Thousands of fires are ravaging the Amazon rainforest in Brazil – the most intense blazes for almost a decade.
The northern states of Roraima, Acre, Rondônia and Amazonas have been particularly badly affected. The official figures show more than 75,000 forest fires were recorded in Brazil in the first eight months of the year – the highest number since 2013. That compares with 40,000 in the same period in 2018.
Activists say the anti-environment rhetoric of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has encouraged such tree-clearing activities.
In response, Bolsonaro, a long-time climate change sceptic, accused non-governmental organisations of starting the fires themselves to damage his government’s image.
He later said the government lacked the resources to fight the flames but has now ordered the Army to help control the fires.
A handout photo made available by NASA Earth Observatory of a map showing active fire detections in Brazil as observed by Terra and Aqua MODIS satellites between 15 and 19 August 2019 (issued 24 August 2019).
The locations of the fires, shown in orange, have been overlain on nighttime imagery acquired by VIIRS. In these data, cities and towns appear white; forested areas appear black; and tropical savannas and woodland (known in Brazil as Cerrado) appear gray.
Note that fire detections in the Brazilian states of Para and Amazonas (C-top) are concentrated in bands along the highways BR-163 and BR-230.
The intensification of the fires, caused by the severe drought, high temperatures and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, has drawn criticism over the Brazilian Government’s lack of action.
Photo: EPA-EFE/NASA EARTH OBSERVATORY HANDOUT
A handout photo made available by NASA Earth Observatory of a natural-color satellite image showing fires burning in the vicinity of Novo Progresso in the Brazilian state of Para, 19 August 2019 (issued 24 August 2019).
With the fire season in the Amazon approaching its midpoint, scientists using NASA satellites to track fire activity have confirmed an increase in the number and intensity of fires in the Brazilian Amazon in 2019, making it the most active fire year in that region since 2010.
Photo: EPA-EFE/NASA EARTH OBSERVATORY HANDOUT
A handout photo made available by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of a true-color image was captured by the VIIRS sensor onboard NOAA-20 of fires burning in the Amazon Rainforest (C-top), in both Brazil and Bolivia, 13 August 2019 (issued 24 August 2019).
Photo: EPA-EFE/NOAA HANDOUT HANDOUT
A handout photo made available by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of an image captured by the GOES-16 satellite of fires burning in the Amazon Rainforest (C-top), Brazil, 21 August 2019 (issued 24 August 2019).
