WhileNASA said“it is not unusual” to see fires in Brazil this time of year “due to high temperatures and low humidity,” the new satellite images show the troubling extent of the blazes — and experts are saying the effects could be felt globally.
Each red dot on the photograph represents a fire or “thermal anomalies,” according to NASA’sEarth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Worldviewapplication, which shows a snapshot for each day. When a user moves the application tool through August, several states in South America become increasingly red.
Citing Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE),CNNreported there have been 72,843 fires in Brazil this year (with more than half in its Amazon region), and satellite images have spotted 9,507 new forest fires in the county — mostly in the Amazon basin — since Thursday.
NASA Worldview
Amazon rainforest from space.NASA
The Amazon spans eight countries and is often referred to as “the planet’s lungs,” as it produces 20 percent of Earth’s oxygen. The onslaught of fire is threatening wildlife and Earth’s oxygen in a disaster that experts are now saying will be felt around the world, including in the Midwest region of the U.S. as weather patterns shift.
“The Amazon is definitely a weather engine,” Meg Symington, the World Wildlife Fund’s senior director for the Amazon in the U.S., toldNBC.
“It’s well-known that the weather patterns affect rainfall in the breadbasket of South America,” she added, “but there’s also evidence that it affects the breadbasket that is the middle of the U.S.”
The fires could potentially have a lasting effect on rainfall patterns, which could destabilize ecosystems in the Midwest and threaten food production.
Amazon rainforest on fire.STR/AFP/Getty
Amazon rainforest on fire.Porto Velho Firefighters HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
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According to theWorld Wildlife Fund, around 17 percent of the Amazon has already been lost, putting it dangerously close to the potential tipping point.
Several environmentalists have said cattle ranchers and farmers intentionally set the current fires to clear the land for their own use. If the fires and deforestation continue to go unchecked, experts say the tipping point could be reached in as little as five years.
“The Amazon is so important — a critically important part of the world — not just for animals and plants and the people that live there,” Symington told NBC. “This is a crisis.”
source: people.com
