Amazon Forest Fire

lungs of earth amazon forest fire

This article is very important for you as an aware citizen or resident of planet Earth. You should be aware about the destruction due to Amazon forest fire every year. But unfortunately this year, the rate of destruction is at its extreme point. And if it continues, a day will come when the whole rainforest will extinct. Instead of producing Oxygen, it will start emitting carbon dioxide.

Earth crying for amazon forest fire

Before starting let me introduce with an important term i.e, Outrage. In simple words you can understand it as anxiety or anger which people show on social platforms.

Few months ago when there was fire in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, there was a huge outrage. This incident got a huge attention through media. People were disappointed as usual as Notre Dame Cathedral was really a sad incident.

But in comparison to the fire in Amazon, you can see that outrage is really very small. Many people don’t even know about it. And media is also not paying much attention. And in India, its not even being discussed. Though it’s a huge issue which threats our environment directly.

So before starting about Amazon forest fire, let me introduce you a little about Amazon Rainforest.

About Amazon Rainforest :

So Amazon Rainforest lies in South American continent. Actually, its not under a single country, its part of several countries of south american continent. It covers a huge landmass. Amazon Rainforest is known by several names such as Amazonia, Amazon Jungle, etc. It lies near Amazon basin where Amazon River also flows.

Now I want you see where actually South American continent lies on world map. It lies thousands of kilometer away from our India as shown in the following map.

Rainforests on earth

In the map shown below, you will see highlighted parts along Brazil and other surrounding countries such as Peru, Ecuador, Colombia ; these regions belong to Amazon Rainforest.

Countries under amazon rainforest

It covers a huge number of countries. 60% of it is in Brazil. And due to this 60% ownership, whenever there’s a case of deforestation, species extinction or any other problem, Brazil is accused for it.

However Peru is on 2nd number which contains 13% of Amazon Rainforest. After that Colombia, which contains 10% of it. And minor amount of Amazon Rainforest is in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.

Most importantly, this Amazon Rainforest is ecologically very important. Firstly, because it plays a significant role in providing Oxygen to our whole Earth which we all living beings inhale.

Secondly, its the house of lakhs of species. There are various species of frogs, snakes, birds and many more , which you will find there only in the whole world. And the reason for it is Amazon River.

Reason for speciality of Amazon Rainforest

flower

The specialty or rich ecosystem of Amazon Rainforest is due to Amazon River. It flows in South America as shown below.

Amazon river on map

Amazon River in terms of water volume, is the largest river in the world.

You might me thinking : How it caught fire ? Was there any sudden event that took a huge rainforest in its grip ? Now let me explain you current scenario of Amazon Rainforest.

How Amazon forest caught fire ?

amazon forest fire
burnt animals

Actually the reason for Amazon forest fire is a natural phenomena. Normally, due to dry season and heat it catches fire on small scale in various regions every year. But this year has been worse than the normal, according to INPE. This year fire took place in several regions on large scale i.e, more than 72000 fires. The results are so harsh that the fire can be seen from space also.

Recently European Union’s Satellite Program released a map showing smoke from the fires spreading all along Brazil to the east Atlantic coast. The smoke has covered nearly half of the country and is spilling over into neighboring Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay. You can see what’s happening to the Amazon Rainforest in the following image.

satellite view of amazon forest fire

Basically, the fire took place slightly in few regions all over and this resulted into a massive destruction. And obviously its not easy to extinguish such a fire. Now I will tell you what was the reason for this large scale Amazon forest fire.

Reason for Amazon Forest Fire

So according to activists, primary reason for increase in rate of Amazon Forest fire is Brazil’s president “Jair Bolsonaro”.

activists blame amazon forest fire

Bolsonaro came into power recently after general elections. When he came into power, he had to face a major challenge i.e, decreasing growth rate of Brazil’s economy.

What Brazil’s president did ?

So in order to revive economy and to bring back title “economic powerhouse” of Brazil, he decided to utilize the natural gift they got i.e, Amazon Rainforest. So he started introducing several policies which gave freedom to citizens of Brazil to utilize the resources of Amazon Rainforest in any possible and profitable way.

And for this Bolsonaro loosened various rules and regulations regarding Amazon’s welfare.

Several companies, investors and farmers started over exploiting the resources. They started cutting trees on large scale for their profit and even burnt few areas of rainforest for land.

He banned NGO’s who criticized him and protested regarding deforestation. Saying that they are stopping Brazil’s Development.

Recently National Institute for Space Research of Brazil warned Bolsonaro in their report. That the way the fire is spreading, it will keep continuing for long and a day will come when we all will be unable to control it. However after release of this report, Bolsonaro fired the director.

Moreover, Brazil’s Environment Enforcement Agency got a budget cut of $23 million.

amazon forest fire

Now you might be thinking why this fire is not getting controlled. So let me tell you that this fire is not at one place. It is spread over several areas as I already shown you in previous map. It is hard to cover all those areas under fire and requires a lot of time and effort.

These fires took place every year on small scale, but due to non eco-friendly policies of Bolsonaro, this fire took place on large scale.

rain over amazon forest fire

Though it rained over amazon forest fire recently, but since the Amazon rainforest is so huge and fire is spread over different areas, it didn’t extinguished all fired areas. But it helped in extinguishing amazon forest fire, i.e., nature helped itself.


Conclusion :

This Amazon Rainforest is not only important for Brazil, it is important for whole Earth. So in order to stop such type of environmental disasters, US, India and all other international countries should take an instant action to compel such countries having rainforests to take extreme care of it.

It’s not only the result of fault of Brazil, there are many more reasons such as pollution, global warming, etc. So we all have to contribute towards our Earth’s health at our own level. Because if we don’t take any step now, a day will come all will go out of our hands.


Hope this article helped you to understand the current condition of our rainforests.

Thank you !!

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