INTRODUCCIÓN

Otra explosión de Naturaleza surcada por un río, el Amazonas, también repleto de superlativos:

• el más caudaloso del planeta, conteniendo más agua que los ríos Nilo, Yangtsé y Misisipi juntos;

• el que posee la cuenca hidrográfica más grande, representando aproximadamente una quinta parte del total de caudal fluvial a nivel mundial;

• el que cuenta con más afluentes, superando de largo el millar;

• aquel que atraviesa nueve países, rivalizando con el Nilo por ser el de mayor longitud;

• con un ancho de hasta 190 kilómetros en temporada húmeda;

• con ese estuario en su desembocadura de 240 kilómetros de anchura, dando cobijo a más de tres mil especies de peces;

• Y todo, eso sí, sin tener apenas puentes.

• Se sabe que el Amazonas vierte tanto caudal en el océano Atlántico que, a mar abierto, a más de 160 kilómetros de su desembocadura, su agua todavía sigue siendo dulce.

Detrás de tantos millones de hectáreas consumidas por el fuego subsisten demasiados intereses económicos. Así lo denuncia Susana, esa activista de una ONG que desde la ciudad de Manaos –en el corazón de este bosque tropical- lucha incansablemente contra tal deforestación. Apasionada de la síntesis, si puede decir algo en dos palabras, no te lo dirá en tres. Es cuestión de respeto.

Mediadora ante las comunidades indígenas, aquel lunes 19 de agosto de 2019 asistió a otra reunión en la ciudad de Sao Paulo, constatando que allí el humo procedente de tales incendios provocó durante la tarde una inmensa oscuridad. Bajo la luz de otra Luna menguante, de su garganta encendida brotó un sentido ¡Ya basta!

Como afirmara en su exposición, si seguimos destruyendo el bosque amazónico, pronto llegaremos al punto de inflexión donde ese espacio pierda la capacidad de reciclar su humedad.

• Cuando los árboles mueren, pasa menos vapor de agua al aire disminuyendo las lluvias y aumentando el riesgo de sequías. De hecho, hay expertos que ven cercano ese punto de no retorno, refiriéndose ya a la sabanización de su selva y pronosticando que en los próximos treinta años la superficie quemada en este paraíso natural se habrá duplicado, con incendios cada vez más devastadores.

• A todo ello hemos de sumar el incremento abusivo de la tala de árboles por parte de la industria maderera y el aumento generalizado de la inflamabilidad de esa selva: en espacios clareados, la mayor radiación solar reduce la humedad facilitando el inicio/propagación de cualquier incendio, su invasión por pastos o arbustos altamente inflamables, y complicando su extinción. Asimismo, lo que quede de bosque tendrá más difícil recuperarse.

Aun cuando esté demasiado lejos de ser exacta, Susana sabe que las palabras son cera y las obras son acero… que ninguno de nosotros es tan bueno como todos nosotros juntos… que cuanto más se entregue a una causa, más se llevará de ella… que cuando vemos algún Colibrí, es porque un alma alada nos vino a visitar. Sabe que aún tenemos las herramientas para salvar la Amazonia; solo tenemos que usarlas.

Once upon a time…

The Amazon rainforest, a natural space full of excesses: 55 million years of existence… the largest rainforest in the planet among 9 nations, with nearly 400 million trees… home for the largest number of animal species in the world -many of them exclusive- such as the Jaguar, the Giant Otter, the Electric Eels or the Tapir of South America… a life-giving spring, having reported to be the main carbon dioxide sink in Earth… That’s why in 2011 it was declared one of the seven natural wonders of the world. And of course, full of mysteries, estimating that more than 100 wild tribes still inhabit it, of which nobody knows anything. Not least, new plant and animal species are still being discovered, like the Mura tamarin monkeys recently found in one of its most remote areas.

Another explosion of Nature crossed by a river, the Amazon, also full of superlatives: the largest in the planet containing more water than the Nile, Yangtze and Mississippi rivers together… the one with the largest hydrographic basin, representing approximately one fifth of the total river flow at level world….the one with the most tributaries, greatly exceeding one thousand, the one that crosses 9 countries rivalling the Nile for being the longest… with a width up to 190 km in the wet season… with that estuary at its mouth of 240 km wide. giving shelter to more than 3000 species of fish… And all this without having hardly any bridges.

It is known that the Amazon river dumps so much flow into the Atlantic Ocean that, in the open sea, more than 160 kilometres from its mouth, its water is still fresh.

However, this greatness can collapse due to the greed of a species that wishes it for another purpose: Humans. In the last half century, Brazil has consumed practically 12% of the rainforest, which is the equivalent of almost 78.000.000 hectares of the Amazon. In it, as in Amazon, everything seems better than it really is.

During August 2019, 30,901 forest fires were registered in its territory -almost three times the number in the same period of the previous year-, mostly intentional, in order to use the soil for livestock purposes, mining exploitation or intensive cultivation of other products such as soybeans and tobacco.

According to the National Institute for Space Research of Brazil –INPE-, only in this month, a total of 1698 square kilometres of vegetation which coverage in the Brazilian Amazon were lost, 222% more than in August of the previous year. In the first eight months of the year the number of fires increased only in Brazil until 91 893 representing an interannual increase of 76%. The disaster affected even other non-Amazonian biomes such as the humid forests of Argentina and Paraguay.

Behind so many millions of hectares destroyed by the fire, there are too many economic interests. So says Susana, an activist of an NGO that, from the city of Manaus -in the heart of this tropical forest - fights tirelessly against such deforestation. Passionate about synthesis, brevity is the soul of wit. It is a matter of respect.

She is mediator between the indigenous communities and the state, and on Monday, August 19, 2019, attended another meeting in the city of Sao Paulo and noting that there, the smoke from such fires caused during the afternoon an immense darkness under the light of another waning moon, from his burning throat it sprouted a touching: It’s enough!

As she said, if we continue destroying the Amazon rainforest, we will soon reach the turning point in which that space loses the ability to recycle its moisture. When the trees die, less water vapour passes into the air, decreasing rainfall and increasing the risk of droughts. In fact, there are experts who think we are close to this point of no return, referring to the savannization of its rainforest and predicting that in the next 30 years the burned area in this natural paradise will have doubled, with increasingly devastating fires. To all these factors, we must add the abusive increase of the felling of trees by the timber industry and the generalized increase in the flammability of that forest: in cleared spaces, the greater solar radiation reduces humidity facilitating the start and spread of any fire, its invasion by highly flammable grasses or shrubs and complicating its extinction. Besides, what remains of the forest will be more difficult to recover.

Even when it is too far from being exact, Susana knows that words are wax and works are steel…. that none of us is as good as all of us together… that the more she gives herself to a cause, the more it will take from it…that whenever we see a Hummingbird, it is because a winged soul came to visit us. She knows that we still have the tools to save the Amazon; we just have to use them.

From that imagination that we will never relinquish, a certain spring I gave her this story about those carnivals that we are so passionate about. Only in its Amazon she would find more colour palettes, only in that tropical space she would hear more beautiful sounds…But also, paradoxically, only in such a rain forest she would find more fire.