From the air Rondônia gives a sad picture. Firewalls eat their way through huge forest areas, dense black smoke lies over the northern Brazilian state. Where the fires do not rage, black stumps - surrounded by ashes - are left behind.
Rondônia is one of the areas hardest hit by the current fires in the Amazon. According to recent data from the research institute Inpe, there have been 79,513 fires in Brazil since the beginning of the year, more than half of them in the region. Already since Friday 1130 new sources of fire have been added, it said (read more about this topic). The flames also rage in the states of Roraima and Mato Grosso, Pará and in the neighboring countries Paraguay and Bolivia.
NASA researchers have confirmed the Inpe data on Monday. Both institutions use data from the satellites "Terra" and "Aqua". "There are more fires right now than in all seven states of the Brazilian Amazon at the same time last year," said NASA researcher Douglas Morton. This is a big problem for ecosystems. In addition, the fires worsen the CO2 balance enormously.
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The most important questions about the fires:
Does only unbroken nature burn?
No. According to the evaluations, most fires blaze on areas that are already used for agriculture and on which the forest has already been cleared. There burns wood that has been stacked to dry. In contrast, damp tropical forests do not burn so quickly.
Currently, there is a dry season in the region, it comes again and again to the outbreak of fires. But the vast majority of controlled fires were laid by humans - especially to develop agricultural land: Brazil is the largest exporter of beef worldwide. Most of the forest-free regions are used as pastureland. The cultivation of soybeans also plays an important role: according to the Ministry of Economy, Brazil exported 83.3 million tons of soybeans in 2018, an increase of 22.2 percent over the previous year. About 6.5 percent of the deforested area in the Amazon is used for agriculture, but the share of soybeans has recently declined.
Global SuperTanker
Are now the oxygen supplies of the earth scarce?
Recently, there was a concern in social networks that too little oxygen could be available to the earth as a result of the fires. 20 percent of world production would be produced by the "green lung of the earth," it said. However, the number is not right, reports environmental researcher Jonathan Foley. It is estimated that it is six percent. During the day, when the sun is shining, plants release oxygen through photosynthesis. But at night, the process reverses - then they inhale oxygen and release carbon dioxide. So the oxygen production of the earth is not in danger.
OK. The spike in Amazonian deforestation and fires is a huge problem - for climate, for biodiversity, for indigenous communities, and for the entire world.
But one thing we do not need to worry about is the world's oxygen supply. pic.twitter.com/jAw7V2HpU8
Are forest fires fundamentally problematic?
That it burns in the rainforest is basically no problem for nature, as long as the fires do not exceed a certain extent. The indigenous peoples of South and Central America have been using the slash-and-burn field for centuries in the dry season to expose small plots of land for the self-sufficiency industry in the rainforest. The ecosystem even benefits, as the forest gets a chance to rejuvenate, new plants can regrow. However, the current level of fires endangers the stability of the whole ecosystem. Researchers fear that the forest may never recover (read more here).
The ash from the fires provides nutrients for growth and acts as a natural fertilizer. In addition, pests are destroyed. The system of "shifting cultivation" is also sustainable because a favorable combination of different large and small plants are cultivated and monocultures are avoided. In addition, the areas are cultivated in one cycle: after a few years of harvest, the farmers clear a new plot. The soils of the old ones have time to regenerate before being re-ordered.
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How intensively are the arsonists persecuted?
With this form of supply but the current clearing and fires have nothing to do. Under Brazil's new president, Jair Bolsonaro, who has been in office since January, the destruction of the forest has accelerated. Bolsonaro had announced that under his government economic interests are facing environmental protection (read more about Bolsonaro's agenda here). It is true that the right-wing populist leader sent the army to the Amazon region so that the troops fight against the fire. But the measures against illegal arson have apparently decreased significantly. According to a report in the New York Times, Brazil's environmental authorities determine one-fifth fewer environmental crimes than in the same period last year. Environmentalists accuse Bolsonaro of creating a political climate in which farmers are encouraged to exploit more and more deforestation and slash-and-burn.
It goes without saying that the arsonists seem to unite in large groups. According to a report in the journal "Globo Rural", more than 70 people in a WhatsApp group in Pará state recently agreed to set fire to large areas along the BR-163 highway. "Criminal arson in the Amazon" is punished severely, wrote Justice Minister Sérgio Moro on the case on Twitter.
What is problematic about some pictures of the disaster?
In connection with the fires, media and social networks repeatedly reveal images that are not from the current catastrophe. For example, numerous celebrities, including professional soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo, posted pictures in social networks, some of them from previous years, using the hashtag #prayforamazonia.
Our house is burning. Literally. The Amazon rain forest - the lungs which produces 20% of our planet's oxygen - is on fire. It is an international crisis. Members of the G7 Summit, let's discuss this emergency first order in two days! #ActForTheAmazon pic.twitter.com/dogOJj9big
- Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) August 22, 2019Even a photo posted by Leonardo DiCaprio and French President Emmanuel Macron created a false impression. It had been made by a photojournalist who died in 2003.
