Category: Fires

The Brazilian space research center INPE says the Amazon will experience more forest fires in 2019 than in any other year since it began monitoring them in 2013. In July 2019 he fired the director of INPE and said the organization had lied about the extent of the fires in the Amazon rainforest. It is clear that the fires will have immediate and lasting consequences for the people and wildlife living in the Amazon and for the whole world in terms of climate change. But the World Wildlife Fund says that if the rainforest is severely damaged by these fires, it could start emitting carbon instead of oxygen, accelerating climate change. Fires in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest burn so fast that the smoke darkens the sky of São Paulo. Since Bolsonaro took office in January 2019, the Amazon has lost 1330 square miles of tropical forest. It is home to 3 million species of plants and animals, and 1 million people call it home. The rainforest is called “the lungs of the planet” because it produces about 20% of the world’s oxygen. Two-thirds of the Amazon region is found in Brazil, two-thirds in other South American countries such as Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. Organizations like the World Wildlife Fund continue to educate the public and support firefighting efforts. It is normal for farmers in this region to use fires to clear vegetation during the dry season, which peaks in September. But this year there are many more fires than usual, and the destruction has been described as unprecedented. Copernicus, a satellite programme of the European Union, has published a map showing the extent of the spread of fire smoke. It is not clear when and how the fires will stop in the Amazon. But Bolsonaro was not prepared to take responsibility for the fires. About half the size of the United States, the Amazon is the world’s largest tropical forest.