On Monday afternoon the whole city of Sao Paulo, Brazil, went completely dark – as it turns out, the city was buried in smoke by the strong winds coming from forest fires burning nearly 1,700 miles away. According to Reuters, Brazil’s space research center INPE has detected almost 72,843 wildfires raging the Amazon rainforest.
The research center states that their satellite data showed an 83% increase on the same period in 2018, showing that this Amazon rainforest has suffered the record number of fires.
Image credits: shannongsims
The citizens of Sao Paulo were shocked when they witnessed a daytime blackout, one twitter user said: ” Imagine how much has to be burning to create that much smoke”.
Image credits: shannongsims
Image credits: shannongsims
Image credits: shannongsims
The blackout lasted around an hour and came from the fires burning in the states of Amazonas and Rondonia.
Image credits: Leandro Matozo/GloboNews
Image credits: bilocabr
Image credits: sevenstarsARMY
But they weren’t the only ones who noticed an increased fire activity. NASA released photos taken from space which show smoke surrounding the Amazon rainforest.
Image credits: leandromota
Image credits: NASA
As the Amazon has been relatively fire-resistant due to its natural moisture and humidity, the wildfire increased during the last couple of decades and the cause is attributed to a combination of droughts and human activity.
Image credits: NASA
Experts associate this year’s increase with Jair Bolsonaro who took office as the president in January vowed to develop the Amazon region for farming and mining, ignoring the increased deforestation.
Image credits: NASA
by Andželika Jasevičiūtė via Bored Panda - Source
No comments: