In the Amazon, fires continue to ravage the forest. If the terrible images of the year 2019 have marked the spirits, this summer, the fires are even more devastating. Experts note a 17% increase in forest fires. Which makes 2020 a record year since 2010.
More than 10,000 fire points were identified during the first ten days of August. Every minute, more than two football fields go up in smoke, according to the latest report from the NGO Greenpeace. Faced with the averted effects of the drought and the inaction of the Brazilian government which minimizes the effects of deforestation, experts fear an unprecedented environmental crisis in the coming months.
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The health crisis gives free rein to illegal loggers
And the health crisis is not helping either. Budget cuts and confinement have restricted the levers to protect the forest in the face of land grabbing. But "illegal loggers are not teleworking", deplore experts. "They are invading indigenous lands with impunity."
These fires are not unusual for the period, of course. The fire season starts every year at the end of July and intensifies in August but rarely with so much violence, says the Greenpeace report. Environmental consequences of course, but that's not all. The smoke travels and Brazilians can breathe it for miles around. Last year, forest fires plunged Sao Paulo into darkness for a whole day.