The Amazon in 2020: from paradise on Earth to blazing inferno

In July 2020, Brazil announced a four-month ban on burning, designed to reassure the world that something was being done, as reported in the UK's Guardian newspaper. But satellite imagery being gathered by Brazil’s own space agency, INPE, suggests those efforts are falling short. In August, it detected more than 7,600 fires in Amazonas (pictured)— one of nine states making up the Brazilian Amazon. This is the highest number since 1998.

Reuters

2 / 38 Fotos

More than 29,307 fires in August -

According to the same newspaper, INPE announced more recently that across the entire Amazon region it had detected more than 29,307 fires in August 2020—the second-highest number in a decade and only slightly less than 2019’s figure of 30,900.

Reuters

3 / 38 Fotos

Deliberate and Illegal -

Wildfires are common in the dry season in Brazil, but they are also deliberately started in efforts to illegally deforest land for cattle ranching. Pictured is a tract of the Amazon rain forest seen burning in August near Ouro Preto in Rondônia State.

Reuters

4 / 38 Fotos

Degrading a precious resource -

CNN reports that rain forest fire destruction in 2020 could be worse than summer 2019, and is set to further degrade one of the world's most precious resources.

Reuters

5 / 38 Fotos

Deforestation on the increase -

Since President Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019, deforestation has been on the increase with a nearly 30% jump in the number of fires compared to 2018, according to INPE, and reported by CNN. Pictured: a general view of a tract of land burned near Apuí in Amazonas encroaching on the rain forest.

Reuters

6 / 38 Fotos

Fighting the fire -

A firefighter monitors a spot fire in an area of the Amazon rain forest near Porto Velho in Rondônia State.

Reuters

7 / 38 Fotos

Unsustainable -

A single bird flies over a scorched Amazon rain forest, its natural habitat destroyed. The Los Angeles Times ran a story in August reporting that experts believe the blazes are pushing the world’s largest rain forest toward a tipping point, after which it will cease to generate enough rainfall to sustain itself.

Reuters

8 / 38 Fotos

Out of control -

A Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) fire brigade member retreats from a wall of flames as a fire burns out of control. It's a familiar scene and mirrors that of the emergency in 2019.

Reuters

9 / 38 Fotos

Record number of fires -

Brazil's Amazon rain forest had seen a record number of fires in 2019.

10 / 38 Fotos

Worsening crisis - In fact, the first half of 2019 had seen more than double the number of fires in Brazil than in 2013.

11 / 38 Fotos

9,500 forest fires in a week! - Ipne said it had observed more than 9,500 forest fires in a single week, mostly in the Amazon region (pictured).

12 / 38 Fotos

Shrouded in smoke - The satellite images showed Brazil's northernmost state, Roraima, shrouded in dark smoke, while neighboring Amazonas declared an emergency over the fires.

13 / 38 Fotos

Devastation - Brazil is used to forest fires during the dry season. Pictured is a view of the devastation caused by a wild fire in an area of Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, in Alto Paraiso, Goias.

14 / 38 Fotos

The dry season is not to blame - INPE, however, noted that the number of fires was not in line with those normally reported during the dry season, as reported by the BBC.

15 / 38 Fotos

Bolsonaro is being blamed - The unprecedented surge in wildfires occurred since Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro, took office in January 2019. Bolsonaro has brushed aside foreign pressure to safeguard the Amazon rain forest.

16 / 38 Fotos

Development over conservation - Criticism was rife over Bolsonaro's environmental policies. Scientists argue that the Amazon has suffered losses at an alarming rate since he took office, with policies favoring development over conservation.

17 / 38 Fotos

Deforestation - The fact is that the Amazon rain forest is being eaten away by deforestation, much of which takes place as areas are burnt by large fires to clear land for agriculture.

18 / 38 Fotos

Wiping out the environment - Data released back in 2013 by INPE already suggested that destruction of the vast rain forest—the largest in the world—had spiked by more than a third over 2012, wiping out an area more than twice the size of the city of Los Angeles.

