Record fires are sweeping through the Amazon rainforest, according to multiple news outlets.
As both BBC News and CNN report, Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) has claimed that the Amazon is experiencing the highest number of fires since 2013 – when INPE began documenting Amazonian forest fires.
CNN writes that INPE has recorded 72,843 fires in Brazil from the beginning of the year until now (January – August), which is 80% higher than the same time period in 2018. The BBC cites an even higher figure: 74,000 fires.
Regardless of the exact number, the effects of these fires could be devastating.
INPE earlier reported that in June, Amazon deforestation was 88% higher than in the same month during 2018, for which Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro fired INPE’s director. Given the Amazon’s significance as a carbon sink and biodiversity hotspot, this deforestation – and now these record fires – could have global consequences.
Causes of the Fires
It will take formal investigations to determine the exact causes of the current fires that are sweeping through the Brazilian Amazon. While fires occur naturally during the dry season, INPE said that the climate wasn’t dry enough to account for the scale of this year’s fires.
Bolsonaro – a far-right president who favors exploiting the Amazon for economic gain – claimed that environmental NGOs deliberately started the fires after he removed their funding. He presented no evidence to support his statements, making them about as credible as Ancient Aliens.
However, ornithologist Alex Lees linked to a disturbing story about a ‘Dia do Fogo,’ or Day of Fire, on Twitter. According to journalist Fabiano Maisonnave, Brazilian farmers who felt emboldened by Bolsonaro organized a Day of Fire to speed up deforestation on August 10, 2019.
Then, on August 10, forest fires spiked in areas near where the farmers lived.
Apocalyptic Spectacle
The record fires in the Amazon created massive, dark clouds over the Brazilian city of Sao Paolo – over 1,700 miles away.
The BBC reported that some meteorologists believed that the smoke originated from fires in nearby Paraguay, but a map from the European Union’s Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service appears to show a line of smoke extending from eastern Brazil – where the fires are – to Sao Paolo.
NASA Discrepancy
Another discrepancy reported by the BBC is that NASA disputes INPE’s assertions that the Amazon is experiencing record forest fires.
According to the U.S. agency, fire activity has been a little below average this year. It’s on the rise in the Brazilian states of Amazonas and Rondonia, but down in Mato Grosso and Pára.
Unfortunately, given the far-right takeover of the U.S. government – to the point of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service supporting the gutting of the Endangered Species Act – I’m not sure we can trust American agencies when it comes to environmental news.
Additional Information
For more information, please read the original stories from CNN and BBC News.
The Jaguar 
Liking this post doesn’t seem appropriate really, especially if they have been done deliberately.
Stop the world I want to get off!!! everywhere one looks, something bad is happening.
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Yes, this certainly isn’t a “nice” post. Unfortunately, I read an additional story from CNN today that seems to indicate that these fires were started intentionally. The world absolutely seems to be falling apart right now.
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Its still weird how the news that the Amazon is burning only started making headline news in the past week when it had been going on for so much longer like some sort of conspiracy
~B
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I don’t think there was a conspiracy, it’s just that the media usually doesn’t care about environmental issues…even when we’re dealing with a region like the Amazon that has global significance. In fact, the big media companies only started paying attention to the Amazon fires when the story blew up on Twitter.
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right? like the world’s lungs are full of smoke and it first breaks the news on twitter… priorities I guess
~B
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Exactly.
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Hey there Josh.
I first saw this on twitter from someones feed and was like what the hell… the fact that it had been burning for like 16 days and no media had bothered to cover anything about it, was jaw dropping…having the lungs of the earth go up in smoke like that and no one seemed to give a hoot is very worrying.
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I first learned about this on Twitter too. The big media outlets really don’t care about anything environment-related, except for the rare instances in which animals attack humans. At least that’s how it is in the US most of the time; I have no idea what the situation’s like in Kenya.
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You know what the media here never covered anything about the amazon burning, and honestly I lacked words.
After seeing it on Twitter I followed it up on DW.
It’s a stupid mentality really and if things go to the dogs we are all going to be doomed , people need to get their priorities in check.
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We certainly do need to get our priorities in check! Also, this might be a stupid question, but what’s DW?
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It’s not stupid at all 🙂
DW – ( Deutsche Welle ) is a global english language news channel from Germany and they have some really amazing documentaries.
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Oh, that sounds like a great channel! I just looked up DW’s website, and they look like a very legit news organization.
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It’s a very interesting channel, and I find it to be a breath of fresh air from the usual nonsense I’ve seen on other channels, umm France 24 is also not that bad a channel.
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This is so tragic!! It feels like the world is coming to an end!
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It does feel like that, sometimes. Somehow, however, life will go on. Maybe this is like humanity’s puberty? Everything’s nuts right now, but that’s just because we’re going through a restructuring period that’ll eventually simmer down. Trump, Bolsonaro, and their ilk are just giant zits that’ll be gone soon…
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That’s a nice way to look at it, I guess. Let’s just hope that humanity doesn’t have adult acne then.
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