Amazon burning: Here’s Why It Matters To Us

The “lungs of the planet” are burning.

This year so far, Scientists recorded around more than 74,000 forest fires in Amazon. It is nearly double of 2018’s with total 40,000 fires it is around more than 83% increase in Wildfires over the same period of 2018. It is reported by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research. On Monday Amazon’s declared as state of Emergency.

‘The sky randomly turned dark’

As we know Amazon is the world’s largest rainforest and it plays a crucial roal in Keeping our Earth carbon-dioxide levels in balance. We also know many Plants and trees take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen back into the air this process called photosynthesis. Amazon Rainforest is doing the same thing that is why the Amazon which covers around 2.1 million square miles area is often known as “Lungs of the Earth” . Amazon produce around 20% of oxygen into our planet’s atmosphere.

During the dry season, blazes can spark from natural sources, like lightning strikes and many Farmers and loggers also purposefully set fire to the rainforest to clear of swaths of the Amazon for agricultural uses. Now Amazon fires have affect all over the Brazil. The smoke spread across the state of Amazonas.

On last Monday, people in São Paulo posted over many social media that the sky had gone dark between 3 and 4 pm local time.

Other countries have also been affected by fires

There are many other countries in the Amazon basin – an area spanning 7.4m sq km (2.9 sq miles) – have also seen a high number of fires this year. Venezuela has experienced the second-highest number, with more than 26,000 fires, with Bolivia coming in third, with more than 17,000.

Although many Bolivian government has already been hired many fire-fighting airtanker to help extinguish those wildfires in the east. It have already been spread across 2.3 sq miles (6 sq km) of forest and pasture.