair and undo the damage caused by decades of agricultural, commercial, and industrial activity.

THE DEFORESTATION AND BURNING OF THE AMAZON RAINFOREST IS A CRIME AGAINST THE PLANET AND EVERY LIVING BEING ON EARTH.

IT IS NOTHING LESS THAN ENVIRONMENTAL GENOCIDE.

The destruction of the Amazon biome and the creatures who live in it for industrial and commercial exploitation MUST END NOW. We demand it. It cannot go unchallenged any longer, and it is completely unacceptable to us as a species.

The Amazon Rainforest is essential for all life on Earth, and its stewardship and protections should be made permanent and codified into international law, and be monitored and enforced by the United Nations.

The survival of the Amazon Rainforest should not be subject to or dependent on the erratic whims or fluctuating policy desires of any one national government for their political self-interest and preservation, or for economic gain. An attack on the Amazon Rainforest is an attack on us all, and it requires nothing less than our harshest possible response.

As trillions of innocent and defenceless animals burn and suffer in a horrifying manner, and the ecology of the Amazon Rainforest edges increasingly close to the commencement of the “dieback” process which will effectively destroy the Amazon for all eternity, we, the citizens of the world, take this bold and united worldwide human action to stop this tragedy at once, in order to take a meaningful step in stopping Global Climate Change and the Ecological Catastrophe that threatens to destroy all life on Earth.

The Earth is our only home. There is no other place that we know of in the Cosmos that can support our civilisation and our species. We are inextricably linked to this world and it’s many and varied creatures, and we must urgently seek to become far better custodians of it if we and all the living beings we share it with are to endure. We must find a way to once again become a part of nature, and end our war on it.

We sign this petition for the sake of all our lives, our children, and the common destiny of all living beings on Planet Earth, so that succeeding generations of human beings and our fellow animals and organisms may inherit a fairer world were they can too can prosper and flourish.

 

- The Citizens of the World.

 

THE COMPREHENSIVE RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES THAT INFORM THE DEMANDS OF THIS PETITION:

1. To build consensus and motivate discussion around the mechanisms and apparatus that need to be engaged to urgently solve the Climate Crisis and the Ecological Breakdown of the Earth.

2. To encourage understanding of these complex issues, and to make a compelling and cogent argument for the urgency of this cause.

3. To stop the deforestation and the destruction of the Amazonian habitat.

4. To protect the trillions of animals that call the Amazon home, and to stop human-induced extinctions of the Earth's biodiversity.

5. To create much stronger international laws, that have stringent safeguards and genuine actionable enforceability in providing protection against the destruction of the natural environment. To ensure that there are severe and immediate consequences if these laws are not upheld.

6. To forestall, prevent, and stop the global ecological breakdown.

7. To forestall, prevent, and stop global climate change.

8. To dynamically change the relationship of human societies with nature.

9. To foster a renewed attitude of stewardship towards the Earth which extends beyond human interest.

Uncompromising fanaticism, nationalism and populist ideology cannot solve this crisis. There is no place on Earth that will be safe from the consequences of what will happen to the planet if we cannot all come together as a species and unite behind the science to meaningfully tackle the Climate Crisis and the Ecological Breakdown of the Earth. We must act quickly to protect the Amazon Rainforest so we have a fighting chance of overcoming the very great challenges we face as a species this century. Archaic conceptions of sovereignty and statehood will not solve our global problems either. In many ways they are the root cause and exponents of the problems we presently face. We can hide behind them when we become fearful or feel threatened. It is exceedingly natural to do so. But Nature does not respect our national borders. It does not respect the armies of our many nations. Or our nationality, or the passport we carry in our pocket. We all share a common destiny, we are all bound together by this planet we share and call home and we all face a common fate as a species.

The Amazon Rainforest in South America is approximately 33 million years old and is an irreplaceable, priceless treasure of the natural world, it is the worlds largest and most ancient tropical forest, and it demands our highest reverence and respect.

There is no real consensus or intention to discuss how much of the Amazon Rainforest we are willing to let go. Only the extremely broad concern that is it happening. That we are losing it.

At the rate we are destroying the Amazon one has to ask this question. How much do we get to take? How much is too much?

