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Amazon
fires size latest: Rainforest fires covering half of Brazil are
visible from SPACE
Sao
Paulo Plunged Into Darkness by Smoke From Record Amount of
Deforestation Amazon Fires
WILDFIRES
in the Amazon rainforest have hit record numbers, with satellites
from space capturing the thick smoke that has covered more than half
of Brazil. Express.co.uk brings you the latest size and containment
news and the most up-to-date satellite images and maps.
21
August, 2019
Brazil’s
space research centre INPE has recorded 72,843 fires in the Amazon
this year alone, marking an 83 percent increase over the same period
of 2018 and is the highest since records began in 2013. Most of the
blazes were located in the Amazon basin - home to the world’s
largest tropical forest seen as vital to countering global warming.
The fires have been reported as particularly severe over the past
three weeks, with smoke from the raging infernos now covering more
than half of Brazil.
Meteorologist
Eric Holthaus today tweeted: "Smoke from the fires currently
burning in the Amazon rainforest is covering about half of Brazil. We
are in a climate emergency."
Smoke
from the fires caused a blackout in the city of Sao Paulo on Monday.
The
daytime blackout, which lasted for about an hour, came after strong
winds brought in smoke from Amazonas and Rondonia, more than 1,700
miles (2,700km) away.
Images
show the northernmost state of Roraima covered in dark smoke.
The
Amazonas capital Manaus has been on environmental alert since Friday
due to the fires.
This
news comes weeks after President Jair Bolsonaro sacked the head of
INPE amid rows over its deforestation data, and has raised concerns
over the government’s environmental policy.
Conservationists
have blamed Mr Bolsonaro, saying he has encouraged loggers and
farmers to clear the land - but he brushed off the data from INPE.
He
said it was the “season of the queimada”, when farmers use fire
to clear land and accused the public of blaming him for deforestation
and now the fires.
He
said: “I used to be called Captain Chainsaw. Now I am Nero, setting
the Amazon aflame.”
INPE,
however, said these fires are not normal for the dry season.
Researcher
Alberto Setzer said: “There is nothing abnormal about the climate
this year or the rainfall in the Amazon region, which is just a
little below average.
“The
dry season creates the favourable conditions for the use and spread
of fire, but starting a fire is the work of humans, either
deliberately or by accident.”
Ricardo
Mello, head of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Amazon Programme,
said the fires were “a consequence of the increase in deforestation
seen in recent figures”.
Mr
Bolsonaro’s government is under increasing criticism for its
environmental policy, which has seen a reversal of the work of former
presidents to try reduce deforestation.
Under
Bolsonaro, penalties for illegal deforestation have been slashed and
confiscations of timber and convictions have fallen.
Last
month, the president accused INPE’s director of lying about the
scale of deforestation - reported at an 88 percent increase - and
trying to undermine the government.
The
director of the agency later announced he was being sacked amid the
row.
INPE
has previously insisted that its data is 95 percent accurate, and its
reliability has been defended by several scientific institutions,
including the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.
You can see how things have taken off since around 2013. Double the fires since then. 2016 was the big el-Nino year, if I am not mistaken
Here are some of the readings from South America
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