Amazon Burning: Brazil Reports Record Rainforest Fires, While President Blames NGOs

Riyaz Patel

Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has accused non-governmental organizations of “burning down the Amazon rainforest to hurt his government,” as a growing global outcry against the wildfires raged through social media.

Wildfires raging in the Amazon rainforest have hit a record number this year, with 72,843 fires detected so far by Brazil’s space research center INPE, as concerns grow over Bolsonaro’s environmental policy.

The surge marks an 83 percent increase over the same period of 2018, the agency said earlier this week, and is the highest since records began in 2013.

Presented without evidence and disputed by environmental and climate experts, Bolsonaro’s comments enraged critics and fanned a growing social media campaign over the dangers to the Amazon, one of the world’s key bulwarks against climate change.

A week ago, NASA noted that the fires were large enough that they could be spotted from space.