At what point do we say enough? That’s it. We done here. Pack up the chainsaws and tractors, because you can’t destroy anymore.

How much are we going to allow to be burnt, and chopped down, and deforested? And who even makes that decision? How much of the Amazon do we deem is acceptable to be destroyed?

15%

30%

50%

How much?

More than 50%

When do we actually stop? What is the limit?

Because right now there is no limit.

And we certainly aren’t growing any new rainforests in the Amazon. It is resoundingly obvious that it is a finite resource. If we keep chopping and burning and deforesting we will eventually destroy it completely, and then there will be nothing left.

Is that our intention here? Is this actually the future we want for it?

Because we on track to achieve exactly that.

A world with no Amazon Rainforest.

How can that possibly be acceptable? How can it be allowed? Why are we not absolutely terrified about this? We don’t know what we are doing. We have no long-term plan. And nobody is in charge. We are killing and burning the Amazon like there is no tomorrow.

If we operate on that basis, if we continue like we are right now, then there is a high probability there won't be a tomorrow at some point in the future.

10% of Earth's animal species live in the Amazon. It is home to trillions of living beings and represents a vast refuge for global wildlife and biodiversity. It has an estimated 390 Billion trees. It is a place bursting with life. The rainforest is so large (5,5 million km² / 2,1 million mi²) that it produces it’s own weather through the release of water vapour during transpiration when plants and trees undergo photosynthesis. Given the epic size and scale of the Amazon Rainforest it is able through this process to make its own rain and to some extent regulate its own climate. And that is fundamentally what human activity in the form of deforestation, and the setting of the rainforest on fire to clear it for pastureland, ranching, and agriculture is disrupting, and effectively destroying.

The Amazon is important because it contributes quite heavily to keeping the planet cool enough for life to exist on Earth by acting as its own greenhouse. It traps large amounts of carbon dioxide, and it releases large amounts of water vapour into the atmosphere which then condenses into low lying clouds which reflect sunlight back into space, and regulate the Amazonian climatic conditions and keep the forest humid. It is effectively like the Earth’s own epically massive air conditioner. That is why it is so critically important to the Climate Crisis for us to protect the Amazon. And why we should in fact be protecting all tropical forests.

The question we need to be asking ourselves in all of this is: Do we really want to make the present Climate Crisis any worse, and do we want to live in a world where global wildlife have no place to exist?

Because that is the future we are creating.

The destruction of global animal habitats for human progress and subsistence equates to the killing of trillions of animals. It is the unavoidable reality of the process. Mass extinctions are the result. And they are happening right now. And it is all our fault. Climate Change is a massive feature of this. But Climate Change is more a symptom of the immediate systemic dysfunction than the cause of it. The dysfunction is humanity. It is us. The killing and destruction of the natural world in the name of human progress and subsistence is what is causing Climate Change.

The wholesale killing of every single living thing that exists in order to stock our food systems is ecological genocide. We are murdering 100 billion animals a year to feed human populations while we destroy every natural habitat there is, which is effectively leaving no safe space left for wild animals to exist. There is no place left on earth anymore where wild animals are not threatened and can live in peace. If we do not completely change our relationship as a species with nature, then we must not be surprised when someday all of the Earth's great animal species are gone for good.

Fundamentally, as the dominant animal on the planet, humans have a responsibility to protect the Earth. That extends to protecting it from ourselves.

THE REALITY IS THAT THE EARTH IS STRUGGLING TO SUPPORT 8 BILLION HUMAN BEINGS. OUR COMPETITION WITH EVERY OTHER SPECIES FOR LAND AND FOOD, AND OUR DISREGARD FOR THE RIGHT OF THESE ANIMALS TO EXIST AND BE FREE IS DIRECTLY LEADING TO OUR OWN DEMISE AS A SPECIES.

AND WE THINK THAT IS NORMAL.

WE EVEN THINK WE HAVE A RIGHT TO DO IT.

Global wildlife live under the constant threat of being killed for food, or poached, to be turned into some exotic delicacy or traditional medicine, or to be used in some industrial or commercial process to create a mass-produced product.

