The recent increase in fires adds to the concern from the international scientific community that the Amazon could turn from a wet and fire-resistant jungle into a savannah-like tinder box that would contribute to the rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
It’s a giant air filter nearly as vast as the contiguous U.S. And it’s been burning for weeks. Covering extensive territory in Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and smaller parts of six other countries, the Amazon rainforest houses the most diverse groups of plants and animals in the world. This forest also plays an instrumental role in driving the weather and climate in South America. The trees in the Amazon are also widely considered the lungs of the planet because, together with marine plants, they produce most of the oxygen we all breathe.
But several regions of the Amazon have been ablaze for weeks, generating enough smoke to turn skies dark midday in São Paulo, Brazil’s financial hub. A new record of nearly 74,000 fires have been spotted in 2019, 80 percent more than this time last year.
“Seeing that smoke in São Paulo is like having a fire in California and then seeing the smoke here in Boston,” says Aron Stubbins, a Northeastern professor of marine and environmental sciences. “It takes hours to fly across the Amazon, so it’s a long way for smoke to travel.”
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Image via Leo Correa, Associated Press