19 / 38 Fotos

Reversing progress - Figures then confirmed the fears of scientists and environmental activists who warned that farming, mining, and Amazon infrastructure projects, coupled with changes to Brazil's long-standing environmental policies, were reversing progress made against deforestation.

20 / 38 Fotos

The Amazon is dammed - An aerial view of the construction site of a hydroelectric dam along the Teles Pires river, a tributary of the Amazon, near the city of Alta Floresta, Para state.

21 / 38 Fotos

No trees left - A fisherman's house is seen along the Tapajos River, a tributary of the Amazon. The surrounding area is bereft of vegetation.

22 / 38 Fotos

Farming - A tractor works on a wheat plantation on land that used to be virgin Amazon rain forest.

23 / 38 Fotos

Tipping point - An article in the Economist warned that "South America’s natural wonder may be perilously close to the tipping-point beyond which its gradual transformation into something closer to steppe cannot be stopped or reversed, even if people lay down their axes."

24 / 38 Fotos

Illegal sawmills - The construction site of an illegal sawmill. The Rain Forest Foundation has issued a grim reminder that over the last 40 years, we have lost 20% of the Amazon.

25 / 38 Fotos

The loss caused by logging - Sawmills process illegally logged trees from the Amazon rain forest.

26 / 38 Fotos

Carbon dioxide - Logs that are burned release even more carbon into the air. Deforestation releases 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

27 / 38 Fotos

The final cut? - Tool of destruction: a worker carries a blade at an illegal sawmill.

28 / 38 Fotos

Processing wood - A sawmill worker processes trees illegally extracted from the Amazon jungle.

29 / 38 Fotos

Threat from loggers - A tree, which was illegally felled, lies on the floor of the Amazon rain forest in Jamanxim National Park. Illegal loggers frequently threaten, coerce, and even kill indigenous leaders and communities that protect their forests, claims the Rain Forest Foundation.

30 / 38 Fotos

The industrialization of the Amazon - A truck transports a mechanical shovel at a sawmill located on barren land that was once pristine rain forest.

31 / 38 Fotos

Unique - A single ipe (lapacho) tree is seen in this aerial view of the Amazon rain forest near the city of Novo Progresso, Para state.

32 / 38 Fotos

Only for cattle - Cattle walk on a tract of Amazon rain forest that was long ago cleared for agricultural purposes.

33 / 38 Fotos

Industrial waste - Furnaces used to make charcoal from wood discarded by the illegal logging and lumber industries.

34 / 38 Fotos

Slash and burn - Illegal loggers adopt a slash and burn policy in order to clear forest quickly and efficiently.

35 / 38 Fotos

Forest now pasture - Herders drive cattle, which were raised on pasture grown on an area of deforested Amazon rain forest, along the Trans-Amazonian highway near the city of Uruara, Para state.

36 / 38 Fotos

Mining disaster - An illegal gold mine, located on an area of deforested Amazon rain forest, is seen near the city of Castelo dos Sonhos, Para state.

37 / 38 Fotos

The future is not looking bright -

Even a rainbow can't detract from the sorry sight of the environment as it arcs over tract of rain forest leveled for commercial use.

38 / 38 Fotos

The Amazon in 2020: from paradise on Earth to blazing inferno

The world's largest rain forest is still seriously under threat

04/09/20 | StarsInsider

LIFESTYLE Fires

One year has passed since the world was shocked by the images of the fires blazing across the Amazon in Brazil. But 12 months on, the vast rain forest is experiencing a repeat of the devastation in 2019 caused by fires mostly started to clear land for agriculture. In fact, the forest hasn't really stopped burning: early numbers from 2020's fire season show an increase, leading to concern from scientists and renewed calls from environmental activists who warn that farming, mining, and Amazon infrastructure projects, coupled with changes to Brazil's long-standing environmental policies, are reversing progress made against deforestation.

Browse the following gallery for an alarming look at what's happening to the Amazon rain forest.