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The world's largest rainforest, the Amazon spans eight countries and covers 40% of South America -- an area that is nearly the size of two-thirds of the US, according to the World Wildlife Fund. More than 30 million people live in the Amazon, which is also home to large numbers of mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles, most of them unique to the region. A new plant or animal species is discovered there every two days.
The Amazon forest, which produces about 20% of earth's oxygen, is often referred to as "the planet's lungs."
An inferno in the Amazon, two-thirds of which is in Brazil, threatens the rainforest ecosystem and also affects the entire globe.
Since the beginning of 2019, Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (known as "INPE") has reported 72,843 fires in the country, with more than half of these being seen in the Amazon region. This means more than one-and-a-half soccer fields of Amazon rainforest are being destroyed every minute of every day, INPE has stated.
An 80% increase in deforestation has occurred so far this year compared to last year, according to the institute.
Evidence of the fires also comes by way of a map created by the European Union's satellite program, Copernicus, that shows smoke from the fires spreading all along Brazil to the east Atlantic coast. Smoke has covered nearly half of the country and has begun to spill into neighboring Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay.
Even Sao Paulo, more than 1,700 miles away, has inhaled some of the burning forest's smoke. Images from the city show the sky pitch-black in the middle of the afternoon, the sun partially obscured by ash and dark.
Across the globe, people are sharing images and videos that show lines of fire leaving blackened waste.
Farmers and cattle ranchers have long used fire to clear land and make it ready for use, so they are likely behind the unusually large number fires burning in the Amazon today, said Christian Poirier, the program director of non-profit organization Amazon Watch.
This year's fires fit with an established seasonal agricultural pattern, said CNN meteorologist Haley Brink. "It's the best time to burn because the vegetation is dry. (Farmers) wait for the dry season and they start burning and clearing the areas so that their cattle can graze. And that's what we're suspecting is going on down there."
"The vast majority of these fires are human-lit," said Poirier, who explained that even during dry seasons, the rainforest cannot catch fire easily, unlike, say, the dry bushlands of California or Australia.
Alberto Setzer, a senior scientist at INPE, agrees with Poirier.
Setzer believes 99% of the fires result from human actions "either on purpose or by accident." Fires are caused by small-scale agricultural practices or mechanized and modern agribusiness projects, Setzer told CNN by email.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/23/americas/amazon-wildfires-411/index.html
The Amazon forest, which produces about 20% of earth's oxygen, is often referred to as "the planet's lungs."
An inferno in the Amazon, two-thirds of which is in Brazil, threatens the rainforest ecosystem and also affects the entire globe.
Since the beginning of 2019, Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (known as "INPE") has reported 72,843 fires in the country, with more than half of these being seen in the Amazon region. This means more than one-and-a-half soccer fields of Amazon rainforest are being destroyed every minute of every day, INPE has stated.
An 80% increase in deforestation has occurred so far this year compared to last year, according to the institute.
Evidence of the fires also comes by way of a map created by the European Union's satellite program, Copernicus, that shows smoke from the fires spreading all along Brazil to the east Atlantic coast. Smoke has covered nearly half of the country and has begun to spill into neighboring Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay.
Even Sao Paulo, more than 1,700 miles away, has inhaled some of the burning forest's smoke. Images from the city show the sky pitch-black in the middle of the afternoon, the sun partially obscured by ash and dark.
Across the globe, people are sharing images and videos that show lines of fire leaving blackened waste.
Farmers and cattle ranchers have long used fire to clear land and make it ready for use, so they are likely behind the unusually large number fires burning in the Amazon today, said Christian Poirier, the program director of non-profit organization Amazon Watch.
This year's fires fit with an established seasonal agricultural pattern, said CNN meteorologist Haley Brink. "It's the best time to burn because the vegetation is dry. (Farmers) wait for the dry season and they start burning and clearing the areas so that their cattle can graze. And that's what we're suspecting is going on down there."
"The vast majority of these fires are human-lit," said Poirier, who explained that even during dry seasons, the rainforest cannot catch fire easily, unlike, say, the dry bushlands of California or Australia.
Alberto Setzer, a senior scientist at INPE, agrees with Poirier.
Setzer believes 99% of the fires result from human actions "either on purpose or by accident." Fires are caused by small-scale agricultural practices or mechanized and modern agribusiness projects, Setzer told CNN by email.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/23/americas/amazon-wildfires-411/index.html
