The rich, lush and green Amazon rainforest that has been
referred to as the world’s largest tropical rainforest has been raging in the fire
for the last two months. It is known that the rainforest has been raging in
flames since 2013 at the highest rate. This largest rainforest is nearly the
size of two-thirds of the US, covering eight countries and 40% of South
America.
The Amazon rainforest is the home to a large number of birds,
mammals, reptiles and amphibians. This forest marks the existence of its unique
species of organisms found only in that area. This rainforest is known as ‘the
planet’s lungs’ since it produces 20% of Earth’s oxygen.
This conflagration has been declared as the state of
emergency since the fires have taken a surge by 85% since 2013 and the major
area observed to be effected is Brazil. So far 80,000 fires in the country have been detected by Brazil’s space
research centre, INPE. The organisation mentioned that huge smoke of the
burning forest could be seen from the space that is released by the
International Space Station.
What steps
have been taken?
The growing haze of the smoke grabbed attention worldwide when various social media users rallied around trending hashtags. Several protests demanding action to counter the problem led the foreign leaders to frame a plan to put out the fires.
This global outcry over the destruction of a crucial resource
pushed president Jair Bolsonaro to deploy Brazil’s armed forces to help combat
flaring fires. The armed forces have seamlessly been dumping water on the
blazes with the help of warplanes.
Bolivia President Evo Morales sent a Boeing 747 ‘supertanker’ to help extinguish fires which are capable of flying with 115,000 litres of water operationally.
How did the
fire occur?
The burning tracts of Amazon got its spark from the
continuous deforestation occurring this year. The farmers and cattle ranchers
have been burning and clearing the area to create dry vegetation for the cattle
to graze. The researchers believe that the fires have been lit by human action
majorly by agricultural practices and projects stoked by Bolsonaro’s encouragement.
Whereas, Bolsonaro mentioned that the fires were set by NGOs in retaliation to
cutting funds. The evidence has not yet been provided for such a statement.
How is this
leading to a massive change in the climate?
In one of the
releases, Greenpeace mentioned that the forest fires and climate change operate
in a vicious circle. This large emblazing fire will increase the greenhouse
gasses emission in the environment too which is the reason why this year’s
temperature rise has been the maximum. This catastrophe has the innate ability
to drive droughts in certain regions creating extreme weather changes.
The deforestations have brought in the change in the rainfall patterns in the affected area affecting the forest, biodiversity, agriculture and human health menacingly. These fires contribute to an increasing amount of carbon monoxide that has spread across the northwest region.
However, a patchy rain is expected to bring a tad bit relief in the area but it still cannot extinguish the entire fire.
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