*[Enwl-eng] Amazon fires: you can help!
ENWLine
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The Amazon rainforest is burning like hell to secure new farmland. The EU is about to add fuel to the fire by signing a disastrous trade deal. Let’s stop it. You signed this petition last year, now it’s time to spread the word to family and friends. |
Hi,
Chainsaws screech through the forest, birds and monkeys flee. The giant tree falls crashing, the trunk is shipped to Europe, the remaining branches burn. Strong and healthy rainforest turns into monoculture farmland.
Now the EU wants to increase the demand for farmland by signing a massive trade agreement with a group of four South American countries called Mercosur. [1] This EU-Mercosur deal is like pouring gasoline on the fire.
But, there is a chance for us to get this deal stopped: Leaders from France, the Netherlands, and Austria already announced they won’t sign the deal in its current form. [2]
The EU is now negotiating the final agreement and countries are pushing for their own interests. All we need is one country to totally block it.
You signed this petition last year, now the fires are accelerating again, and we need to up the pressure, to make sure EU countries say no to this deal, whatever form it takes. Please share our call widely with family and friends. Together we can stop the deal.
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The EU-Mercosur agreement is essentially about exchanging beef, soy, and wood (grown on the Amazon's ashes) with gas-guzzling cars and toxic pesticides that aren’t even allowed in the EU anymore. [3]
Far-right leader of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro is confident the EU will sign and has been encouraging big agribusiness to burn down the rainforest since he came into office two years ago. The irretrievable loss of primeval rainforest has been accelerating ever since. [4]
Burning down the forest destroys its vital carbon stores and heats up the climate. This comes along with the displacement and murder of indigenous people and also the extinction of thousands of species that call the forest their home. [5]
But we won’t stand for this, and our movement is growing and internationally connected. Over 600 scientists, two Brazilian indigenous organisations and 340 civil society groups are calling to stop the deal. [6] Now we, more than 1.5 million Europeans [7], are joining the call by sharing this petition.
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Can ordinary people like us really make a difference in stopping a years-in-the-making treaty between world superpowers? Of course, we can! Remember TTIP? [8] When the EU and the 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. In the end, the agreement was canceled.
Let's do it again!
David (London), Jörg (Lübeck), Marta (Warsaw) and the entire WeMove Europe team
PS. If the EU-Mercosur agreement passes, Europe will be importing a whole lot more fruit and vegetables treated with pesticides banned in the EU. [9] Megacorporations like Syngenta and Bayer-Monsanto have been churning out chemicals, especially in Brazil, that they aren’t allowed to sell here. [10] Share the petition and help to save the Amazon now!
References:
[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercosur
[2]
https://www.irishexaminer.com/farming/arid-40016444.html
[3]
https://www.foeeurope.org/sites/default/files/eu-us_trade_deal/2020/en_eu-mercosur_paper.pdf
[4]
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/28/studies-add-to-alarm-over-deforestation-in-brazil-under-bolsonaro-covid-19
[5]
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-52135362
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/08/amazon-fires-indigenous-lands/596908/
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/08/how-the-amazon-rainforest-wildfires-will-affect-wild-animals/
[6]
http://s2bnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Joint-letter-Brazil-EU-Mercosur.pdf
[7]
WeMove Europe is counting signatures together with SumOfUs. Other organisations
like Campact, Greenpeace, Foodwatch and others are collecting with similar
demands. Together we're more than 15 million and growing.
[8]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_Trade_and_Investment_Partnership
[9]
https://www.foeeurope.org/sites/default/files/eu-us_trade_deal/2020/en_eu-mercosur_paper.pdf
[10]
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/12/hundreds-new-pesticides-approved-brazil-under-bolsonaro
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/pesticides-brazil-jair-bolsonaro-amazon-deforestation-agribusiness-a8957261.html
WeMove Europe is an independent and values-based organisation that seeks to build people power to transform Europe in the name of our community, future generations and the planet.
WeMove Europe is funded by donations from our community across Europe. Can you chip in with a few euros a month and help make sure we can move fast to win the campaigns that matter to all of us? Donate
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