In August 2019, a photograph supposedly showing smoke billowing up from a section of the Amazon rainforest went viral on social media along with the claim that the tropical jungle had been burning for weeks:
The Amazon has been burning for 3 weeks, and I’m just now finding out because of the lack of media coverage. THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ECOSYSTEMS ON EARTH. SPREAD AWARENESS #PrayforAmazonia pic.twitter.com/HHVnaM66VV
— ????? (@tyswizzlee) August 20, 2019
The news came as a shock to some. The Amazon is regarded as one of the world's most important ecosystems, sometimes referred to as the "lungs of the world." Some viewers were surprised that they encountered this news for the first time on social media, as opposed to the front page of a newspaper or a breaking news alert on a cable network.
While the message in the above-displayed tweet is largely accurate, it's also missing a bit of context. For instance, some viewers may think that the Amazon has never seen a forest fire. But that isn't the case. Wildfires often occur during drier summer months. Farmers may also intentionally set fires (often illegally) in order to clear land. In fact, neither of the photographs displayed in this viral tweet was taken in 2019. The image on the left shows a fire from 1989, and the image on the right has been online since at least 2012. A number of other outdated and unrelated photographs have also been circulated as if they depicted the 2019 fires.
What was notable in mid-2019 was the size and number of fires. Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE) reported that there had been more than 72,000 fires in Brazil in 2019, an 80% increase compared to the same period from 2018.
Here's an excerpt from a CNN report and a graph of INPE's data from the BBC:
Fires are raging at a record rate in Brazil's Amazon rainforest, and scientists warn it could strike a devastating blow to the fight against climate change.
The fires are burning at the highest rate since the country's space research center, the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), began tracking them in 2013, the center said Tuesday.
There have been a total of 72,843 fires in Brazil this year, with more than half in the Amazon region, INPE said. That's more than an 80% increase compared with the same period last year.
The Amazon is often referred to as the planet's lungs, producing 20% of the oxygen in the earth's atmosphere.
It is considered vital in slowing global warming, and it is also home to uncountable species of fauna and flora. Roughly half the size of the US, it is the largest rainforest on the planet.
