Intense wildfires raging through the Amazon rainforest and other regions of Brazil are causing severe air quality issues across major cities and neighboring countries. The smoke has choked cities like Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and has even reached Argentina and Uruguay.
Karla Longo, a researcher at the National Institute for Space Research, reported that satellite images reveal that 60 percent of Brazil has been affected by the smoke. “If we consider the areas affected in neighboring countries and in the Atlantic Ocean, the total area impacted on Sunday was around ten million square kilometers,” she said.
On Monday, Sao Paulo, the largest city in Latin America, was identified as the world’s most polluted major city by air quality monitoring company IQAir. The concentration of fine particles in the air reached 69 micrograms per cubic meter, nearly 14 times above the World Health Organization’s recommended limit. In Rio de Janeiro, residents faced fine particle levels at five times the recommended threshold.
Authorities attribute most of the recent fires to human activity, particularly agricultural practices. The situation has been exacerbated by Brazil’s worst drought in seven decades, which experts link to climate change. Satellite images from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration displayed a thick gray smoke cloud stretching along the Andes mountain range toward the southern part of the continent.
According to the Brazilian Institute for Space Research (INPE), the number of fires in the Amazon this year has nearly doubled compared to the same period in 2023. Other regions of Brazil are also experiencing severe wildfires. The Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, located approximately 250 kilometers from Brasilia, has lost about 10,000 hectares of vegetation in recent days.
Meteorologist Estael Sias from AFP indicated that the situation is unlikely to improve until regular rainfall returns, which is not expected before October or November. The ongoing fires and the resulting smoke continue to pose significant health and environmental challenges across the region.
Sources By Agencies
