Get 40% Off
🤯 This Tech Portfolio is up 29% YTD! Join Now to Get April’s Top PicksGet The Picks – Just 99 USD

Raging Fires and Dark Skies Put Brazil’s Bolsonaro in Spotlight

Published 08/22/2019, 01:42 AM
Updated 08/22/2019, 05:36 AM
© Reuters.  Raging Fires and Dark Skies Put Brazil’s Bolsonaro in Spotlight

© Reuters. Raging Fires and Dark Skies Put Brazil’s Bolsonaro in Spotlight

(Bloomberg) -- Brazil’s Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is burning at a record rate, according to data from the National Institute of Space Research that intensified domestic and international scrutiny of President Jair Bolsonaro’s environmental policies.

INPE, as the institute is known, recorded an 84% increase in fires in Brazil between 2018 and 2019, with well over half taking place in the Amazon rainforest. It was the highest level since records began 7 years ago. Speaking to reporters in Brasilia on Wednesday, the president said that NGOs could be behind the fires, in an attempt to discredit him and to draw attention to the cuts in their funding. He offered no evidence for his claim.

Bolsonaro has come under intense pressure to contain the spread of the record number of fires currently burning through the world’s largest rainforest, many of them set by loggers incentivized by his government. Much of the pressure stems from the apocalyptic darkness that descended on the megalopolis of Sao Paulo on Monday afternoon, unnerving locals and triggering a fierce debate between meteorologists and climatologists over its exact cause. Some researchers argued the hazy gloom was a result of a combination of a cold front over the city coupled with smoke from fires in the Amazon, over 1,000 miles away. The hashtag #PrayforAmazonia has dominated social media in Brazil over the past few days.

For those living in the Amazon, the smoke is intense. Moises Fernandes, an agronomist and consultant in the state of Rondonia said that it’s been several days since he’s been able to see the river that lies just 450m away from his apartment.

The fires are not in the interests of large-scale landowners who own cattle that need to graze, and are mainly caused by smallholders in the region to recover their fields. “The small-scale producer is the one burning,” he said. “He burns because he doesn’t have access to technology, means of production, technical assistance so he winds up doing that.”

Fernandes says that oversight has decreased over recent years but the problem is not new, and not limited to this government.

Record Fires

“It’s normal to see fires at the end of the dry season,” Celso Oliveira, a meteorologist from Somar Meteorologia in Sao Paulo, said, adding that many parts of the country had gone three to six months without rain. “But there are also many fires caused by people clearing pasture and planting soybeans. There’s a lot of pressure on the Amazon region.”

Oliveira, however, dismissed suggestions that the eerie darkness that descended on Brazil’s most populous city had anything to do with the fires in the Amazon, pointing to official data showing good air quality in the area. “The gloom has no relation to the smoke, it happened because of the enormity of the clouds,” he said.

Regardless of the exact cause of Monday’s strange weather, the event has drawn attention to Bolsonaro’s environmental policies. The president has spoken repeatedly of his desire to develop the Amazon economically and integrate the indigenous people living there into contemporary Brazilian society.

He also recently fired the head of INPE, Ricardo Galvao, after dismissing data showing an 88% rise in deforestation between June 2018 and June 2019 as “lies”. Galvao’s replacement said that climate change “is not my thing”.

The president recently dismissed European leaders’ concerns about his government’s environmental policies after Norway followed Germany and froze millions of dollars in financial aid to an Amazon rainforest preservation fund.

No Relief

There’s little prospect of a sudden change in the weather putting out the fires. Brazil has been drier than normal and there doesn’t look to be any real relief until the rainy season starts in December, said Jason Nicholls, a meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania.

Any hope for an early start to the rainy season faded when an El Nino in the equatorial Pacific ended, Nicholls said. With the Pacific closer to normal it could even mean a delay for the annual onset of rains across the region.

“I really don’t see any prospects of the rainy season kicking in earlier,” Nicholls said. “There will be very little help from Mother Nature over the next two or three months or so.”

Latest comments

Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.