The sun shines red through smoke and dust left by the fires in the Amazon rainforest, near Porto Velho, Brazil, on 29 August 2019. Photo: Joedson Alves / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock

Rain will not extinguish Amazon fires for weeks, weather experts say

By Jake Spring 27 August 2019 BRASILIA (Reuters) – Weak rainfall is unlikely to extinguish a record number of fires raging in Brazil’s Amazon anytime soon, with pockets of precipitation through 10 September 2019 expected to bring only isolated relief, according to weather data and two experts. The world’s largest tropical rainforest is being ravaged […]

Screenshot from “Honest Government Ad: We're F**ked” by The Juice Media. Video: The Juice Media

Honest Government Ad: We’re Fucked

2 Sep 2019 (Juice Media) – The Government™ has made an ad about the state of the world as we enter the third decade of the 21st century, and it’s surprisingly honest and informative. Global Climate StrikeWorldwide Rebellion A feedback loop is the scientific term for when a species uses its own ignorance to screw […]

Landsat 8 acquired images of one of the larger fires in South America burning north of the Paraguay River near Puerto Busch on 25 August 2019 with IR Joshua Stevens NASA Earth Observatory

As Brazilian Amazon burns, fires in next-door Bolivia also wreak havoc – “I’ve never seen an environmental tragedy on this scale”

By Anatoly Kurmanaev and Monica Machicao 25 August 2019 LA PAZ, Bolivia (The New York Times) – Amid growing international alarm over fires in Brazil’s Amazon region, neighboring Bolivia is facing devastating fires of its own, with flames devouring farmland and environmentally sensitive forests alike. In midst of the calamity, the country’s president, Evo Morales, suspended his […]

Map showing active fire detections in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil as observed by Terra and Aqua MODIS satellites between 15 August 2019 and 22 August 2019. Photo: Joshua Stevens / NASA Earth Observatory

NASA satellites confirm Amazon rainforest is burning at a record rate

By Passant Rabie 27 August 2019 (Space.com) – As raging fires continue to sweep through the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, NASA satellites and astronauts aboard the International Space Station are tracking the flames from above. Their view confirmed that this is the most active fire year in Brazil since 2010. Fire detections by NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) […]

Greta Thunberg arrives by racing yacht in Manhattan, 28 August 2019. Photo: Greta Thunberg

Greta Thunberg, teen climate change activist, sails into New York City – “Our war on nature must end”

28 August 2019 (BBC News) – Teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg has arrived in New York after a 15-day, 3,000-mile (4,800km) voyage across the Atlantic. She will be participating in UN climate summits in New York City and Chile. The 16-year-old Swede sailed from Plymouth in the UK on a zero-emissions yacht in order to […]

Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro gestures during the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association's Unica Forum 2018 in São Paulo, 18 June 2018. Photo: Miguel Schincariol / Getty Images

Humans bicker while the rainforest burns: Brazil rejects G-7 aid pledged to fight Amazon fires, but Bolsonaro might accept offer if Macron apologizes

By Guy Davies 27 August 2019 LONDON (ABC News) – A senior government official said Brazil would reject the $22 million G-7 countries promised to help fight the wildfires raging in the Amazon. Brazilian President Bolsonaro’s chief of staff Onyx Lorenzoni told Globo News, a Brazilian publication, that Brazil would reject the $22 million aid package, suggesting that the money […]

Timelapse satellite view of deforestation since 2015 of a plot of Amazon rainforest in Brazil, from 21 October 2015 to 21 August 2019. Photo: Pierre Markuse / ESA / Copernicus

Here’s how the Amazon wildfires and deforestation look from space

By Andrew Freedman 22 August 2019 (The Washington Post) – The wildfires burning in the Amazon have the potential to release vast quantities of long-stored carbon — thereby accelerating climate change and cause permanent harm to the planet’s most biodiverse ecosystems. A fleet of public and private-sector satellites are keeping tabs on deforestation rates in […]

Donald Trump’s empty chair at the G7 talks on the climate emergency on Monday, 26 August 2019. Photo: POOL / Reuters

Trump skips G7 talks on climate crisis and Amazon wildfires – Trump team calls global warming a “niche issue”

By Angelique Chrisafis 26 August 2019 BIARRITZ, France (The Guardian) – Donald Trump did not attend Monday’s crucial discussion on climate and biodiversity at the G7 meeting of international leaders in Biarritz, missing talks on how to deal with the Amazon rainforest fires as well as new ways to cut carbon emissions. Reporters noticed at […]

Drivers of wildfire trends in burned areas. (a) Annual trend in burnt area as a percentage of mean burnt area for the period 2000–2014. (b) Absolute change in controls as a percentage of the maximum possible change. Stippled areas in a and b are where the sampled posterior parameter s.d. falls within 50 percent (light) and 10 percent (heavy) of the mean change. c–f, Areas with a shift in fire regime equivalent to >50% in at least one control driver are coloured either grey or as follows: cyan for increased fuel and moisture or red for decreased fuel and moisture (c); yellow for decrease in fuel moisture or blue for increase in moisture (d); lime green for increased continuity and decreased moisture or violet for decreased fuel and increased moisture (e); green for increased fuel continuity or purple for decrease in fuel (f). Increased/decreased ignitions are represented by darker/lighter colours and increased/decreased suppression is represented by upward/downward arrows, respectively. Percentages in the legend indicate the land area of significant regime shift covered by each fuel and moisture driver combination, and the highlighted numbers give the breakdown for increase, no change or decrease in ignitions. Graphic: Kelley, et al., 2019 / Nature Climate Change

How contemporary bioclimatic and human controls change global fire regimes

By Douglas I. Kelley, Ioannis Bistinas, Rhys Whitley, Chantelle Burton, Toby R. Marthews, and Ning Dong 19 August 2019 (Nature Climate Change) – Anthropogenically driven declines in tropical savannah burnt area1,2 have recently received attention due to their effect on trends in global burnt area3,4. Large-scale trends in ecosystems where vegetation has adapted to infrequent fire, […]

A Rio Branco fireman fights a wildfire in Rio Branco, Amazonian State of Acre, Brazil, on 17 August 2019. Photo: Rio Branco Firemen handout / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock

Hundreds of new fires in Brazil as world outrage grows over Amazon destruction – Bolsonaro reverses course and mobilizes armed forces – Brazil agricultural industry fears global boycott – “Today, because of Bolsonaro, all our work is turning into ashes”

24 August 2019 (AFP) – Hundreds of new fires are raging in the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil, official data showed Saturday, amid growing international pressure on President Jair Bolsonaro to control the worst blazes in years. Multiple fires were seen across a vast area of the northwestern state of Rondonia on Friday when AFP […]

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