The Amazon rainforest is affectionately known as the “lungs of the world” due to its immense size.

It produces a staggering 20% of the oxygen in our planet’s atmosphere.

It’s also home to some of the world’s last uncontacted tribes, 40 000 plant species, 3 000 freshwater fish species, and more than 370 types of reptiles.

All of the above are currently under threat from local farmers who are burning the forest to clear space for farms.

Over Al Jazeera for more on the fires raging through the rainforest:

Fires raging in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest have hit a record high number this year, according to new data from the country’s space research agency, as concerns grow over President Jair Bolsonaro’s management of the environment.

Nearly 73,000 fires were recorded between January and August, compared with 39,759 in all of 2018, the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) said on Monday. The surge marks an 83 percent increase over the same period last year and is the highest since INPE records began in 2013.

Since Thursday, satellite images spotted more than 9 500 new fires, mostly in the Amazon basin.

Images showed the northernmost state of Roraima covered in dark smoke, while neighbouring Amazonas declared an emergency in the south of the state and in its capital Manaus over the blazes. Acre, on the border with Peru, has been on environmental alert since Friday due to the fires.

You can see images from space here:

The record surge in fires has occurred since Bolsonaro took office in January, vowing to develop the Amazon region for farming and mining.

Wildfires often occur in the dry season in Brazil, which ends in late October or early November, but they are also deliberately started in efforts to illegally clear forest for cattle ranching.

…Last month, INPE published preliminary data showing deforestation in Brazil’s portion of the Amazon rainforest soared more than 88 percent in June compared with the same month a year ago, the second consecutive month of rising forest destruction under Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro fired the director of INPE following the publication of the statistics, saying they were inaccurate and smearing Brazil’s reputation abroad.

In case you haven’t caught on yet, the man is a fascist who has little to no concern for the environment.

The Brazilian leader has faced mounting domestic criticism over his rhetoric regarding the environment, which activists blame for emboldening loggers, miners and farmers in the Amazon.

Bolsonaro has also come under increased pressure from international powers to protect Brazil’s environment under the terms of a landmark free trade deal brokered over two decades between the European Union and South American bloc Mercosur – of which Brazil is a member – and agreed to last month.

The pact requires the Latin American giant to abide by the Paris climate accord, which Bolsonaro has threatened to pull out of, and also aims to end illegal deforestation, including in the Brazilian Amazon.

In response to the deforestation, Norway and Germany halted tens of millions of dollars of Amazon protection subsidies to the Amazon Fund.

Bolsonaro reacted badly to this.

“Isn’t Norway that country that kills whales up there in the North Pole?” he told reporters. “Take that money and help Angela Merkel reforest Germany,” he said.

Meanwhile, the surge in fires is being described as a massive blow against the fight to halt global warming.

More footage of the fires, here:

Remember when, during the Cape Town water crisis, people started stockpiling bottles of water?

I feel like we’ll have to start doing that with tanks of oxygen in the not-too-distant future.

[source:aljazeera]