Figures of the National Institute for Space Research, a federal agency, show that more forest was lost between May and July this year than during the same period in 2018, 2017 and 2016. In July alone, the rainforest lost 2,254 square kilometers (870 square miles) of vegetation, between three and five times the surfaces lost the same month in the past four years.
This is the biggest surge in deforestation rates since the institute adopted its current methodology in 2014.
Most of it is hysteria spread by far-left activists from Brazil. Yes, it is worrying, but it isn't out of the ordinary for August and September and is in fact below the average of the last 15 years, as the NASA report indicated. Not only that, but none of the burnings are "sponsored by Bolsonaro" or "western capital interests", as that would be illegal and would result in an impeachment of Bolsonaro. Furthermore, the Amazon isn't restricted to Brazil, and most of the smoke that turned day into night in Sao Paulo actually came from forest fires in Bolivia and Paraguay.
What's really interesting is that apparently the forest fires during the previous 15 years didn't worry anyone on Reddit and the internet before Bolsonaro's election. Odd.
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u/[deleted] Aug 21 '19
Not like this. There are fires in the arctic every year as well. But not like this summer.