Feeling helpless about Amazon rainforest on fire? You don’t have to. As a European you can help stop the blaze!
The Amazon is being burned for the sake of cheap meat. A disastrous EU-Brazil trade deal will make it worse. Halt the Mercosur negotiations now!
The burning of the Amazon is out of control. And it's being set on fire for cheap meat. As Europeans, we can help!
The EU is negotiating a trade deal with South America, similar to TTIP, called Mercosur. For the right-wing Brazilian President Bolsonaro it is a very big deal to get it signed. The EU should halt the negotiations until Brazil’s Amazon fires are stopped and human rights violations are addressed.
With the blessing of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, illegal loggers are mounting an all-out assault on our planet’s “green lung”. First they cut down the trees, then they burn the land and use it for agriculture. They are destroying its vital carbon stores, and the hundreds of thousands of species who call it home. All to help the meat industry. [1]
And Europe is about to add fuel to the fire! The EU is talking about signing a “new TTIP” with South America: Mercosur. It is a deal to import cheap beef, soy, wood and other products grown on the Amazon’s ashes.
Mercosur is president Bolsonaro’s pride and joy. And he knows the stakes are huge: The EU is Brazil’s second largest trade partner. Mercosur has been negotiated for over 20 years and free trade worshipper Bolsonaro boasts about how he will get it signed. [2] With the negotiations still open, the EU has a powerful way to put pressure on Bolsonaro to save the Amazon.
As Europeans, we must mobilise immediately and in huge numbers, and tell our leaders to instantly halt the Mercosur negotiations.
SIGN to stop the EU-Mercosur trade deal!
The trade deal between the EU and Mercosur -- aka Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay -- would allow commodities from those countries to be fast-tracked into Europe, fattening corporate pockets on both sides.
The politicians behind the deal claim it includes a “commitment to tackle deforestation” -- but over 600 scientists, two Brazilian indigenous organisations and 340 civil society groups are calling foul. [3] Europe must not reward Bolsonaro and his corporate cronies for the unspeakable rainforest and climate devastation that has occurred since he took office just eight months ago.
Deforestation isn’t the only reason we should be worried about the Mercosur agreement. If it passes, Europe will be importing a whole lot more fruit and veg treated with banned pesticides. [4] Thanks to Bolsonaro’s loosened regulations, megacorporations like Syngenta have been churning out chemicals in Brazil that they aren’t allowed to make here. They’re sprayed all over crops that could soon reach our supermarket shelves – unless we block this deal right now.
SIGN for the health of our planet
Can ordinary people like you and me really make a difference in halting a years-in-the-making treaty between world superpowers? Of course we can! Remember TTIP? When the EU and US were on the verge of signing an agreement that would’ve flooded Europe with hormone-treated meat and GMO produce, people like you joined a three-million-strong citizens’ movement to stop it -- and your pressure got the deal called off.
Now, we’ve got to push back against Mercosur and convince the new, greener European Parliament and the new European leaders who declare they want to fight for climate that there can be no deal as long as the Amazon is burning.
Thank you!
Marta (Warsaw), Andrew (Amsterdam), Fatima (London) and the entire WeMove Europe team
PS Italy, Ireland, and France have already voiced doubts about Mercosur [5] -- an avalanche of public opposition could tip the scales and turn all of Europe against this dangerous new partnership. So please, will you add your name now?
References:
[1] https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/23/americas/brazil-beef-amazon-rainforest-fire-intl/index.html
https://www.wired.com/story/humans-more-than-drought-are-fueling-the-amazons-flames/
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/climate-change-oxygen-biodiversity-amazon-rainforest-fires-leave-plenty-stake-n1045446[2]
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-argentina-brazil-bolsonaro/brazils-bolsonaro-says-mercosur-will-soon-sign-eu-trade-deal-idUSKCN1T72BV
[3] https://www.s2bnetwork.org//letter-brasil-bolsonaro-eu-mercosur/
[4] https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/pesticides-brazil-jair-bolsonaro-amazon-deforestation-agribusiness-a8957261.html
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/12/hundreds-new-pesticides-approved-brazil-under-bolsonaro
[5] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/23/ireland-could-oppose-trade-deal-brazil-fails-stop-amazon-fires-leo-varadkar