(Photo Credit: news.theceomagazine.com)
#PrayForAmazonas
While everyone is focusing on Amazon tablets or superhero news, there is one headline that has been making the rounds on the Internet but hasn’t garnered enough widespread attention.
As of right now, thousands of fires are ravaging the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, making them the most intense blazes for almost a decade. The northern states of Roraima, Acre, Rondônia and Amazonas have been particularly affected.
However, among all the worry and other news, images purported to be of the fires – including some shared under the hashtag #PrayforAmazonas – have been shown to be decades old or are not even in Brazil. So, what exactly is going on and how bad are the fires?
This year has seen more than double the number of fires in Brazil than in 2013. According to the National Institute for Space Research, official figures show more than 75,000 forest fires recorded in Brazil in the first eight months of the year. This is the highest number since 2013. That compares with 40,000 in the same period in 2018.
Fires in the Amazon rainforest are nothing new, especially during the dry season, which runs from July to October. They can be caused by naturally occurring events, such as by lightning strikes, but also by farmers and loggers clearing land for crops or grazing.
But with the recent fires, most of the worst-affected regions are in the north, and as a result, Amazonas, the largest state in Brazil, has declared a state of emergency.
By: Maytinee Kramer
