The Amazon forest has been experiencing a record-breaking number of forest fires this year.
While this is a recurring event, as farmers deforest land for cattle ranching, this year saw the most fires since 2013. The fires reached such an extent that it caused a blackout in the city of São Paulo, which is 3300 kms away from the origin of the fires. In the middle of the day on Monday, the sky above São Paulo was blanketed by smoke from the wildfires raging in the Amazon region.
According to local media reports, these forest fires had been going on for several days. Josélia Pegorim, Climatempo meteorologist explained,
The smoke did not come from fires from the state of São Paulo, but from very dense and wide fires that have been going on for several days in Rondônia and Bolivia. The cold front changed the direction of the winds and transported this smoke to São Paulo.
The smoke resulting from some of these wildfires was also captured in satellite images released by NASA last week.
People are blaming Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for his negligence and inaction on the fires. Bolsonaro has also been accused of harming the Amazon rainforest and indigenous peoples in order to benefit loggers, miners and farmers who helped get him elected.
