Brazil’s Amazon rainforest burning at record rate

RIO DE JANEIRO  — Fires are raging at a record rate in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, and scientists warn it could strike a devastating blow to the fight against climate change.

The fires are burning at the highest rate since the country’s space research center, the National Institute for Space Research began tracking them in 2013.

There have been over 72,000 fires in Brazil this year, with more than half in the Amazon region.

This satellite image provided by NASA on Aug. 13, 2019 shows several fires burning in the Brazilian Amazon forest. Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, a federal agency monitoring deforestation and wildfires, said the country has seen a record number of wildfires this year, counting 74,155 as of Tuesday, Aug. 20, an 84 percent increase compared to the same period last year. (NASA via AP)

That’s more than an 80 percent increase compared with the same period last year.

The Amazon is often referred to as the planet’s lungs, producing 20 percent of the oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere.
It is considered vital in slowing global warming, and it is also home to uncountable species of plants.

Roughly half the size of the US , it is the largest rainforest on the planet.