Since January to date, 84% more fires in the Amazon have been recorded than those in the same period of 2018. The flames have destroyed the vegetation and hundreds of animals in their path and continue advancing.
According to the National Institute for Space Research of Brazil (INPE), fire has spread at a faster rate -as never before. The monitoring, which has been done since 2013 when the measurements began in that jungle area, demonstrates the fury of this fire that already devours hundreds of hectares of the so-called lung of the world.
Satellite images do not lie. The fire has consumed indigenous territories and conservation areas.
But the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, insists on minimizing the impact of the flames and criticizes the data of the INPE, noting that members of environmental organizations have caused the fires and avoiding talking about deforestation.
There may be criminal action by these NGOs to draw attention precisely against me, against the Government of Brazil. This is the war we face,”
said the president, who has rained criticism.
Although Bolsonaro does not want to recognize it, deforestation has been the main cause of the fire that consumes the area. This is indicated by a report by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute, which indicates that many of the protected areas were invaded.
If the drought does not explain the current fires, the resumption of forest clearing does. Fire is commonly used to clear the soil after deforestation, and the relationship between the two factors is positive in an analysis between heat points and the registration record made by the Deforestation Alert System (SAD),”
says the report.