The number of fires in Brazil’s Amazon basin is still on the rise, even though the government has banned burning, officials said on Saturday.
In the first 48 hours since the ban was issued, satellite data from the Brazilian National Space Research Institute showed 3,859 new outbreaks of fire, of which about 2,000 were concentrated in the Amazon region.
From January to the end of last month, 51.9 percent of Brazil’s recorded 88,816 fires were in the rainforest, according to the institute, a number experts call a dramatic, direct consequence of farmers’ widespread deforestation.
Photo: Reuters
Brazil’s Amazon region is in its dry season, but experts said that this year has been wetter than previous years — they also stressed that there are no natural fires in the Amazon.
The no-burn decree might have been too little too late and more of a political than practical gesture, some analysts have said.
Deforestation has surged this year as agencies tasked with monitoring illegal activities were weakened by right-wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Often called the Trump of the Tropics, Bolsonaro has questioned climate change and argued that farmers sometimes need the land for their livelihood.
Since last weekend, thousands of troops, firefighters and aircraft have been deployed, and the Brazilian Ministry of Defense has said the fires are under control.
Bolsonaro claimed in a live Facebook broadcast on Thursday that “this year’s fires are below the average of recent years.”
Deforestation for farming is one of the most serious threats to the rainforest and is a problem in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.
Farmers in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia commonly set fires in the dry season to clear the undergrowth in deforested areas.
However, this often leads to uncontrolled burning, which takes a greater toll on the rainforest.
Much to environmentalists’ chagrin, the Bolivian government has authorized farmers to burn 20 hectares instead of the usual 5 hectares — which is believed to have contributed to thousands of wildfires that razed 1.2 million hectares of grassland and forest since May.
Illegal crops also reduce the rainforest, such as Colombian coca cultivation, which covers about 170,000 hectares, according to UN data.
Significant damage is also done by illegal mining operations, which is compounded by the use of chemicals such as mercury — particularly in gold mining — which contaminates soil and streams.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not