The 3,358 fires recorded in the Amazon on the 22nd represent the highest value for the month of August since 2002, according to data from the Queimadas program, from Inpe (National Institute for Space Research).
On August 23, 2002, 3,548 hotspots were registered. On the 25th of that month, another 3,300 fires were captured by the Inpe satellite.
No other day in August in the last 20 years has surpassed 3,000 hotspots.
The analysis of Sheet it only compares the values ​​corresponding to August and part of 2002. It was in that year that new and more sensitive Inpe sensors for fires came into operation.
The number of outbreaks on the 22nd is very high, considering the last two decades. In addition to the three days in which such an expressive data was recorded, few others, in 2003, 2004 and 2005, approached 3,000 outbreaks in 24 hours.
It is worth noting that 2004 and 2005 were record years for fires. The beginning of the 21st century was marked by massive deforestation in the Amazon. Considering that deforestation and burning are interconnected actions, it is to be expected that, in times of great deforestation, there are also great fires.
In general terms, after clearing the forest, the deforesters leave the organic matter in the soil and, in the dry period of the Amazon, set fire to this material to “clean up” the area.
The largest tropical forest in the world is experiencing a moment of intense and increasing deforestation, a situation accentuated with the beginning of the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government. On the same day that more than 3,300 outbreaks were registered, the current president, on campaign, gave an interview to Jornal Nacional, from Rede Globo, in which he stated: “It happens [fogo]. Much of it… some of it is criminal, I know that. Another part is not criminal. It’s the riverside man who sets fire to his little one….”
Usually, in the dry periods of the country (from June onwards), the use of fire is prohibited, precisely to avoid uncontrolled fires.
In other moments of his administration, Bolsonaro minimized the burning and deforestation in the country, entering a collision course with the former director of Inpe and now candidate for federal deputy, Ricardo Galvão. The president and reelection candidate, at other times, blamed indigenous people for the fires.
In a speech at the UN General Assembly in 2020, Bolsonaro said: “The fires happen in the same places, in the eastern surroundings of the forest, where the caboclo and the Indian burn their swiddens in search of their survival, in areas already deforested”. The claim is not supported by reality.
The number of fires recorded last Tuesday (22) surpassed what became known as “fire day”, in which rural producers combined pasture and areas in the process of deforestation for the same period. On August 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14, 2019, 1,173, 2,366, 1,314, 2,302 and 2,153 fires were recorded, respectively.
There are four cities in Amazonas (ApuÃ, Novo Aripuanã, Lábrea and Manicoré) and four in Pará (Novo Progresso, Altamira, São Félix do Xingu, Itaituba) on the list of municipalities with the most fires last Tuesday.
The 22nd could be just a point out of the curve, but since last week, days with high numbers of fires have been recorded for the month. On the 17th, there were 2,233 more outbreaks. On Wednesday (24), there were 2,475.
The data for the last seven days (August 18th to 24th) also show an above-normal situation for the month: 13,459 fires in that space of time. It is the highest number of fires, for a single week in August, in the last 12 years — even surpassing the period around the “day of fire”.
In the last decade, a period of seven days only had numbers above 10 thousand outbreaks in 2019 and 2014. In 2010, there was also a record of a period of a single week with just over 14 thousand outbreaks.
What explains so much fire?
Researcher Ane Alencar, director of science at Ipam (Amazon Environmental Research Institute), says that the current weather in the Amazon may be an explanation for the concentration of fires. According to her, the rainy season was a little longer than usual and, consequently, the period of burning in deforested areas started late.
In other words, less time and, consequently, the need for a greater concentration of fires to “clean up” felled areas.
In fact, the average of daily fires in the first two weeks of the current month of August is lower than the averages of the last three years (since the beginning of the Bolsonaro government).
However, says the expert, if there was deforestation, there will be fire. Not burning a cleared area means losing money, basically.
“Unless people abandon the ‘investment’ that is cutting down an area. Cutting down and not burning is a loss”, says Alencar.
The fire situation for the month as a whole, however, will only become clear in the coming days. The total figures for August, so far, are not far from the pattern seen under Bolsonaro.
