The Amazon is on fire – here are 5 things you need to know

Record fires are raging in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, with more than 2,500 fires currently burning. They are collectively emitting huge amounts of carbon, with smoke plumes visible thousands of kilometres away.

Huge fires are raging across multiple regions of the Amazon Basin.

Fires in Brazil increased by 85% in 2019, with more than half in the Amazon region, according to Brazil’s space agency.

This sudden increase is likely down to land degradation: land clearing and farming reduces the availability of water, warms the soil and intensifies drought, combining to make fires more frequent and more fierce.

Read the story from, The Conversation by a PhD candidate from The University of Sydney,  Danilo Ignacio Urzedo - “The Amazon is on fire – here are 5 things you need to know.”