Photo: geralt/Pixabay
Wildfires raging in the Amazon are setting records and causing blackouts in Brazil.
Data from Brazil’s space research agency show that fires have increased 83 percent this year from over the same time period last year. The agency logged 73,000 fires between January and August this year and spotted 9,500 new fires raging on Thursday alone, as smoke caused a daytime blackout in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, for an hour Monday.
State agencies confirm that the overwhelming amount of wildfires could not be attributed to the usual dry season in Brazil, and environmentalists say that increased land clearing and deforestation under President Jair Bolsonaro are helping to increase fire frequency.