We have created a world where we are at war with nature. Where biodiversity has no place in our future. And if we stay on this same course heading we will see the demise of every other species on this planet. And then it will be just us left.

The entire natural environment, and the Earth as a habitat of every living being, can only function and remain sustainable if the world's great forests and other ecological environments remain intact. At some point we need to say enough. Something has to be off-limits. We cannot live everywhere, and use everything, and eat everything and be at peace with the natural world. Our never-ending growth and expansion as a species has lead us to the point where nothing else can live on this planet without facing human induced extinction.

If we continue as though it is business as usual, it will eventually only be humans left on the Earth, and perhaps, if we are lucky, a tiny group of sad and dejected creatures that remain in the few small places we have designated are acceptable for them to exist. Which sadly, are normally for our entertainment and curiosity than their well-being. The idea of the wild or wildlife on Earth will be lost for eternity.

Wild animals deserve to live in the the wild. In forests, and wide open spaces and in nature where they can be free to live without human interference. Not in a city zoo. Not for canned hunting. And not for any human purpose frankly. 

THEY ACTUALLY HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE LEFT ALONE.

AND THEY ACTUALLY HAVE THE RIGHT TO EXIST SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY DO.

NOT TO BE FORCED TO FORM PART OF HUMAN CONSUMERISM AND VALUE CHAINS. OR TO BE WORN, AND EATEN AND USED.

THEIR INNATE VALUE IS THAT THEY LIVE ON THE EARTH WITH US, AND IT IS THEIR HOME TOO.

Is it not time for us to take pause, and consider these things, and for us to finally just stop? There is no balance left in what we do.

We are at war with nature, we are no longer a part of it.

8 BILLION HUMAN BEINGS LIVING ON EARTH IS ENOUGH.

WILL WE ONLY FINALLY DO SOMETHING ABOUT OUR EXPLODING POPULATION GROWTH AND TREAT IT LIKE AN EMERGENCY ONCE THERE ARE NO FORESTS AND RIVERS AND ANIMALS LEFT?

THIS IS JUST NOT SUSTAINABLE.

THIS IS A CRISIS AND IT IS TIME TO START TREATING IT LIKE ONE.

There is deep causality in the relationship between the degradation and destruction of the Earth's Environmental Ecology and the Climate Crisis. If we destroy planetary habitats, if we unabatedly destroy the environmental ecology of the Earth we directly exacerbate and advance Climate Change. These habitats are the biological equivalent of human cities. Millions of years of evolution and biological adaption have made them critically efficient in their function and purpose.

The major difference between natural habitats and human cities and human civilisation is that natural habitats are entirely sustainable, from their waste production and disposal to their energy usage, it is all in balance with the ecosystem and function of the planet. These natural habitats like the Amazon Rainforest put back into the environment exactly what they take out, they return what they use by existing from nature, they are experts at finding homeostasis and maintaining it.

Habitats like the Amazon are by their very design in place to protect and foster life, to help it flourish and perpetuate, not destroy it. We cannot say the same for humans, or our effect on the planet. These environmental habitats like the Amazon are extremely complex interdependent natural systems and they deserve far more respect from all of us. Setting them on fire and chopping them down cannot and should not ever be acceptable or be normalised.

If we don't slow down, and find a way to coexist with nature, the Earth will force us to. That is how environmental systems work.

Climate Change might just be how that occurs. It is highly likely it will have a devastating impact on the global population of humans and threaten our existence on the planet.

And that is why we need to protect places like the Amazon Rainforest. It is all connected.

Human activity in the Amazon Rainforest through starting fires and deforestation means the Amazon is already getting dryer and hotter and staying that way, and it is becoming less able to sustain its own greenhouse process. The more the rainforest burns, the more deforestation that occurs, the harder it becomes for the Amazon to stay alive.

There is a fallacy that seems to exist in which some individuals seem to be of the opinion that forest fires just spring to life all on their own without any assistance in the Amazon. Like the rainforest just spontaneously self-combusts and sets itself on fire.

But the fact is that the Amazon DOES NOT set itself on fire. Naturally occuring reasons for fires to start are very rare and infrequent in the Amazon. Though they very likely do objectively happen, the present crises of fires can in no way be related to naturally occurring phenomena which would result in a forest fire. Almost all the fires in the Amazon Rainforest are started by humans. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.

