Greenpeace has hung a banner on the headquarters of the European Commission in Brussels, blaming them for the Amazon fires.
The banner, which Greenpeace announced with a tweet on Friday morning, reads “Amazon fires - Europe guilty.”
“The world’s forests and other ecosystems are being destroyed to make way for expanding agriculture,” Greenpeace said in a statement.
“Forests are essential for life,” they said. “They are our best defence against climate breakdown.”
“Through its consumption of agricultural products, the EU is responsible for over 10% of global forest destruction, from the Amazon to the Congo Basin to Indonesia,” according to the organisation.
“The EU is asking the public what they should do to help stop deforestation,” Greenpeace pointed out. “The answer is simple: a new EU law to protect forests by keeping any product that comes from forest destruction off the European market.”
There were nearly 30,000 fires in the Amazon in August, Belga News Agency reported, and in the first days of September alone, a thousand fires were recorded in the Brazilian Amazon, according to data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE).
Jason Spinks
The Brussels Times
