where he saturdayed international criticism of his stance on the amazon. he tried to suggest that the fires were part of the burn here. we re seeing the military heading up here. 43,000 were supposed to go to the amazon, in general. and we saw the cargo planes here, probably part of the broader effort. there s no doubt of the science that is 85% more fires than burning last year. an area, equivalent to 1 1/2 football pitches is being deforested. and there s a number of fires. there s an enormous task here and the brazilian army doesn t have the capability to deal with it fast. many hoping for ranls. will that curb the effort or curb the spread of the fire?
we look at satellite date a fro 1987. fast-forward to 2019, you can see the square, brownish areas. a lot of cattle ranchers, a lot of logging taking place there. we have heard, from some of the data, the deforestation, through 2016, that s occurred in the amazon, the entire basin as a whole, spanning several countries, has taken down as much as the equivalent size of france. we re talking about a large area that s deforested. and the thing about the amazon, it is a carbon sink. it stores the greenhouse gases that you and i emit. if we deforest and remove the rain forest, that s a bad thing. that will release the carbon in the atmosphere.
i think what triggered these things, earlier this week, the skies turned dark. the skies returned to blue here, and things are back to normal. it appeared that the whole world took notice not only here in brazil, but something needed to be done. as we go to the amazon and take a look at some of the pictures there. the amazon basin accounts for 10 to 15% of the biodiversity that exists on earth. since the 70s we ve seen 1.5 million square miles destroyed. much of it for agriculture. deforested so they can have their cattle and planting of soybeans. the president here since he s
which finds that growing food from india to iowa will only get harder as the climate gets harsher. we re going to see by mid-century, by current projections that our number of days above 90 degrees is going to rise from about 17 days per year above 90 degrees in des moines. that will be up mora like 50 to 70. the report finds that about three-quarters of the world s ice-free surface has been paved, plowed or deforested. great for economies, horrible for nature s cycles. with all of the diesel and fertilizer used to grow the modern meal, they say agriculture is to blame for nearly a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions. here ate go here ate good news, every corn plant in the field is pulling carbon out of the sky and putting it into the ground and with financial motivation, a smart farmer can leave it there
projections that our number of days above 90 degrees is going to rise from about 17 days per year above 90 degrees in des moines. that will be more up like 50 to 70. reporter: the report finds three-quarters of the earth s ice-paved surface has paved, plowed or deforested. great for economies. horrible for nature s cycles. with all the diesel and fertilizer used to grow the modern meal, they say agriculture is to blame for nearly a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions. but here s the good news. right now every corn plant in this field is pulling carbon out of the sky and putting it in the ground. with the right amount of innovation and financial motivation, a smart farmer can leave it there and still field the world. iowa could be one giant carbon sink. unlike miners and drillers and fraccers. they don t have to change careers in order to help save life as we know it. just listen to all the birds