See how much of the Amazon is burning, how it compares to other years
Thousands of fires are burning across a southern swath of the Amazon. They belch smoke and soot, blanketing those who live downwind with thick, dirty air, hurting wildlife in their path and destroying part of one the most important carbon storehouses left on the planet.
About 76,000 fires were burning across the Brazilian Amazon at last official count, an increase of over 80 percent over the same time period last year, according to data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE). Since then, even more fires have appeared in the satellite imagery that scientists use to assess the extent and intensity of burning, and they expect the number to increase over coming months as the dry season intensifies.
The fires themselves are destructive and devastating, but their primary cause is more concerning, says Ane Alencar, the director of science at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM).
“The majority of the fires we’re seeing now are because of deforestation,” she says. “It’s crazy. We reduced deforestation by almost 65 percent in the past. We proved that we could do that. And now we’re going backwards.”
Why now? And how bad is it compared to the past?
So far in 2019, the number of fires burning across the Amazon is higher than at any point since 2010, which was a particularly bad year of drought, says Ruth DeFries, an expert on sustainable development at Columbia University. By last week, about 7,000 square miles of the forest were in flames, an area just smaller than the size of New Jersey.
Most fires observed in the region are caused by humans. Many are set in previously cleared lands in order to quickly remove any excess vegetation that has popped up. Others are set in land that is still in the process of being cleared, in order to make more open land for crops or cattle.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/08/amazon-fires-cause-deforestation-graphic-map/?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=crm-email::src=ngp::cmp=editorial::add=Science_20190904&rid=FB26C926963C5C9490D08EC70E179424