Roommates, Brazil is unfortunately covered in a blanket of smoke this week, as the Amazon Rainforest continues to go up in flames. #PrayfortheAmazon is calling attention to the Earth’s largest rainforest fire being ignored by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
According to The Washington Post, however, Bolsonaro isn’t just ignoring the problem, he is suggesting the fires are being intentionally set to make him look bad.
When asked about the fire, Bolsonaro accused nongovernment organizations of setting them to call attention to the alleged corruption happening under his rule.
“The fire was started, it seemed, in strategic locations,” he says. “There are images of the entire Amazon. How can that be? Everything indicated that people went there to film and then to set fires. That is my feeling.”
As we previously reported, the Amazon is responsible for the production of 20% of the oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere. There have been almost 730,00 fires in Brazil the this year, with more Han half in the Amazon region.
The rainforest is measures almost half of the United States, making it the largest in the world. Reports say the fire has reached more than 1,700 miles into the city of Sao Paolo, which has caused the sky to be pitch black in the middle of the afternoon
Now, scientists and researchers fear the rainforest could burn to a point of no return, and cause a significant shift in the earth’s climate. Carlos Nobre, one of Brazil’s most notable scientists, says the burning of the rainforest could cause significant harm to the region, and all who inhabit it.
“We make a joke that the forest is becoming like Swizz cheese, with…roads and things crossing in the forest,” he says. “And it becomes more vulnerable and degraded..And the more the forest becomes degraded, the more the forest will become vulnerable to forest fires.”