There are not nearly enough lightening storms occurring in the Amazon to even remotely cause the magnitude and scale of forest fires we are presently seeing, the rainforest is also unsurprisingly naturally quite damp, it is a rainforest after all, and for that reason it is quite hard to just set the forest on fire to begin with. BUT IT IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE. AND HUMANS ARE DOING JUST THAT.

Which brings us to the common argument and excuse used for most of this.

"The Dry Season"

But how do the dryer seasons of the year that naturally occur in the Amazon actually cause fires in the rainforest?

The simple answer to this is that they don't.

When this excuse is used and expounded on as the root cause for all this fiery destruction in the Amazon and is casually mentioned in defense of the status quo pay close attention, because you are being played for a fool. When you are offered the line that it is just simply "the dry season" and it is used as the plain justification and explanation for the massive fires we are presently seeing in the media, or we are told that the fires are completely normal because it is a naturally occurring event and that fires like these happen every year, it is incredibly important we contextualise and qualify that under close scrutiny, and that we consider how they actually start, and moreover who starts them.

Do you want to know who starts those fires?

Humans do.

Simply put the fires are started for the purpose of clearing the land. It contains rainforest trees and wildlife, and if you want to use the land you first need to remove the forest and animals off it. The cheapest way to do that is to burn it. It is called slash-and-burn agriculture or sometimes fire-fallow cultivation.

And that has been happening, quite a lot.

And quite aggressively too.

FOR DECADES.

Which leads one to then naturally question the veracity of claims that this is actually "just normal because it is the dry season." Humans have made it a normal occurrence by repeating it. But this is not something that just occurs in nature. This is not something that is by any means normal or inspired by nature.

So from the perspective of those that start the fires, yes, the fires we are seeing are very much considered normal. TO THEM CREATING A CRISIS EVERY YEAR FOR THE ECOLOGY OF THE AMAZON IS NORMAL. IT IS THEIR WAY OF LIFE.

Ask yourself: If you knowingly and willingly started a fire in a forest would you not logically consider the fact that it burns and destroys everything entirely normal? Well they do. Because that is their way of life. They destroy the Amazon for a living.

And those that start the fires in the Amazon try to focus their activities on burning tracts of land in the rainforest during dryer seasons, because it means the rainforest burns just a bit easier. And the dryer it gets, the more fires they start and the worse the fires get.

That right there is the sole justification and basis for us being told all these fires are normal. It just seems normal to them, so therefore it is normal for everyone. But it isn't.

To put it in a simpler way: To a serial killer, repeatedly murdering people is considered entirely normal. A serial killer would not find what they do upsetting or abnormal from their perspective at all.

But what this is, that is occurring in the Amazon right now, to any sane person is nothing more than environmental genocide and eco-terrorism being committed against the Earth. 

Make no mistake. Those fires don't magically just start because it is the dry season. Rainforests don't just spontaneously set themselves on fire. THEY PROTECT LIFE. THEY ARE ANCIENT HABITATS. AND THEY ABSOLUTELY HATE FIRE. So it is just not possible to claim this situation is in any way normal. According to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) more than 74,000 Amazonian fires had been recorded in the Amazon for the year-to-date, as of August 20th, 2019. An 80% increase over the same time last year.

What that means is that the destruction of the Amazon is just completely out of control, if it was already bad before it has virtually exploded into a virtual war on nature, and it is effectively being consumed by human activity on an epically industrial scale, so much so that the Amazon Rainforest might not be around for very much longer.

And remember, the Amazon Rainforest is 33 million years old. It cannot just be replaced. It will not just grow back overnight. Even if we plant trees and reforest it, those trees, and especially the large and tall ones like the Amazon needs to survive take many, many years to grow. Some are hundreds of years old. What is there now that is untouched by humans will never recover to what it once was if we cut it down and burn it, fires are totally destructive to the forest. Nothing in the Amazon is adapted to survive it.

So it is an understatement to say that the amount of fires that are being set is extremely concerning. 

