The New York Times: Analysis of satellite images has pinpointed the culprit in the Amazon forest fire

Amazon forest fires in recent days have been assessed as catastrophic on a global scale. According to the newly recorded information, there were more than 1,633 new fires occurring in the two days of August 22 - 23, bringing the total number of forest fires in Brazil to more than 76,600. The fires were so big that they could be seen from the universe, and made cities in the cities thousands of kilometers away from the scene in the middle of the day.

Who is the culprit? Environmentalists believe that the source of the fire originated from farmers' clearing of shifting forests , which was deeply rooted by the presidential claims of the forest economy to the fullest. Bolsonaro.

But is that the real culprit, or is it just a hypothetical ground? Suspecting this, the New York Times recently published a study, in which experts analyzed Amazon's satellite image data, to point out exactly what the "culprit" was causing the disaster. .

And the cause is exactly what experts worry: most of the fires come from agricultural lands, where trees have been cleaned up.

Yellow is the areas where forests were cut down in 2018, and red has been the place of forest fires since August.

Most of the fires are mainly set by farmers themselves, in preparation for the next year's crop. According to the University of Maryland (USA), this is a common practice in Brazilian agriculture. As the picture below is an example, shows the smoke rising from the agricultural areas of Amazon.

Smoke rises from the agricultural areas of the Amazon.

The problem lies in the fact that most of the current agricultural land is created "thanks to" deforestation of the Amazon for many years . "Most of this land was originally a forest," - Matthew Hansen, head of research at the University of Maryland.

"The rain forest is there, and then suddenly it all turns into a forest . soy with corn."

The chart below is also a difficult proof to deny. It shows the frequency of forest fires on a monthly basis throughout the forest purchased from Amazon each year since 2011. It can be seen that forest fires occur mainly in the dry season - from August to October, coinciding with the time of farmers. Prepare to plant a new crop.

Forest fires are increasing year by year, most in the dry season.

This chart is made up of data from two NASA satellites, Terra and Aqua, which are equipped with tools to receive radiation emitted during a fire. And if you compare August 2019 with the same period of previous years, you will understand why people call this wildfire a global disaster.

The chart shows the average forest fire density for 8 / 2011-2018 and August 2019.

Compared to the average fire density of the past 8 years, August 2019 is 35% more. Some states also recorded an increase of more than 110%.

"The wildfire may be due to thunder, but it is not the natural phenomenon of a tropical rain forest," said Mark Cochrane, an expert on wildfires and ecology from the University of Maryland. "All these fires are human."

Cochrane also shared a remarkable fact, that although most fires occurred in areas that had been cleared, there were still many incidents occurring in dense forests. According to him, this could be the fires used for deforestation , not clearing forests to prepare for new crops.

"Cut down a forest, pile it up, dry it and then put in it a fire, it will burn very strong and emit a lot of smoke" - quoted Cochrane. In fact, it has been shown that the rate of deforestation in Brazil is increasing rapidly in recent years. Especially since President Bolsonaro came to power, the rate of felling has even increased by 278% in the last 2 months.

In the New York Times analysis, it was shown that the Brazilian environmental agencies' ability to protect forests decreased by 20% in the first 6 months, compared to the same period in 2018.

After many days of criticism from local and international public opinion, President Bolsonaro has to go into the water, declare what the army will come to fight against the fire, and enforce environmental laws.

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