Trade war imperils Amazon rainforest, experts warn

[Judi Lynn]

Date:
March 28, 2019
Source:
Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)
Summary:
Last year, the United States of America imposed tariffs of up to 25 percent on goods imported from China. The Chinese government reacted by imposing tariffs of 25 percent on US goods, including US soybeans. Exports of US soybeans to China in 2018 dropped by 50 percent, even though the trade war had begun in the middle of the year only. Replacement may be provided by Brazil. This might have dramatic impacts on the rainforest, experts warn.


Last year, the United States of America imposed tariffs of up to 25% on goods imported from China. The Chinese government reacted by imposing tariffs of 25% on US goods, including US soybeans. Exports of US soybeans to China in 2018 dropped by 50%, even though the trade war had begun in the middle of the year only. Replacement may be provided by Brazil. This might have dramatic impacts on the rainforest, KIT experts warn.

"As a consequence of the trade war, we fear large-scale deforestation in Brazil. In the past, exponential increase in global soybean demand regularly led to deforestation in the Amazon rainforest to create new cultivation areas. In 2016, China imported 37.6 million tons of soybean from the US, which now have to be supplied by other producers. Brazil is the only country which could satisfy Chinese demand quickly enough," says climate researcher Richard Fuchs. Together with his colleagues Calum Brown and Mark Rounsevell from the Atmospheric Environmental Research Division of KIT's Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research and other European scientists, he studies potential impacts and warns of the consequences in a comment of the Nature magazine.

Brazil is by far the largest producer of soybeans, followed by the US and Argentina. Around 90 other countries, including China itself, together produce just about as much soybeans as Brazil alone. In the course of the US-China trade war, China's soybean import from Brazil climbed to a new record value of 75%. Soy is a crop that is mainly used as animal feed in meat industry. To an increasing extent, it is applied for the production of biofuel.

More:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190328102600.htm

[progree]

1. Speaking of China

Push for more coal power in China imperils climate, AFP, 3/28/19

... The industry's powerful China Electrical Council called this month for ramping up the national coal power capacity to as much as 1,300 gigawatts by 2030, a 30 percent increase compared to today's levels.

With nearly 1,000 GW in operation, China accounts for about half the world's coal-fired power, with the United States (259 GW) and India (221 GW) a distant second and third, according to the Global Coal Plant Tracker.

... China's CO2 emissions dipped from 2014-2016, but coal use -- and carbon pollution -- picked up again after that. Satellite imagery from 2017 and last year also showed that construction on some of the half-built plants had resumed, underscoring a rift between Beijing and provinces that rely on heavy industry.

"Chinese leaders appear to have got cold feet and opened the credit spigot again from late 2015, which may explain why coal consumption and CO2 emissions started to rebound in 2017," researchers from the Oslo-based CICERO climate research group noted in an analysis.

... Beijing has handled this dilemma -- employment and growth versus health -- with massive investment in better coal-plant filters, and a shift to gas and electricity, which has improved air quality.

More: https://news.yahoo.com/push-more-coal-power-china-imperils-climate-082131532.html