An international team of scientists writing in the journal Global Change Biology say the number of active fires in August was actually three times higher than in 2018 and the highest number since 2010. They have used evidence collected from the Brazilian Government’s DETER-b deforestation detection system — which calculates deforestation by interpreting images taken by NASA satellites. This shows that deforestation in July this year was almost four times the average from the same period in the previous three years. This is important as deforestation is almost always followed by fire – the cut vegetation is left to dry before being burned. August’s blazes occurred at a time without a strong drought. Droughts can provide conditions favorable to the spreading of man-made fires. The scientists also show that the ‘enormous’ smoke plumes that reached high into the atmosphere, which were captured by media footage of the blazes, could only have been caused by the combustion of large amounts of biomass. The researchers acknowledge that the number of active fires decreased in September by 35 percent. Though they say it is not clear whether that fall is due to rains or President Bolsonaro’s two-month moratoria on fires. Images from DETER-b show that deforestation continued at a rate well above the average in September, despite the President’s moratoria. Dr. Erika Berenguer, a Brazilian researcher jointly affiliated with Lancaster University and the University of Oxford, said: “Our paper clearly shows that without tackling deforestation, we will continue to see the largest rainforest in the world being turned to ashes. We must curb deforestation. “Brazil has for the past decade been an environmental leader, showing to the world that it can successfully reduce deforestation. It is both economically and environmentally unwise to revert this trend.” The paper’s authors are Jos Barlow of Lancaster University, Erika Berenguer of Lancaster University and the University of Oxford, Rachel Carmenta of the University of Cambridge, and Filipe França of the Universidade Federal do Pará.