SOME OF THEM ARE SO LARGE THAT YOU CAN SEE THEM AND THEIR LONG TRAILING PLUMES OF SMOKE CATCHING THE AIR CURRENTS ACROSS THE SOUTH AMERICAN CONTINENT FROM THE VANTAGE POINT OF THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION.

In a rainforest, an ancient 33 million year old habitat like the Amazon, massive firestorms engulfing areas the size of the Island of Manhattan every single day is MOST DEFINITELY NOT NORMAL.

TO BE PERFECTLY OBJECTIVE, NONE OF THIS IS NORMAL. NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM NORMAL.

AND IT IS A GROSSLY DECEITFUL MISREPRESENTATION TO PORTRAY IT AS SUCH.

WHAT IT IS, IS OTHERWISE KNOWN AS DEFORESTATION. AND IT IS BEING DONE FOR COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISE.

THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT IT IS.

THE AMAZON RAINFOREST IS 33 MILLION YEARS OLD AND WE ARE KILLING IT.

To make things worse the death and destruction does not end there. That is really only the beginning. We are doing this to the Amazon to clear the way for pastureland for commercial ranching, livestock farming and agriculture. There is a very good reason why Brazil now has the largest commercial cattle heard (approximately 80 million) in the world.

So effectively what we are doing in the Amazon Rainforest is:

  • Killing the Amazon Rainforest and committing the wholesale ecological genocide of billions upon billions of rare and exotic living beings and causing their untimely extinction. (All while causing untold misery and suffering to these creatures while we do it).

So that we can then:

  • Feed 80 Million heads of cattle, and abuse them at every juncture, constantly and without mercy from the moment they are born to take their milk and harvest their hair and once their usefulness to us has expired they are then processed. (All while causing untold misery and suffering to these creatures while we do it).

So that we can then:

  • Process them - This basically just means cutting their throats while they are still alive, and then hanging them upside down on a hook so that they can then bleed to death. Followed by what amounts to then chopping their bodies up into pieces and finally packaging them. (All while causing untold misery and suffering to these creatures while we do it).

So that we can then:

  • Eat their flesh and their organs and the meat from their bodies. And use their skin to make luggage and furniture and clothes and shoes.

THAT IS EXACTLY WHY THE AMAZON IS BURNING. THAT IS WHY THIS IS HAPPENING.

And it is all considered normal.

Political and industrial interests in South America are telling the world that this situation in the Amazon is normal. That it is in fact not a crisis, and we are all collectively being sensationalist and losing our minds about some fires in the rainforests.

But that is nothing more than the proverbial fox guarding the hen house.

And we are entrusting the future longevity and well-being of the Amazon to them. Those political and industrial interests that propagate themselves on a value chain of death and destruction. Those political and industrial interests that commit ecological genocide, are now supposedly the caretakers of the Amazon Rainforest. They are all that stand between Humanity and the apocalypse.

Should we be surprised then when when they finally open the gates of hell?

If we don't put proper protections in place it is inevitable that they most certainly will.

WE SHOULD ALL BE ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED.

What this all effectively amounts to is that if enough of the Amazon Rainforest is destroyed and killed it will reach a tipping point. It will begin to fail and die all on its own.

Life is actually quite a fragile thing. Perhaps it is time we acknowledged that even though the Amazon is incredibly large and resilient, it can, in actual fact, be killed. It can die.

Scientists warn that we are dangerously close to reaching this tipping point already. And if we reach that tipping point the Amazon will stop producing the greenhouse process that allows it to stay alive, and that keeps it cool, and that keeps it humid, and it will instead be triggered into a process referred to as “dieback” in which the ecology of the Amazon dies off all at once because the greenhouse process can no longer be sustained.

It is after all a rainforest, with special emphasis on the word "rain." If the Amazon can no longer act as a greenhouse it faces a terrifying prospect.

Everything that lives there will die.

The entire habitat will be annihilated and become a Savannah region. Meaning a "treeless plain." And its ambient temperature will significantly heat up. Changing the global climate. Permanently.

To continue burning and killing the Amazon as we presently are for economic gain will doom us all to extinction, and it cannot be construed as anything other than ecological genocide.

