By: Jessie Yeung/CNN
(CNN) The Amazon is burning — and people are likely to blame
Environmental organizations and researchers say the massive fires burning Brazil's forests were caused by farmers and loggers who want to clear and exploit the land, encouraged by the country's pro-business president.
"The vast majority of these fires are caused by humans", said Christian Poirier, program director of the non-profit organization "Amazon Watch". He added that even during dry seasons, the Amazon - a humid forest - does not easily fall prey to fires, unlike the dry grasslands of California or Australia.
"Farmers and ranchers have long used fire to clear the land", said Poirier, "and most likely they are behind the extremely high number of fires today in the Amazon"
The National Space Research Center (INPE) said this week that the number of fires in Brazil is 80% higher than last year. More than half are occurring in the Amazon region, causing serious problems for the local environment and ecology.
The Amazon forest produces about 20% of the world's oxygen, and is often called the "lungs of the planet." According to the World Wildlife Fund (World Wildlife Fund), if it is irreversibly damaged, it can start emitting carbon – the main driver of climate change.
Minister of Environment, Ricardo Salles, posted on Wednesday a reaction to Twitter , saying the fires were caused by dry weather, wind and heat. But CNN meteorologist Haley Brink said the fires are "ultimately man-made" and cannot be attributed to natural causes such as lightning strikes.
The scale of the Siberian wildfires is underlined by this animation of the huge area of the smoke cloud: more than 5 million km².
For comparison, the EU is about 4.5 million km² and the contiguous US about 8.1 million km².
(Via @anttilip of @IlmaTiede)pic.twitter.com/RDhntqaDEO- WMO | OMM (@WMO) August 12, 2019
This year's fires fit an established agricultural seasonal pattern, Brink said. "It's the best time to light fires because the vegetation is dry. [Farmers] wait for the dry season and they start burning and clearing areas so that their cattle can graze. And that's what we suspect is going on there."
The peak of the seasonal drought is expected to be in September, she added.
Compared to past years, the destruction this year is "unprecedented," Poirier said.
Environmentalists are blaming Brazilian President Bolsonaro
Organizations, activists and social media users around the world have reacted with alarm to the news. #PrayForTheAmazon and other variations of the hashtag are trending globally on Twitter, with hundreds of thousands of tweets. As images and news of the fire spread, many are demanding accountability from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
When Bolsonaro was running for president, he promised during the campaign to rebuild the economy by exploring the economic potential of the Amazon. Now, environmental organizations say he has encouraged farmers, ranchers and loggers to exploit and burn forests like never before with impunity.
In a statement, Amazon Watch (Amazon Watch is a non-profit organization that aims to protect the Amazon forest and its indigenous inhabitants*) he informed me popular local media that last week, farmers had organized and coordinated "fire days" to set fire to land for agricultural purposes, inspired by Bolsonaro's rhetoric.
The fires are "simply the most visible symptom" of Bolsonaro's policies and "reflect the president's irresponsibility," the Climate Watch Network said in a statement. STATEMENT on Wednesday.
Bolsonaro, who is pro-business, has capped Brazil's Environmental Action Agency with a $23 million budget cut — official data provided to CNN by Climate Watchers show that the agency's operations have declined since Bolsonaro took office. took the job.
And just a few weeks ago, the director of INPE was fired after a clash with the president after he defended satellite data showing deforestation was 88% higher in June than a year earlier, which Bolsonaro categorized as "lies".
Bolsonaro, who has previously said that he is not "Captain Chainsaw" (a nickname given to him in Brazil*) referring to the deforestation of the Amazon, has rejected accusations of responsibility around the fires. On Wednesday, he speculated that the fires in the Amazon may have been caused by non-profit organizations suffering from a lack of funds to "generate negative attention against me and against the Brazilian government."
Poirier warns that "not putting water on the fire" to fires can encourage farmers to burn more, encouraging "land grabbers" to illegally occupy, subdivide or sell land to ranchers. There have been previous attempts to curb these forest "mafias" - but the attempts are rare and often met with strong public opposition.
All the while, the Amazon is moving closer to potential disaster.
"The Amazon is extremely important to our future, to our ability to prevent the worst of climate change," Poirier said. "This is not hyperbole. We are heading for untold destruction - not just for the Amazon but for our entire planet."
*Citizens Channel/Antenela Ndrevataj
