The Amazon rainforest is on fire; It has been burning for 3 weeks and we have just found out about it!
Fires are raging at a record rate in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, the Amazon which is often referred to as the planet’s lungs, producing 20% of the oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere.
The Amazon River stretches across several of these South American countries, but the majority that is more than two-thirds, of the rainforest lies in Brazil.
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According to INPE – Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (National Institute for Space Research), more than 1½ soccer fields of Amazon rain-forest are being destroyed every minute of every day.
Brazil has declared a state of emergency over the rising number of fires in the region earlier this month. The recent Amazon fires sent a plume of smoke drifting far southeastward across Brazil, darkening the skies over some cities and towns.
🌎Just a little alert to the world: the sky randomly turned dark today in São Paulo, and meteorologists believe it’s smoke from the fires burning *thousands* of kilometers away, in Rondônia or Paraguay. Imagine how much has to be burning to create that much smoke(!). SOS🌎 pic.twitter.com/P1DrCzQO6x
— Shannon Sims (@shannongsims) 20 August 2019
As being reported, so far this year, almost 73,000 fires have been detected by Brazil’s space research center INPE. That marks an 83% increase from 2018 and the highest number on record since 2013.
The European Union’s satellite program, Copernicus has released a map showing smoke from the fires spreading all across Brazil to the east Atlantic coast. The rising smoke has covered nearly half of the country and is even spilling over into neighboring Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay.
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The scale of the Siberian wildfires is underlined by this animation of the huge area of the smoke cloud: more than 5 million km².
For comparison, the EU is about 4.5 million km² and the contiguous US about 8.1 million km².
(Via @anttilip of @IlmaTiede)pic.twitter.com/RDhntqaDEO— WMO | OMM (@WMO) 12 August 2019
Environment activists, who have long been Environmental groups have long been campaigning to save the Amazon, blame Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, for the endangerment of the vital rainforest.
Bolsonaro’s environmental policies have been controversial from the start. The activists accuse him of relaxing environmental controls in the country and encouraging deforestation.
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Social media users have started the hashtags #PrayforAmazonas and #AmazonRainforest. People also came forward criticizing media for giving more attention to the fire at Notre Dame and other news than to the rainforest fires.
There was worldwide outcry when the Notre Dame cathedral was on fire. Why is there not the same level of outrage for the fires destroying the #AmazonRainforest? pic.twitter.com/VbSda5PYAK
— WWF UK (@wwf_uk) 21 August 2019
The Amazon Rainforest has been burning for more than 2 weeks.
Where are the politicians, billionaires and influencers who cried for Notre Dame — but remained silent for the lungs of our planet?#PrayForAmazonas / #Amazonas / #PrayforAmazonia. pic.twitter.com/Z4ThdEVVQe
— Mission: Humanity (@RightOfEvery) 22 August 2019
Approximately more than 475 thousand hectares have been burned in the Amazon. It’s been 17 days since the fire started. The Amazon is the lung of the Earth, which generates 20% of the oxygen in the world. #PrayforAmazonia pic.twitter.com/17itr5Rahi
— Kamila Santos (@Sneeze_girl) 22 August 2019
When Notre Dame was burning the world stopped.Billionaires and politicians emptied their pockets to help rebuild.Meanwhile the amazon has been burning for three weeks. The difference is,we don’t get to build a new earth.When it’s gone,it’s gone.#PrayforAmazonas #AmazonRainforest pic.twitter.com/F3zWoeYAkv
— Moosa Al Matrooshi (@Moosamatrooshi) 22 August 2019
Fans of the K-Pop band BTS, known as the Army, are also rallying on Twitter to spread the word about the Amazon the fires, with tens of thousands of people tweeting the hashtag #ArmyHelpThePlanet.
#ARMYHelpThePlanet
You have all been very concerned with what’s been going on in the amazons. After looking into the situation this is what we have found 👇🔜We’ll be launching a project focusing on the environment and especially ecosystems in a week🌳 #ARMYPurpleEarth pic.twitter.com/OaVmRJ6Ng2
— One in an ARMY Charity Project 💪🐰 (@OneInAnARMY) 22 August 2019
#ARMYHelpThePlanet
Cannot believe the lack of media coverage about the Amazon rainforest!!
3 weeks it has been burning & many people didn’t even know..Let’s hope this is out soon … So many animals, plants and trees are perishing and it’s not big news !!#AmazonRainforest #BTS pic.twitter.com/q2UOK1QUDg— 🇬🇧💜 тαє~σt7💜 вts mч líghts, mч hєαrtвєαt 💜 (@TigerTae71) 21 August 2019
It’s been eighteen days since the fire is over, and these eighteen days I can’t stop crying. The media is trying to hide the sad reality that the Amazon is experiencing right now. 😭😭😭😭 Please help us pic.twitter.com/zbKZ63knT0
— Love (@Letcia23317337) 22 August 2019
The images of the burning forest showing the devastations have been flooded the internet.
RT sunrisemvmt: People are deliberately starting fires in the #AmazonRainforest to illegally deforest indigenous land for cattle ranching
Pataxó woman:
“These assholes came in and burned down [our reservation]… I want all of the media here to see thi… pic.twitter.com/JXfWADMYSR— Ivan Silba (@IvySillix) 22 August 2019
