This week, we explore the causes behind the Pantanal crisis, one of the worst environmental disasters in Brazil’s recent memory. And the little-known cases of child abduction during the dictatorship are taken to the UN.
How the Pantanal wetlands became a graveyard of ashes
After four months of drought, it has finally rained in the Pantanal region — the world’s largest wetland, famed for its wildlife. The precipitation has mitigated several blazes across the biome, which has seen unprecedented levels of destruction in 2020. By August 3, fires had destroyed 1.2 million hectares of land in the Pantanal; a month later, the Brazilian Environmental Agency (Ibama) estimated that 2.9 million hectares had been affected — which represents 19 percent of the entire region.
- No less than 90 percent of the Sesc Pantanal Reserve — the main conservation site dedicated to research in the wetlands — has been destroyed. The fires are not only devastating to fauna and flora but may also affect scientific study for years to come.
How it happened. Antônio Nobre, a researcher at the National Institute for Space Research, compares Brazil’s “climate dystopia” to a plane crash. “It’s never one reason, but a multitude of factors that lead...