Thousands of fires are burning in the drought-ravaged Amazon

Much of Brazil is burning as tens of thousands of fires rage across the country, half of them in the Amazon rainforest. Exacerbated by a severe drought, the fires threaten one of the world’s most important ecosystems and consume the Amazon’s vast carbon stores, sending more of the harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

2.4 million hectares (about 6 million acres) of forests, fields and grasslands in the Amazon burned between June and August. There were more than 95,000 hotspots in the Amazon biome this year through September 18, according to data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, known as Inpe.

The fires emitted 31.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent between June and August, says the Amazon Environmental Research Institute, or Ipam. This represents an annual increase of 60% and is roughly equivalent to the emissions from running eight coal-fired power stations for a year.

A continent on fire: South America breaks record for fires

The Amazon is one of the world’s most important carbon sinks, said Lucas Ferrante, a biologist and researcher at the University of Sao Paulo and the Federal University of Amazonas. “Now, it emits carbon,” he said. “We are at a tipping point.”

Although fires are common during the country’s dry season, this year’s anomalies are a red flag for experts.

“The timing of the fires and how long they last is what worries us,” said Ritaumaria Pereira, executive director of Imazon, a nonprofit focused on research and projects in the Amazon region. “Things are out of control and the name for that is climate change.”

When the rainforests burn

Climatologists have been warning for decades that events like this year’s will happen. Droughts in the last two decades have become much more severe and much more frequent. Last year – the hottest on record globally – brought Brazil’s extremes to a new level.

“This was always something we knew would happen,” said Michael Coe, principal scientist and program director for the tropics at the Woodwell Climate Research Center. “But there’s a huge difference between knowing it’s going to happen and seeing it happen.”

When rainforests burn, what replaces them cannot replace the carbon storage and evaporative cooling that benefits the global climate. The Amazon is a critical part of the global climate system. Without it, modeling suggests the Earth could warm another degree Celsius above the already dangerous 2.7C it’s already set to reach. Fossil fuel burning, deforestation and other causes raised the average global temperature by about 1.3 °C before industrialization.

About 40% of fire hotspots in Brazil are in areas with primary or undisturbed vegetation. The rest are mostly in deforested areas. Deforestation is lower than it has been in years past, an indication of how primed the land is to burn due to hot, dry conditions.

Climate change is making fire conditions worse, said Rodrigo Agostinho, president of Ibama, Brazil’s environmental monitoring agency. “Although it’s not the climate that starts the fires,” he added.

Ibama says almost all fires were caused by humans, either deliberately or accidentally. Burning is common in Brazilian agriculture. Historically, Brazil has encouraged it as a quick and cheap way to clear land and prepare the soil for new plantings. The government has banned this practice, although many farmers do not follow the rule.

Agostinho said Ibama went on a war footing, with thousands of vehicles and hundreds of inspectors, to control the fires. The agency has called for assistance from neighboring countries, even some that are also dealing with wildfires.

Environment and Climate Change Minister Marina Silva told senators earlier this month that the rainforest was “losing moisture” and becoming more vulnerable to fires in a “severe climate change process”.

On Tuesday, she said during a radio interview that “at this point, any fire is characterized as criminal.” The government wants to tighten existing penalties for fires.

cloudy sky

Smoke from the fires has already covered much of the country and clouded the skies over faraway São Paulo. Smoke has even reached Argentina and Uruguay, according to Climatemo, a climate monitoring service. (Brazil’s smoke is compounded by that from fires in other countries, including Bolivia and Paraguay.)

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva this week announced 514 million reais (about $95 million) to fund emergency measures, including more investigations and the hiring of specialized firefighters.

Last year, at the start of his third term, Lula returned to the international stage, promising to strengthen Amazon protection, protect tribal lands from resource extraction and spark a green transition of Brazil’s economy. Deforestation has decreased and a project has been approved that sets guidelines for the development of sustainable fuels, marking progress towards a cleaner energy future.

However, the crisis in the Amazon – captured in photos seen around the world – may pose a challenge for Lula when he heads to the United Nations General Assembly in New York later this week.

The region needs better fire prevention, more investment in firefighting and more intensive enforcement, said Manoela Machado, a postdoctoral researcher at Woodwell who studies the factors that drive fire risk in the Amazon.

“Lula is trying to convince the world that Brazil is a climate leader. But there is a disconnect in the actual actions on the ground,” Machado said.

Photo: Smoke from wildfires covers the city of São Paulo, Brazil on September 4, 2024. Photo credit: Maira Erlich/Bloomberg

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