Half of Brazil covered in smoke as Amazon rainforest burns
Wildfires in the Amazon rainforest sending smoke cover across roughly half of Brazil have ignited a firestorm on social media, with President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday suggesting green groups started the blazes.
Images of fires purportedly devouring sections of the world's largest rainforest have gone viral on Twitter. #PrayforAmazonas is the top trending hashtag in the world on Wednesday, with more than 249,000 tweets.
Pictures also show São Paulo in darkness, as residents compare the devastation to an “apocalypse”.
Official figures show nearly 73,000 forest fires were recorded in Brazil in the first eight months of the year - the highest number for any year since 2013. Most were in the Amazon.
That compares with 39,759 in all of 2018, according to the embattled National Institute for Space Research (INPE), which has been in Bolsonaro's cross-hairs since it released data showing a surge in deforestation in recent months.
Good morning. Perhaps, you wanna know what the apocalypse is gonna look like? This was São Paulo, yesterday at 3pm #PrayforAmazonia pic.twitter.com/8uvSlZe1mO
— André Só (@AndreTheSolo) August 20, 2019
The head of INPE, the agency tasked with monitoring forest clearing, was sacked over the figures.
While it was not possible Wednesday to measure the size of the area affected by fires, thick smoke in recent days has blanketed several cities of Brazil, including Sao Paulo, and caused a commercial flight to be diverted.
Smoke from the fires currently burning in the Amazon rainforest is covering about half of Brazil.
We are in a climate emergency. https://t.co/skUUp7ev8V— Eric Holthaus (@EricHolthaus) August 20, 2019
When Notre Dame was burning the world stopped. Billionaires and politicians emptied their pockets to help rebuild. Meanwhile the amazon has been burning for three weeks. The difference is, we don't get to build a new earth. When it's gone, it's gone. #PrayforAmazonas pic.twitter.com/o3GC59PHLu
— Francis Maxwell (@francismmaxwell) August 21, 2019
Why is the Amazon on fire?
Forest fires tend to intensify during the dry season, which usually ends in late October or early November, as land is cleared to make way for crops or grazing.
But the WWF has blamed this year's sharp increase on accelerating deforestation in the Amazon, which is seen as crucial to keeping climate change in check.
"Historically, in this region, the use of fire is directly linked to deforestation as it is one of the techniques for tree clearing," WWF said in a statement.
Bolsonaro hit back Wednesday, saying "criminal action by those NGOs, to call attention against me, against the Brazilian government" following funding cuts may be the reason for the forest fires.
One of the biggest environmental catastrophes on our planet is happening. Send your prayers to the Amazon and to the planet, we will need it. #PrayforAmazonas 😔 pic.twitter.com/lIhKC4qo5i
— Chen Charts (@ChenCharts) August 21, 2019
No matter how successful we are, if our Earth dies, we all die.#PrayforAmazonas pic.twitter.com/Hw5J8PE5Od
— i am who? (@michasa_a) August 21, 2019
"This is the war that we are facing," Bolsonaro told reporters.
"The fires were lit in strategic places. All the indications suggest they went there to film and start fires. That's what I feel."
Bolsonaro's comments come as Brazil hosts a UN regional meeting on climate change in the northeastern city of Salvador ahead of December's summit in Chile.
Speaking on the sidelines of the week-long workshop in Salvador, Environment Minister Ricardo Salles on Wednesday defended the government's efforts to prevent illegal deforestation.
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