The sheer scale and magnitude of plant and animal life that will die off and go extinct is unfathomable.

WE CANNOT ALLOW IT.

The Amazon is an impossibly massive store of carbon, 33 million years of absorbing carbon dioxide will do that. We already release carbon from it every single time we burn any part of the Amazon, and if the Amazon Rainforest is completely destroyed that carbon will then be released back into the environment and atmosphere, and climate change will then most certainly explode out of all control and become irreversible.

What all this carbon being released into the environment in this manner will mean is that the Earth's atmosphere will begin trapping heat from the sun causing it to warm up to unacceptably high levels, the atmosphere of the Earth will effectively start to store heat instead of expelling it, causing a mass die-off of all life on the planet.

This will result in the collapse of global plant life and the death of worldwide ecological systems, resulting in even more animals dying and going extinct all over the world. This cycle will then perpetuate repeatedly. The global die-off of plant life will make the Earth's atmosphere engage in a runaway greenhouse effect. Warming it further.

Remember those plants and trees help cool the planet down. The Amazon Rainforest helps regulate global temperatures. But it can't do that if it is gone.

Severe and extreme weather will become the norm. Global food systems will collapse and fail. Ultimately, wars over resources will break out as the entire human race begins to fall apart and join the ranks of all the dying animals. The rich will find their money worth very little. And in finality it will be every man and woman for them self. Severe droughts will occur over the large continents as weather patterns change dramatically. Ocean levels will rise as polar ice-sheets and the last remaining glaciers melt away too.

THAT THIS IS THE POINT OF ALL OF THIS OUTRAGE.

THIS IS THE FUTURE THAT CLIMATE SCIENTISTS ARE TRYING TO PREVENT.

THIS IS THE REASON THE UNITED NATIONS INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE EXISTS. 

THIS IS WHAT THE PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT THAT SO MANY NATIONS ARE NOT ACTING ON OR TAKING SERIOUSLY OR ADHERING TO IS TRYING TO STOP. 

OUR EXTINCTION.

THE END OF THE HUMAN RACE.

THE END OF ALL LIFE ON EARTH.

Does it not make sense then for us to all protect this incredible natural wonder? To set aside our differences and conflicts as a species to guard the Amazon Rainforest from destruction?

THERE IS NO NATIONAL FLAG LARGE ENOUGH TO COVER THE SHAME OF THIS ATROCITY.

WE ARE HUMANS FIRST. OUR ONLY TRUE NATIONALITY IS HUMANKIND.

And without the Amazon we are inviting nothing less than hell on Earth.

It is the one thing standing between us and oblivion.

As a territory the Amazon Rainforest falls over the national borders of 8 rapidly developing countries, and one overseas dependency of France. Therefore this crisis is first and foremost a transnational issue, it is far bigger than any one country, and it requires an international solution and international protection.

It requires that we make all of our decisions about the Amazon through the lens of climate science.

Not political identity or nationalism or fanaticism. Not notions of statehood and territorial sovereignty. And not for the sake of economic growth.

Our decisions must be made and informed by science. If we destroy the Amazon we cannot stop the Climate Crisis from getting worse. It makes it impossible.

THE EXTINCTION OF HUMANITY WOULD SOON FOLLOW.

Without the Amazon Rainforest we would trigger a process of irreversible Climate Change and a runaway greenhouse effect, which would likely end most life as we know it on planet Earth.

60% of the Rainforest falls within the national borders of Brazil. It has emerged as a flash point recently because of what has been playing out in the world media with dramatic scenes of forest fires engulfing huge swaths of rainforest, so it has been getting the most coverage. But it is not by any means the only part of the Amazon under attack. Other parts of the Amazon in other South American countries like Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru all have similar and equally dire situations occurring in them right now too. The exact same thing is happening in Central African countries as well. And it is absolutely decimating them.

The world's tropical forests are all under attack from human progress and subsistence. So the great hope of this petition with the Amazon is, if we can save the Amazon, then maybe, just maybe, we can save them all.

Since Brazil contains the majority of the Amazon Rainforest within its national borders what happens there affects its survival the most, and is of particular significance. But since the Amazon is objectively quite massive as forests go, this crisis needs to be treated in an holistic manner. It is one singular rainforest, but it has many points of destruction.

