Devastating Amazon fires were started be ranchers, say experts who claim 99 percent of all rainforest blazes are started by humans
- Cattle ranchers and farmers who routinely use fire to clear land for agriculture and grazing are believed to be the catalyst for this year’s record increase in fires
- The Amazon Watch non-profit says the majority of fires like these are, ‘human-lit’
- Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) says 99 percent of the Amazon’s fires are started by humans ‘either on purpose or by accident’
- Nearly half of Brazil is covered in smoke as the fires spread from the country’s east to the Atlantic coast
- Nearly 73,000 rainforest fires have been reported in Brazil since the start of 2019
- Deforestation has increased by 80 percent form 2018 to 2019
The raging Amazon inferno that’s left half of Brazil covered in smoke and darkness was likely started by human beings, not lightning or some other natural cause, according to several experts.
Christian Poirier, who serves as program director for the conservation non-profit known as Amazon Watch, says cattle ranchers and farmers regularly set fires to rainforest land to clear it for agriculture and grazing.
He noted that even during dry seasons, the humid and moist rainforest greenery doesn’t catch fire easily like dry bushlands in low precipitation environments like Australia or California.
‘The vast majority of these fires are human-lit,’ Poirier told CNN.
The raging Amazon inferno that’s left half of Brazil covered in smoke and darkness was likely started by human beings, not lightning or some other natural cause, according to several experts
Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) says 99 percent of the Amazon’s fires are started by humans ‘either on purpose or by accident’
Nearly half of Brazil is covered in smoke as the fires spread from the country’s east to the Atlantic coast
Nearly 73,000 rainforest fires have been reported in Brazil since the start of 2019
An estimated 99 percent of the Amazon’s fires are started by people, ‘either on purpose or by accident,’ according to Alberto Setzer, a senior scientist at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE).
Rainforest Alliance Chief Programming Officer Nigel Sizer said man-made deforestation techniques such as this are, ‘responsible for 80 percent to 90 percent of the loss of tropical forests around the world.’
Deforestation in Brazil has increased by about 80 percent in 2019 compared to the previous year.
‘There has been a lot of analysis and satellite data that shows there is so much land already cleared – a lot abandoned or very poorly used and managed – that we could use to grow food on. We don’t need to be clearing new forests to do this in Brazil,’ Sizer told CNN.
The country’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, has taken heat from critics who say his relaxed environmental controls and emboldening of Amazonian deforestation efforts to stimulate the nation’s economic growth have created the conditions for the nation’s current disaster.
Bolsonaro, who’s often referred to as the Donald Trump of Brazil, also suggested the fires may have been started by non-governmental organization (NGO) staffers angry with him for cutting their funding
Nearly 73,000 rainforest fires have been reported in Brazil since the start of the year.
The country’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, has taken heat from critics who say his relaxed environmental controls and emboldening of Amazonian deforestation efforts to stimulate the nation’s economic growth have created the conditions for the current disaster.
Bolsonaro called in the nation’s army on Friday to aid in battling the Amazon wildfires.
The populist politician, who’s often referred to as the Donald Trump of Brazil, also suggested the fires may have been started by non-governmental organization (NGO) staffers angry with him for cutting their funding.
‘We took money away from the NGOs [non-governmental organizations],’ he told reporters. ‘They are now feeling the pinch from the lack of funding. So, maybe the NGO types are conducting these criminal acts in order to generate negative attention against me and against the Brazilian government.’