RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, Aug 20 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) – The number of forest fires in Brazil increased by 82 percent from Jan to Aug, 2019, compared to the same period last year, the country’s National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) said.
According to Inpe, 71,497 forest fires were registered in the country, in the first eight months of 2019, up from 39,194, in the same period in 2018.
Five states suffered more forest fires this year. The number of forest fires in the mid-western state of Mato Grosso soared by 260 percent, which is responsible for almost 20 percent of all the forest fires registered in the whole country from Jan to Aug; the number of forest fires in Rondonia, Para and Acre in the northern region grew by 198 percent, 188 percent and 176 percent respectively; Rio de Janeiro in the southeastern region saw a 173-percent growth.
Alberto Setzer, a researcher at Inpe, said, all the fires are results of human activity, some of which are accidental while others intentional.
The sharp rise in the number of forest fires caused strange phenomena in several regions in Brazil.
By mid-afternoon, in places like Brazil’s largest city, Sao Paulo, which is thousands of kilometres away from the forest fires area in the Amazon rain forest, the sky was dark, as if it were night, covered by thick “fog.”
The “fog” — scientists said — was partially caused by the smoke from the mid-western region, carried by the wind.– NNN-PRENSA LATINA
