A historic surge in wildfires cloaked Brasilia and Sao Paulo in smoke over the weekend and yesterday, prompting Brazil’s environmental minister to declare the nation “at warfare” with the blazes. 4 folks have been arrested on suspicion of beginning the fires within the state of Sao Paulo, the place the blazes have prompted disruptions and burned hundreds of hectares of farmland. (The Guardian; Reuters)
Our Take
Whereas Brazil offers with a big variety of wildfires yearly, the blazes have affected a a lot wider space than regular this yr. The fires turned noticeable for a lot of extra folks over the weekend, as Brasilia—the seat of the federal authorities—and Sao Paulo—Brazil’s most populous and wealthiest state—had been affected.
However whereas the results for Brasilia and Sao Paulo have now largely abated, the wildfires stay an issue for 3 of Brazil’s six main biomes—the Amazon rainforest, the Cerrado savanna and the Pantanal wetland. The latter, a wealthy space for biodiversity, is notably regarding, for the reason that Pantanal is generally flooded for a lot of the yr, however has suffered from a protracted drought that has affected a lot of Latin America.
