New Scientist - USA (2020-03-21)

14 | New Scientist | 21 March 2020

Conservation

Adam Vaughan

Shrinking Amazon

Weak law enforcement may be behind record deforestation levels

News

DEFORESTATION of the Amazon

has continued at record levels this

year, leading observers to warn

that the rainforest is disappearing

faster than ever before.

Under Brazilian president Jair

Bolsonaro, who has encouraged

clearance of parts of the Amazon

for development, the area of

rainforest destroyed between

August 2018 and July 2019 jumped

by nearly 30 per cent to its highest

level in a decade.

With official data from

Brazil’s National Institute for

Space Research (INPE) now in for

January and February 2020, it is

clear there has been no let-up

for the Amazon. A 470-square-

kilometre area, around the size of

Andorra, was lost in this period, up

about 70 per cent on a year ago.

The new figures are particularly

troubling because this time of year

usually sees relatively little loss, as

the rainforest is still in the rainy

season and it is harder to set fires.

“The data shows a trend

and it is likely that in 2020 we

will see a continued increase

in deforestation as the year

progresses, especially as we

move towards the dry season,

when deforestation peaks,” says

Erika Berenguer at the University

of Oxford.

The area of forest lost is the

largest reported in a January and

February period since 2015, which

is when INPE introduced a more

powerful, high-resolution version

of its satellite deforestation alert

“The two groups both

need insulin. But they may

have got there through a

different pathway”

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Health

Type 1 diabetes

may come in two

different forms

THERE could be more kinds of

type 1 diabetes than we thought,

a finding that might lead to

changes in treatment.

In type 1 diabetes, the immune

system attacks the pancreas cells

that make the sugar-regulating

hormone insulin.

The age someone is diagnosed

with type 1 diabetes seems to

be linked to the severity of their

symptoms. “A child diagnosed

before the age of 5 is likely to have

a more severe form of disease

than someone over 30,” says

Sarah Richardson at the University

of Exeter, UK.

To find out why, she and her

colleagues looked at 32 pancreas

samples from young people with

diabetes who died in the 1950s.

They found two distinct categories.

In the first, some pancreases didn’t

appear to make insulin properly

and experienced a stronger immune

system attack. In the other, the

samples contained fewer immune

cells and there were also signs

that the pancreases were better

at making insulin.

The team then looked at blood

samples from 171 people who

had been diagnosed with type 1

diabetes before they turned 30,

and found they seemed to fall into

the same two categories. People

whose type 1 diabetes involved

poor insulin production and a

stronger immune attack tended to

be under the age of 7, while those

diagnosed at 13 and up usually

fell into the category of people

whose pancreases contained fewer

immune cells. Those aged between

7 and 12 when diagnosed could fall

in either category (Diabetologia,

doi.org/dpvj).

For now, “the outcome is the

same: both need insulin. But they

may have got there through a

different pathway”, says Richardson.

In future, she thinks they may need

different treatments. ❚

Jessica Hamzelou

Trees are being cut down

to make room to develop

the Amazon

was at the beginning of 2016,

when the Amazon was severely

affected by a mega-drought

driven by the El Niño climate

phenomenon. Deforestation

tends to rise at times of drought.

This time, the only likely

explanation is that illegal loggers

have been emboldened by a lack

of law enforcement, says Nobre.

“The increase in the rates of

deforestation cannot be explained

by any climatic factor. It is likely

to be due solely to the sense of

impunity of the environmental

criminals that law enforcement

is very weak and absent.”

The preliminary data from

DETER means official annual

deforestation figures for 2020,

counted from August 2019 to July

2020, are likely to eclipse those

of last year, which saw the highest

losses since 2008, says Berenguer.

“Unless there is a strong

governmental response to the

increase in deforestation, 2020

is panning out to be even worse

than 2019,” she says.  ❚

system, DETER.

“The trend indicated by the

DETER system is very worrying.

It has shown a continued rate

of increase of deforestation in

comparison to one year ago,” says

Carlos Nobre at the University of

São Paulo, Brazil.

The rate is even higher than it

Area deforested in January and February in square kilometres