The number of fires in Brazil’s Amazon reached its highest level in nearly 15 years on Monday, according to official data released Thursday showing another sign of the destruction of the world’s largest rainforest.
Satellite images detected 3,358 fires on Aug. 22, the highest number in a single day since September 2007, a National Institute for Space Research (INPE) official confirmed to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The number is three times higher than on August 10, 2019, known as the “Day of the Fire”, when Brazilian farmers launched a massive slash and burn operation in the northeast of the country, extending to São Paulo, about 2,500 kilometers. away, causing international condemnation.
According to Alberto Setzer, head of INPE’s fire monitoring program, there is no evidence that Monday’s fires were coordinated.
Instead, fires are part of an overall pattern of increasing deforestation.
Experts attribute the fires in the Amazon to the actions of farmers, ranchers and speculators illegally deforesting by burning trees.
‘Regions with the most fires are moving further north’ after ‘rising arc of deforestation’Setzer told AFP.
The fire season in the Amazon usually begins in August, with the onset of drought.
This year, up to July, INPE detected 5,373 fires, 8% more than in the same month of 2021.
Since early August, 24,124 fires have been recorded, numbers still far from August 2005, when 63,764 were discovered.
Source: El heraldo
John Cameron is a journalist at The Nation View specializing in world news and current events, particularly in international politics and diplomacy. With expertise in international relations, he covers a range of topics including conflicts, politics and economic trends.
