Between flames and smoke, Brazil tries to fight record breaking wildfires
With 85 police inquiries instated so far, investigations point to environmental crime in some cases
Originally published on Global Voices
Wildfire at the National Park, in Brasília, Brazil's capital, on September, 15, 2024. Image: Fabio Rodrigues-Pozzebom/Agência Brasil, used with permission
As statistics retrieved from the Global Wildfire Information System by mid-September 2024 show, three Brazilian biomes — the Amazon rainforest, Pantanal wetlands and Cerrado — registered 46,101,798 hectares (113,920,020 acres) burned, the equivalent of around 46,1 million football fields.
The first eight months of 2024 marked the worst year for Amazon fires since 2005, while São Paulo, the biggest city in Latin America, registered the worst air quality among big cities worldwide for five days in a row in September. Brasília's region, in the Federal District, reached over 163 days without rain this October 3, matching a 61-year-old record, and 3,000 fires in September alone.
While some regions struggled to fight the spreading fires, with not enough firefighters and a lack of resources, others were covered with the smoke that travelled through the air over the national territory.
Organizations such as WWF and Greenpeace claim that drought can help spread fires, but it doesn't necessarily explain its origin, which is likely caused by humans. With 85 police inquiries instated so far, investigations point to environmental crime in some regions, according to the federal government.
A monitoring system started in 2019 by MapBiomas, with technical cooperation established using Google Earth, points out that 70 percent of the burned area in Brazil this year was of native vegetation. The data is from the Fire Monitor.
11 million people affected
August alone recorded almost half of the year's forest fires. The fire reached grassland and pasture areas used for agricultural purposes.
The organization Rainforest Foundation stated:
The Brazilian Amazon registered a 104% increase in fire hotspots during the same eight-month period (January to August) compared to 2023, worsening an already critical situation. According to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), there were over 65,000 fire hotspots by the end of August 2024—the highest number for this period since 2005. Of these fire hotspots, over 38,000 were recorded in August alone, an increase of 120% compared to the same month last year, which recorded 17,373 fire hotspots.
Data from MapBiomas reveal that over five million acres were burned in the Brazilian Amazon in August alone. This year, the total burned area amounts to 13.4 million acres — an area larger than entire countries like Costa Rica or Denmark.
Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Pará, Tocantins, Amazonas and São Paulo, located in the center-western, northern and southeastern regions, were the states with the highest number of fires recorded in August.
The National Confederation of Municipalities (CNM) estimates that 11 million people have been directly affected by the forest fires. The economic losses reached at least 1,1 billion BRL (around 203 million US dollars), according to their report.
Worst air quality in the world
At around 10 a.m. on September 9, 2024, São Paulo topped the ranking among 120 big cities with the worst air quality in the world. The city recorded poor and very poor air quality in several of its regions.
The Swiss website IQAir, which calculates the index, gave the city of São Paulo a score of 160. According to the website, on a scale of 0-50, the rating is good; on a scale of 151-200, it's considered unhealthy. The main reasons for São Paulo reaching this number were high temperatures, low relative humidity and smoke from the fires.
The state of São Paulo itself also registered wildfires, as reported by Agência Brasil:
The Civil Defense of São Paulo has extended its high-risk alert for wildfires across the state through Tuesday, 10th Sept. According to the Emergency Management Center, temperatures are expected to continue rising, with relative humidity falling to critical levels below 35 percent over the coming days. (…)
The area with the worst air quality in São Paulo is Ponte dos Remédios, along the Tietê River. This location recorded high levels of fine inhalable particles (PM2.5), which are small enough to penetrate deep into the respiratory system.
These particles are associated with increased risks of heart and lung diseases.
Worsening losses
About 60 percent of all the fires burning throughout Latin America are currently happening in Brazil, says ABC News, crediting officials as the source. The newspaper The Guardian also reported on the fires in the region:
Huge tracts of South America have been blanketed in smoke from largely man-made wildfires that are raging from Ecuador’s drought-stricken capital to Paraguay’s Chaco forest to the backlands of the greatest tropical jungle on Earth.
The smoke has been so dramatic that passenger planes have been unable to land in Rondônia’s riverside capital, Porto Velho, and schools have been forced to close.
Drought is expected to worsen losses in Brazil, which is enduring the worst drought on record, affecting 58 percent of the country. The intensification of the climate crisis is putting pressure on basic services like energy and water supply and reinforcing warnings about the potential long-term economic impacts of extreme events, says newspaper Folha de S.Paulo.
The events point to a combination of climate change and criminal acts, according to the Brazilian environment and climate change minister, Marina da Silva. She has been advocating for stiffer penalties for arson and called what the country is now facing “climate terrorism.”
Silva sees resistance from some groups to the current government resuming an environmental public policy agenda, as quoted by Agência Brasil:
Estamos agora diante de uma situação, é uma combinação de um evento climático extremo que está assolando não só o Brasil, mas o planeta, e criminosos ateando fogo no país.
We're now facing a situation that is the combination of an extreme climate event, which is devastating not only Brazil, but the planet, and criminals setting fire to the country
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva acknowledged that “the country was not prepared for fires.” On his Instagram, on September 18, he announced the opening of a credit line of around 94 million US dollars.
Image: Brazilian federal government allocates 514 millions Brazilian Reals (USD 94,000,000) to combat the fires and drought in the Amazons.
After the meeting between the Three Powers that we held yesterday, we announced the opening of an extraordinary credit in the amount of 514 million BRl (around USD 94 million) to combat the fires. A concentrated effort by all federal entities to combat the fires.
In the beginning of October, the federal government also published a decree increasing sanctions to people who cause forest fires. The decree also doubles fines in case of fires caused in Indigenous lands.