The Amazon had the month of August with the most fires since 2010. In the 31 days of the month, 33,116 fires were registered, according to data from Inpe (National Institute for Space Research).
It is, consequently, the August with the most fires under Jair Bolsonaro (PL). All Augusts of the current government exceeded the data of the last decade of fire, with the exception of 2010, which had 45,018 hotspots.
The four Augusts of the Bolsonaro government add up to 121,383 fires in the Amazon. The Augusts from 2011 to 2018 add up to 128,722 hotspots.
Some days of the month already indicated that this August could have higher data than usual. On the 22nd, the highest value for the month of August in two decades was recorded: 3,358 fires.
Fourteen days of the month had records of more than 1,000 fires, with three days above 2,000 outbreaks – including the 22nd.
August and September are usually the most critical months for fires in the Amazon. This is a space of time part of the dry period of the biome.
And, in addition to the dry period, why are the fires concentrated in this period, considering that the Amazon is a humid biome and does not catch fire on its own?
The answer is deforestation. Forest clearing and fires are closely linked. In general terms, the deforesters cut down the forest, let it dry on the ground and wait until the dry season of the Amazon biome to burn the felled organic matter, as a way of “cleaning” the area.
With the constantly high deforestation data in the Amazon, it is to be expected that the fires will be significant.
If the fires were already significant this August, they could have been even worse. An operation in Mato Grosso prevented a new “fire day”, which was being engineered by landowners in Colniza, one of the cities with the highest number of fires in the country.
