Brazil registered 33,116 fire alerts in August, the highest figure for this month in the last 12 yearsaccording to the National Institute for Space Research (INPE).
The number of heat sources measured by INPE satellites, an agency linked to the Brazilian Government, between August 1 and 31 was 16.7% higher than that measured in the same period last year and is 25.9% higher than the average registered by the institute since 1998 (26,299).
There haven’t been alerts this high since 2010, when 45,018 fires were recorded forests in the Brazilian part of the largest tropical forest in the world.
The INPE data on fires also exceed the records for August 2019 (30,900), when images of fires in the Amazon circulated around the world and generated strong international pressure against the government of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a candidate for re-election.
The environmental organization Greenpeace, which has flown over the Brazilian Amazon and monitored forest fires for a decade, expressed surprise.
“I had never seen such massive deforestation,” said Rómulo Batista, spokesman for the NGO in the Amazon, quoted in a press release.
Environmentalists attribute the devastation to Bolsonaro, who relaxed environmental controls and promoted the economic exploitation of the Amazon, as well as the end of the demarcation of new indigenous reserves.
The environmental issue entered the agenda of the candidates ahead of the presidential elections on October 2, in which Bolsonaro and former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the favorite to win the elections, will face each other.
Lula da Silva, who appears in the polls ahead of Bolsonaro with a difference of 12 percentage points, visited Manaus, capital of the state of Amazonas, on Wednesday, where he met with indigenous people, and this Thursday he traveled to the Amazonian state of Amazonas.
Source: Observadora
