Nacho Doce / Reuters
- Almost 73,000 fires have been recorded in the Amazon Rainforest this year — nearly double 2018’s total of about 40,000 fires.
- The fires are coming from people farming and logging the rainforest. It’s not a new phenomenon. But it’s unusually bad this year.
- It doesn’t help that Brazil’s government and President Jair Bolsonaro have not prioritized the environment.
- Photos show people how have been cultivating the land since the late 1970s, but it shows a greener, healthier rainforest. And a sky filled with less smoke.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Fires in the Amazon rainforest, during the summer months, aren’t new. But this year, it’s the worst on record.
While Brazil’s government has called warnings about the fires "sensationalist" and "hysterical," photos show this year the smoke looks thicker, and the damage to the rainforest, or the "lungs of the planet," is worse. The earth is being scorched, and fires continue to burn relentlessly.
Friday night, following pressure from his own people and the international community, and after weeks of spreading misinformation about the fires, President Jair Bolsonaro said he would send the army to fight them and prevent deforestation.
Here are photos showing what the Amazon rainforest used to be like, and what the burning looks like now.
The Amazon Rainforest is 1.4 billion acres of some of the most important, biodiverse land on the planet, spanning the countries of Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Venezuela. The areas marked in red on this map show every fire that has started burning since August 13, 2019.
Courtesy of Global Fire Watch
Sources: Business Insider, WWF
The Amazon has around 3 million animal and plant species, along with 1 million people living in it. But this year, many of those inhabitants are in serious danger, as the rainforest is burning at an unparalleled rate.
Wolfgang Kaehler / Lightrocket / Getty
Source: BBC
It’s important to remember that forest fires in the Amazon are not new. Usually, fires occur every year during the dry season, due to dry, hot conditions, or through farming and logging. This is rainforest cleared back in 1990.
Hans Silvester / Gamma-Rapho / Getty
Source: BBC
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
- Thousands of people marched in São Paulo to pressure the Brazilian government to do something about the burning Amazon Rainforest. Here’s what it looked like on the ground.
- 30 photos show what life is like in the hottest inhabited city on earth
- 21 people who have gone through the revolving door between Fox and the Trump administration
DON’T MISS: Here’s what you can do to help the burning, ravaged Amazon rainforest
Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (James Pasley)