GS Paper - III

South America is witnessing its worst forest fire season in nearly two decades, breaking a previous record for the number of blazes seen in a year. Satellite data analysed by Brazil’s space research agency INPE has spotted 346,112 fire hotspots so far this year in all 13 countries of South America, surpassing the previous record of 345,322 hotspots in 2007.

How bad is the situation?

• Since the beginning of this year, fires have ravaged the Amazon rainforest, engulfing parts of Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, and others. Millions of acres of forest are currently burning across South America.
• The worst hit is Brazil, the largest country in the continent and home to 60% of all the currently burning fires in the region.
• Data from Mapbiomas, a Brazilian NGO, shows that fires have burned more than 11 million hectares of land between January and August this year, an area roughly twice the size of Uttarakhand.

Why is this happening?

• Every year, South America witnesses a high number of blazes between August and October, which is the continent’s wildfire season.
• During this time, farmers intentionally burn their lands to cultivate them and most often, fires escape into the forests. However, this year’s season has been particularly bad due to several reasons.
• For instance, the continent is currently experiencing one of its worst droughts on record with Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia being worst affected.
• In Brazil, about 59% of the country is facing drought conditions and Amazon basin rivers are flowing at historic lows, according to Grist.
• These extreme dry conditions fueled by the El Niño event (it ended earlier this year) have propelled fires to spread across the region.
• High levels of deforestation, especially in the Amazon, have also played a role in exacerbating wildfires — clearing the land creates more opportunities for blazes to spread.
• The crisis has been made worse by global warming. A recent study by World Weather Attribution, an international group of scientists, showed that climate change is the main culprit behind the ongoing drought in South America. It said rising temperatures made the drought 30 times more likely, drove extreme high temperatures, and contributed to lower rainfall.

What happens next?

• It remains unclear if the number of wildfires in South America will further rise this year. Typically, rainfall comes in the region during October but there is no guarantee. Ane Alencar, director of science at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute, told Grist: “We don’t know if rain is going to come.”
• Notably, the ongoing intense wildfires in the continent are not a surprise to climate scientists, who say this is exactly what climate models have been predicting for 20 years or more.
• Extreme weather events such as drought, wildfires, and floods are expected to get much worse in the following years as global temperatures continue to rise.