Dr Miguel Nicolelis of Duke University tells us that the P1 Manaus variant of Covid currently ravaging Brazil is a threat to the world.
The doctor lays the majority of blame for the country’s spiralling death-toll on President Jair Bolsanoro, who he believes is “most responsible” for the new wave of coronavirus infections.
The twelve months up to July 2020 were the worst in over a decade
for deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. An estimated 11,000km2 of
primary forest was cleared between August 2019 and July 2020 not since
2008 has the rate of clearance been so high. 11,000km2 is equivalent to
an area 14 times the size of New York City.
New data released at the end of last year by PRODES a satellite monitoring project run by the Brazilian government which detects signs of clear cutting in the Amazon shows that deforestation rose by an estimated 9.5% compared to the previous twelve months.
The data also shows that the Amazon state of Pará is a major hotspot for deforestation, accounting for almost 50% of the 2020 total. According to data from Global Forest Watch, Pará had the second largest area of forest cover of all Brazilian states in 2010 which accounts in part for its role in the national deforestation rate.