Wildfires in the Amazon rainforest have hit a record number so far this year with 72,843 fires identified. This marks a 83% increase compared to the same time last year and is the highest record since records began.
friendly reminder that the Amazon forest has been on fire for 20+ days now, wildlife is being killed and half of brazil is being covered in such a thick layer of dust and ashes that São Paulo got dark at 3pm yesterday bc sunlight couldn’t breach through pic.twitter.com/iKkFHDqoXz
— 𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘢 (@lgbtxluthor) August 20, 2019
Smoke from the fires caused a blackout in the city of Sao Paulo on Monday. The daytime blackout came after strong winds carried smoke from forest fires burning in the states of Amazonas and Rondonia.
Josélia Pegorim, Climatempo meteorologist, told Globo: “The smoke did not come from fires from the state of São Paulo, but from very dense and wide fires that have been going on for several days in Rondônia and Bolivia.
“The cold front changed the direction of the winds and transported this smoke to São Paulo.”
The Amazon is one of the largest rainforests in the world and is vital for carbon store which contributes to slow down the rate of global warming. It is home to around three million plants and animals plus one million people.
Wildfires normally happen in the Amazon during dry season however sometimes they are deliberately started to try and forested land for farm animals illegally.
The hashtag #prayforamazonia has now emerged as a global Twitter trend with more than 150,000 references to the fires.
Amazon rainforest, the world’s largest tropical forest is on fire since 3 Weeks. It’s an area that almost never burns on its own, yet the blazes have grown so intense that they blacked out the sky above. #AmazonRainforest #AmazonFire pic.twitter.com/P0eQSSCF2O
— Zeeshan Saeed (@dudeimlegend) August 20, 2019
An emergency was declared on August 9th in the Amazon after fires continued to blare.