To address the obvious concerns of the present situation facing the Amazon Rainforest and its protection, and the purpose of this petition, it is abundantly clear something has gone terribly wrong in the Federative Republic of Brazil. The erosion of their once proud environmental laws and agencies has been detrimental to the protection of the Amazon, and are a notable contributor to some of the circumstances in which we now find ourselves.

THIS PETITION IS NOT DIRECTED AGAINST THE BRAZILIAN PEOPLE.

Indigenous tribes have coexisted peacefully with the Amazon for thousands of years.

However recent events have proven beyond any reasonable doubt that the present Government of the Federative Republic of Brazil care very little for the Global Climate Crisis, Ecological Breakdown or most worryingly the Amazon Rainforest. And the reason we know this is due to ordinary Brazilians, who have bravely raised the alarm to the world and are fighting their leaders to stop this madness. Indigenous tribes are on the front-lines, opposing the bulldozers and fighting the fires and saving the animals. But they cannot do this alone. We must fight this crisis with them. They are depending on us to pressure World Leaders to take bold action to deliver permanent solutions so that this can never happen again. 

The Amazon is also not only under threat due to human inspired wildfires.

Deforestation due to logging, mining, damming and agriculture are just as damaging.

The solution to this immediate crisis, and the future well-being of the Amazon Rainforest is to ensure it is granted permanent international protection so that this can never happen again.

The careless indifference and impunity of President Jair Messias Bolsonaro of the Federative Republic of Brazil, and his arrogance in causing and inspiring this crisis demands swift action.

For this reason it is alarmingly clear that international intervention is required immediately to ensure the survival and longevity of the Amazon Rainforest.

THE WILFUL DESTRUCTION OF THE AMAZON RAINFOREST FOR CORPORATE GREED IS NOTHING LESS THAN A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY.

This cannot be who we are as a species. Surely the human race must be better than this? Has all our evolutionary success, our vast intellect, and our unlimited resourcefulness amounted to nothing more than our untimely demise?

We can create a better world if we but have the will to do so. It is undoubtedly within the scope of our abilities as a species to overcome this crisis.

But it requires a common global vision, and that each and every one of us respond effectively toward this vision and its aims in our own individual capacities without delay in order to rise to the challenge of this common threat. We need to seek to urgently adapt every aspect of the way we exist and function on this Earth in order to achieve this aim. And to be wholly open to making those adaptations and changes even if they are uncomfortable, or challenge our idea of what is normal. Whether it be our diet and our food systems. The way we power our societies. The way we transport ourselves. Or finding an acceptable and fair solution to our exploding global population growth. Everything should be up for negotiation and be subject to revision if there is a sound scientific and ethical basis to do so.

This crisis also requires we set aside our differences and genuinely cooperate toward a common imperative. If we can but find a way to move past our petty human tribalism, these daft notions of "us" and "them", our nuclear weapon sabre-rattling, and conceptions of nationality, race, and culture, we can achieve a better world for every single living being on earth.

BUT IF WE DESTROY THIS WORLD THAT WILL BE THE END OF US. THE STORY OF HUMANITY WILL COME TO A CLOSE. THE AGE OF HUMANKIND WILL DIE WITH OUR PLANET.

THAT IS THE CHOICE WE NOW FACE.

WE MUST PROTECT THE EARTH. IT’S THE ONLY HOME WE HAVE.

WE DARE NOT FAIL.

Help stop this madness.

There is no future without the Amazon.

Unite behind the science.

Raise the alarm, share the Global Petition, and lets get permanent protection for the Amazon before it's too late.

