jarring photos and videos of the flames tearing through the Amazon have caught the world's attention scientists using NASA satellites to track the fires say 2019 is shaping up to be the Brazilian Amazon's worst fire since 2010 the main consensus the fires were caused by human activity it's not a natural people such fires who just you know reduced cover to get new forage for cattle graze and not pastures they might take advantage of the drinks and clear woody ready cover their land that's Matt Henson a professor at the University of Maryland who has studied the satellite
images of the fires he's in Brazil now the images show the fires are burning on farmland where forests were already cleared for agriculture most of the fires were likely set by people preparing the land for planting a common practice and agriculture that happens every year most years some of those fires spread to unintended areas and some years are worse than others so what's different this time around why are we paying attention to the fires Hanson believes a smoke traveling south and the atmosphere into South Paulo the commercial hub of Brazil played a major role on
the Descent you saw this really clear aerosol line in the atmosphere this really clear layer of smoke and that freaks people I just landed Apollo combine that with social media and celebrities chiming in and you had the perfect storm this isn't the first time Raziel has suffered dramatic forest fires 2015 and 2016 were particularly bad years with the warming of El Nino when droughts allowed the fires to spread quickly but whether or not people are paying attention it raises important questions about deforestation although locals say farming is an important part of their economic prosperity Brazil
has been applauded by the international community for slowing down deforestation in the early 2000s but in the last decade Brazil has been backsliding in terms of limiting deforestation large areas of land are cleared for cattle farming and to grow cattle feed like soybean meat production today is nearly five times higher than it was in the early 1960s the consequence of this is an increasing deforestation not only in Brazil but around the world stage it looks like and as an economic incentive Hollywood against the forest the forest is continually drunk in tractor beeps soy palm oil
and wood products drive the majority of tropical deforestation forests especially tropical forests so enormous amount of carbon when forests are destroyed that carbon is released to the atmosphere accelerating global warming you have to respect sovereignty you have to respect economic development but we understand in modern age that balance between the services that the environment provides like regulating climate and harboring biodiversity and all these things versus the economic development so the idea that there should be a bit of structure and you know much more organized disciplined approach to development I think it's perfectly reasonable while there
are some arguments about which year has seen the worst forest fires one thing is clear the Amazon is burning and at least for the time being the world is paying attention thanks for watching global news if you like what you saw like the video also hit the subscribe button to get the latest international news and best trending videos
