Horrifying images show huge fires raging in the world's biggest rainforest.
Photos captured by Greenpeace Brazil from July 7 to 10 picture the blazes eating through the Amazon in the Mato Grosso state.
The Amazon Rainforest is a huge carbon sink and it remaining as intact as possible is a crucial part of the effort to limit global heating.
It has been illegal to start fires in the state since July 1 and, as of yesterday, there is a 120-day moratorium on fires in the Amazon as a whole.
As well as the fires, Greenpeace Brazil documented images of completely burned areas and areas being prepared for burning.
With 4,437 hotspots, the state of Mato Grosso has had the highest number of fires in the Brazilian Amazon this year, representing half of all fires in the Brazilian Amazon in 2020.
Romulo Batista, Greenpeace Brazil Amazon campaigner, said: “Banning fires alone does not work.
"Those calling on the Brazilian government to act cannot fool themselves and think that President Bolsonaro’s sloppy PR moves will have meaningful impacts.
“These images, along with the record deforestation rates this year, are the intended outcome of Bolsonaro’s long term strategy for the Amazon.
"His government has been dismantling environmental protection laws and kneecapping the power of the environmental protection agencies since he took office.
"They have even used the Covid-19 pandemic as a smokescreen to further enable deforestation, logging and mining."
Large fires in the Amazon rainforest do not occur naturally, but are deliberately set by farmers or land grabbers to expand the land used for cattle ranching and industrial agriculture production.
Mr Batista added: “This administration is doing nothing but putting the climate and more lives at risk, especially those of Indigenous Peoples. Protecting the capacity to monitor and stop environmental destruction and to enforce the law is essential.”
In June 2020, 2,248 fires were recorded in the Amazon.
That represents a a 20% increase compared to June 2019 and the largest recorded number for the month since 2007.
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon also hit a 13-year record high during June.
Anna Jones, head of forests at Greenpeace UK said: “Just a few weeks ago, more than 40 companies, including several British supermarkets, signed a letter to the Brazilian Congress expressing their concern about Amazon fires and deforestation.
"Those supermarkets will be judged on how they respond to this unfolding crisis.
"They all sell high volumes of industrial meat, much of which is connected to deforestation in forests like the Amazon.
"It’s time supermarkets dropped forest destroyers and replaced industrial meat with plant based options - it’s vital if we’re to reduce our impact on the climate, people and wildlife.”
As well as reducing the forest's ability to store carbon dioxide, the fires are a big threat to indigenous people.
The heat from the fires and the air pollution they cause threaten the health of those living in the Amazon.
As fires intensify and air pollution is added to the list of their health threats.
Greenpeace is demanding that governments and companies end business with those destroying the forest and align trade to support economies that "put nature and people first".
