Friday, July 2, 2021

Brazilian “Green Lung”
A huge wildfire is raging in the Amazon

It’s the worst June since 2007: Thousands of fires are eating their way through the rainforest in Brazil’s Amazon. Environmentalists blame the politics of right-wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for this.

Thousands of wildfires erupted in the Brazilian Amazon last month, making June the worst in nearly 15 years. INPE Research Institute explains that 2308 fires were discovered with the help of satellites. This is an increase of 2.3 percent over June 2020. The previous record for June was in 2007 with over 3500 fires.

A particularly large number of fires were reported in the past month. With more than 1,100 fires, it was the worst May since 2007. In 2020, INPE recorded 103,000 fires in the Brazilian Amazon – an increase of about 16 percent year-on-year.

Environmentalists blamed President Jair Bolsonaro, who has been in office since January 2019, for the worsening situation. You accuse them of promoting illegal clearing. Bolsonaro had already announced during the election campaign that he would develop the Amazon region more economically and repeatedly open up protected areas for agriculture and mining.

The Amazon rainforest is of central importance to climate protection – it is considered the “green lung” of the Earth. Trees can absorb and store CO2. However, when they burn, die, or are cut, the greenhouse gas is released back into the atmosphere.