The Earth’s largest rainforest and more than 20% of the earth oxygen are provided by the Amazon Rainforest. More than half of the world’s approximated 10 million varieties of plants, animals and insects live in the tropic rainforests. One-fifth of the world’s freshwater is in the Amazon Basin. And recently the Amazon has been burning for weeks along increasing deforestation. In the article Media reaction: Amazon Rainforest and Climate Change written by two authors Daisy Dunne and Robert Mcsweeney. Published on August 27, 2019, at CarbonBrief website.
The article calls up to the primary cause of the fire and the impact of it. It was detailed there that the recent burning of amazon august 20,2019, the Hill reported that the brazil space agency issued a data that the country had seen 74,000 fires so far this year. And according to the government data, that the BBC News stated that it was an 84 % increase in the number of fires seen in the same period last year. The New York Times reported that 40,000 of these Brazillian fires were in amazon, and as stated by the Daily Telegraph 9,000 were recorded in just a week in mid-august.
And the Reuters issued that the fires have caused various Amazonian regions to announce a state of emergency. And many publications, including the BBC NEWS, Reuters, The evening standard and sky news related the rate of increase in fires as a current record. However, it is worth remarking that Brazil’s space agency – the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) – just started tracking wildfires in 2013. Thus, 2019 is on track to be the third-highest year for wildfires in Brazil, described by examiners Mikaela Weisse and Sarah Ruiz. On Saturday 25 August, the Financial Times reported Bolsonaro television address in which he promised “the extensive use of armed forces personnel and equipment” to help tackle the blazes.
The media has pointed to various factors that could have worsened this year’s Amazon fires, including climate change, deforestation, meat-eating and Bolsanaro’s policies. A study printed in 2013 discovered that a firm dryness that hit the South Amazon in 2013 was made more likely by climate change. Nonetheless, Brazillian space agency researcher Alberto Setzer told Reuters that there is “nothing abnormal” about this year’s dry season. However, Prof Márcia Akemi Yamasoe, from the Federal University of São Paulo, told Unearthed that “the preponderance” of Amazon fires “will have been set intentionally by people to clear land to plant crops and forage animals”.
Amazon is the largest rainforest in the world, spanning an area that is 25 times the size of the UK. according to the Washington Post, the forest currently accounts for around a quarter of the CO2 removal service provided by the world’s forests each year. In total, the Amazon rainforest holds the equivalent of 10 years’ worth of global greenhouse gas emissions, it added.
References
- The Hill – Reported on the recent burning of the Amazon and the increase in fires compared to last year.
- The Evening Standard – Reported on the rate of increase in fires in the Amazon and its impact on deforestation.