23 November 2019 | New Scientist | 7DESTRUCTION of the Amazon
over the past year hit its highest
level in more than a decade.
Satellite data from the Brazilian
space agency gave the first official
confirmation that deforestation
has soared since Jair Bolsonaro
became president in January on
a promise to develop the Amazon.
Between August 2018 and July
2019, there was a loss of nearly
10,000 square kilometres of
forest, the worst since 2008.
Logging and burning of the
world’s greatest rainforest jumped
by 29.5 per cent in that period
compared with the year before,
to 9762 square kilometres.
Observers noted that this is the
biggest annual increase in more
than two decades. It also ends aperiod of relatively stable losses.
The average between 2012 and
2018 was 6727 square kilometres.
Gilberto Camara, ex-director
of the space agency, tweeted
that the trend was “terrible” and
showed a very strong upward
swing. He predicted losses could
reach 12,000 square kilometres
next year, if no action is taken.
The figures don’t cover some of
the worst deforestation detected
between August and October.
Although laws protecting the
Amazon are still in place in Brazil,
Bolsonaro’s rhetoric and a drop
in enforcement has led him to beaccused of encouraging logging
operations (pictured above, in
Para state) that clear and burn
trees. More than 180,000 fires
have been recorded this year,
resulting in global attention and
pressure due to the sheer number
of blazes across the Amazon.
Brazilian environment minister
Ricardo Salles suggested that
deforestation has been rising since
2012, well before Bolsonaro took
over. “Yes, it was, but it was pretty
stable,” says Erika Berenguer at the
University of Oxford. “It wasn’t
an increase like this. That’s a
misrepresentation of reality.” ❚Satellite monitoring confirms that loss of the rainforest has
taken a dramatic turn for the worse, reports Adam VaughanAstronomyStarlink obscures
images of the sky
ELON MUSK’s SpaceX is
interfering with astronomy
again, after its second batch
of Starlink satellites got in
the way of observations.
SpaceX launched 60 new
Starlink communications
satellites into orbit on 11
November, bringing the total
number of satellites it has in
low Earth orbit up to 120.
After the first launch, in
May, astronomers noted that
the satellites were extremely
bright, prompting concerns
that the thousands of
satellites that SpaceX plans
to launch could interfere
with scientific research and
views of the night sky.
The newly launched
satellites interfered with
astronomical observations
at the Cerro Tololo Inter-
American Observatory
(CTIO) in northern Chile on
18 November. Astronomers
were using the Dark Energy
Camera (DECam), which can
take images of large areas
of the night sky in visible and
near-infrared wavelengths
of light.
“I am in shock,” wrote
astronomer Clara Martinez-
Vazquez at CTIO on Twitter,
in reference to the Starlink
satellites. “Our DECam
exposure was heavily
affected by 19 of them,”
she tweeted. “The train
of Starlink satellites lasted
for over 5 minutes!”
SpaceX says it plans to
make the base of future
Starlink satellites black to
help mitigate the impacts on
astronomical observations,
and will adjust satellite
orbits if required. ❚
Donna LuVanishing Amazon
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