nearly 3,000 fires in the Amazon in February, a record for this month of the year

A figure four times higher than that recorded in February last year. Nearly 3,000 forest fires were recorded in February in the Brazilian Amazon, a record for this month of the year since records began in 1999, authorities announced on Wednesday February 28. According to satellite images from the Brazilian Institute for Space Research (INPE), 2,940 fires were recorded during the month, or 67% more than the 1,761 fires recorded in February 2007, the previous record.

The largest rainforest on the planet is one of the world’s most important ecosystems for stabilizing the global climate, threatened by warming caused by human activity. “The climatic factor certainly plays a fundamental role” in this outbreak of fires, which are concentrated in the north of the region, Ane Alencar, scientific director of the NGO Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM Amazonia), told AFP. “We have seen the Earth break record after record for temperature. Every year is the hottest year, and it is in synergy with climatic phenomena.”

The Amazon hit by severe drought last year

A historic drought hit the Amazon between June and November 2023. It affected millions of people across the Amazon basin, fueled massive wildfires, reduced major rivers, and wreaked catastrophic havoc on wildlife. . This “stress” environmental, for Ane Alencar, “produces all the conditions necessary for every fire to turn into a big fire”. However, “The fires were probably started by people in their agricultural work”she believes.

Some experts have suggested that the natural weather phenomenon El Nino was to blame for last year’s drought in the Amazon. A study by World Weather Attribution (WWA) scientists, however, concluded that global warming caused by human activity was the main culprit.