Fires in Brazil’s Amazon worst in 10 years, data shows

The Brazilian Amazon is experiencing its worst rash of fires in nearly 10 years, data from space research agency INPE shows. Last month, INPE satellites recorded 32,017 hotspots in the world’s largest rainforest, a 61 percent increase compared with the same month in 2019. In August 2019, surging fires in the Amazon captured global headlines and prompted criticism from world leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron that Brazil was not doing enough to protect the rainforest. During the first US presidential debate on Tuesday, Democratic candidate Joe Biden called for a world effort to offer $20bn to end Amazon deforestation and threatened Brazil with unspecified “economic consequences” if it did not “stop tearing down the forest”. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro called Biden’s comment a “cowardly threat” to Brazil’s sovereignty and a “clear sign of contempt”. The data from INPE showed that in 2019, fires spiked in August and declined considerably the month after, but this year’s peak has been more sustained. Both August and September of 2020 have matched or surpassed last year’s single-month high, and fires have increased 13 percent in the first nine months of the year compared with 2019. “We have had two months with a lot of fire. It’s already worse than last year,” Ane Alencar, science director for Brazil’s Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), told Reuters news agency. “It could get worse if the drought continues. We are at the mercy of the rain,” Alencar added. style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0; left: 0;">