#ActForTheAmazon #OneBillionStrong

 

EXPANDED ITERATION OF STIPULATED DEMANDS:

  • Robust Emergency Action: Immediate and unprecedented international emergency action to put out all the fires that are burning right now in the Amazon Rainforest using all means necessary and the provision of emergency medical, veterinary, and humanitarian assistance. Followed up by action to remove, drawback and immediately end all commercial and industrial activity in the Amazon Rainforest.
  • Declaring the Amazon Rainforest a permanently PROTECTED GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL SANCTUARY and a TRANSNATIONAL PRESERVE across all affected South American states for all time, in perpetuity. (This declaration should fundamentally equate to nothing less than the Amazon Rainforest being politically and legally insulated from all modern human activity in South America, with accorded international protections and the complete and unconditional withdrawal of all agricultural, industrial and commercial enterprise and modern human settlements with the explicit exception of non-invasive ancient pre-industrial indigenous tribes and first nations, affording the Rainforest the highest international legal environmental protections, which must be enforceable and binding, violations of which should be unacceptable, and backed up with criminal sanctions to ensure such protections are guaranteed.)
  • The setup of an International Fund officiated and administered by the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund to ensure the permanent and continued protection and enforcement of the PROTECTED GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL SANCTUARY status of the Amazon Rainforest.
    The payment of reparations to all those who will need to be permanently relocated and/or whose business will be affected by the permanent designation and status change of the Amazon Rainforest to that of a PROTECTED GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL SANCTUARY to save and preserve the natural environment of the Amazon Rainforest.
  • Urgent interventions to RESTORE the Amazon Rainforest to its former unbroken, contiguous, and unified pristine natural state, free from all forms of industrial and commercial activity, or expanding human encroachment, and especially deforestation so that all beings who live in it can do so without threat to their habitat in any manner.
  • Through international treaty or convention the protections of the Amazon Rainforest shall be codified into law and into all appending statute books as a PROTECTED GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL SANCTUARY and TRANSNATIONAL PRESERVE by all affected South American states who fall within the territorial confines of the Amazon Rainforest.
  • The immediate and non-negotiable end of all activity leading to deforestation, namely logging, mining and damming and the immediate restoration and return to the Amazon Rainforest of all these territories, lands and areas which have been subject to such activities and expropriated for such purpose.
    The immediate end of all Bio-Piracy and Smuggling of rare and exotic animals from the Amazon Rainforest and that all respective domestic, regional, and international legal frameworks impose the highest form of legal and criminal sanction for violating such laws.
  • The end of all commercial fishing that impacts directly on the immediate dependencies, ecosystems, and the natural survival of the Amazon Rainforest forthwith and without delay, forever and in perpetuity without negotiation.
    The immediate and non-negotiable end to all ranching, livestock farming and agriculture IN THE IMMEDIATE AREA of the Amazon Rainforest forthwith and without delay, and the return of all lands which have been expropriated for this purpose to the Amazon Rainforest.
  • The RETURN of all land and territory to the Amazon Rainforest that has been claimed for any commercial or agricultural activity.
  • The total and unyielding prohibition and banning of the encroachment of any modern human settlements on the Amazon Rainforest for all time and in perpetuity, and the stipulation and enforcement of a 5 Kilometre / 3.1 Mile EXCLUSION ZONE surrounding the peripheral extent of the Amazon Rainforest that explicitly deems that any future or existing civic planning is prohibited from violating or encroaching on the territorial integrity of the Amazon Rainforest or the said EXCLUSION ZONE in any manner for all time. This should be done in tandem with a drawback and resettlement process which should be conducted in order to remove and demolish any encroaching and expanding modern human settlements that do not originate from non-invasive ancient pre-industrial indigenous tribes and first nations.

 

Closing Remarks:

It is the intention of this petition that the international legal framework and fundamental environmental rights it seeks to establish will not begin and end with the Amazon Rainforest. Those rights and the protections that emanate from them, it is envisaged, will serve as the first of such ambitious endeavours. As benchmarks, which when established will seek to infer the very same rights and protections they provide to the Amazon Rainforest be extended to all critically threatened global environmental habitats and biodiverse tropical forests, in order to create a new era of international conservation and ecological protection. One in which humankind is not held in any higher esteem under the law over the rights and welfare of animals and their habitats.

It is imperative that we seek to end human conflict with nature in competition for the Earth’s resources, to take a higher path in which the natural ecology of the planet is held as sacrosanct, that we actively seek to avoid the destruction of the the natural world, and to ensure that its rights are upheld and respected, so that its protection and survival is placed front and centre on the agenda, above the desires of human interest or ambition. And not to serve it, as is the case right now.

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