Reports suggest that humans are to blame for the fires burning in the Amazon.
News emerged earlier in the week that Brazil’s Amazon rainforest is burning at a record rate, according to new space agency data.
More recent information seems to suggest that humans are to blame for the fires, which have wreaked havoc both in the rainforest and Brazil as a whole.
Environmental organizations and expert researchers have said that the wildfires blazing in the Amazon were set by cattle ranchers and loggers who want to clear and utilize the land, emboldened by the country’s controversial president Jair Bolsonaro.
According to CNN, Bolsonaro made promises during his Presidential campaign to restore the economy by exploring the Amazon’s economic potential.
However, President Bolsonaro recently suggested that the massive fires could potentially have been started by onprofit organizations who are suffering from lack of funding, in an attempt to “generate negative attention against me and against the Brazilian government.”
Experts have also suggested that man-made fires are far more difficult to stop or control.
“The vast majority of these fires are human-lit,” said Christian Poirier, the program director of non-profit organization Amazon Watch. He added that even during dry seasons, the Amazon — a humid rainforest — doesn’t catch on fire easily, unlike the dry bushland in California or Australia.
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