Amazon in Brazil is on fire
Thousands of fires are ravaging the Amazon rainforest in Brazil – the most intense blazes for almost a decade. Several celebrities across social media are raising their voices against this incident. The Amazon in Brazil is on fire
The northern states of Roraima, Acre, Rondônia, and Amazonas have been particularly badly affected by Amazon fire
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However, images purported to be of the fires – including some shared under the hashtag #PrayforAmazonas – are decades old or not even in Brazil.
So what’s actually happening and how bad are the fires?
The Amazon in Brazil is on fire
There have been a lot of fires this year
Brazil has seen a record number of fires in 2019, Brazilian space agency data suggests.
The National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) says its satellite data shows an 85% increase on the same period in 2018.
The fires are emitting large amounts of smoke and carbon
Plumes of smoke from the fires have spread across the Amazon region and beyond.
According to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (Cams), a part of the European Union’s Earth observation program, the smoke has been traveling as far as the Atlantic coast.
It has even caused skies to darken in São Paulo – more than 2,000 miles (3,200km) away.
Other countries are also affected by fires
Several other countries in the Amazon basin – an area spanning 7.4m sq km have also seen a high number of fires this year.
Venezuela has experienced the second-highest number, with more than 26,000 fires, with Bolivia coming in third, with more than 17,000.
he Bolivian government has hired a fire-fighting air tanker to help extinguish fires in the east of the country. They have so far spread across 2.3 sq miles (6 sq km) of forest and pasture.
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