Smokescreen

Last year, the world was united in criticising Brazil and its new Government on Amazon fires that had broken out. The fires were an annual affair but this time the blaze was more uncontrolled, a true disaster and the world was watching. Photos were shared, many of them inaccurate or simply old. Facts too were shared, once again, many of them inaccurate. For weeks and months on end, the world watched, shamed, condemned and delivered innumerable sermons regarding the 'lungs of the world'. Then the rain came and the media storm moved on.

Now in 2020, it is understandable that the world is preoccupied with other matters. Aside from an overbearing pandemic, the world is also being subjected to many other disasters which have kept the news cycle full and grim. In the midst of these dour times, the news of the new Amazon rainforest fires almost went unnoticed. At least, those were the intentions of the Brazilian Government and its leader. Earlier this month, Jair Bolsonaro issued a complete denial of there being any fires ongoing in the Amazon, much less the truly disastrous one that has been captured in video and photos and distributed on the world wide web. He supported his point by stating that tropical rainforests just don't catch fire and he challenged any officials to fly out and find a single fire. Furthermore, he called for 'real numbers' to fight the required fight against 'fake news'. On ground at the world's largest wetland — Pantanal in and around the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul the fire is very much burning. Local firefighters and NGO workers have called this year's fires as 'far-worse' than last year's blaze. What may be giving Bolosonaro the confidence to make such an easily refutable claim is the fact that the fire is not on the ground in many cases, making it less visible from the air. In Pantanal, vegetation that was previously wet from being under marshy flood water has now dried out and caught fire. Compacted deposits of this vegetation being below ground can mean that a fire may continue smouldering under the ground after it goes out on the surface. These fires may suddenly gain intensity, catching firefighters off guard. The flames can avoid firebreaks and containment measures by going underneath the firefighters or above their heads when strong winds blow.

Naturally, this is making any control measures extremely difficult. This is doubly so when your President is denying the existence of the fire and refusing international aid to prove a point about the Amazon being safe with Brazil. The Pantanal recorded more than 4,600 hotspots throughout an area where fires have ravaged thousands of square kilometres of the wetland. While rains do provide temporary relief, the firefighters are worried, with many stating that the wetland is too dry this year.

The dilemma of allowing Brazil so much control over such an ecologically significant area has been discussed many times before. It is a difficult argument either way and beyond the scope of this column. What is concerning is the pattern of hastening ecological disasters and how world governments are attempting to willfully ignore the signs. The US allowing oil and gas prospecting in its protected Arctic reserves this year is another such example. At a time when clean air and environmental change are paramount concerns, such actions highlight a truly tone-deaf response which emphasises economic gains over all other considerations. The economic devastation caused by the pandemic will almost certainly convince certain world powers to be even laxer with environmental regulations in an attempt to boost a lagging world economy. In the case of Brazil, not only do the fires waste away a vital ecological reserve, they also immediately contribute to Brazil's health woes. the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), the Institute for Health Policy Studies (IEPS), and Human Rights Watch recently released a 50-page report that studied the local health effects of the 2019 fires. The reports found that 2,915 respiratory illness hospitalisations in the last year were a result of 2019 fires. This number, they cautioned, was just a small picture of the total effect with the fire exposing millions of people to harmful levels of pollution. The current fire will have as many, if not more victims. At a time when COVID-19 is already taxing Brazil's healthcare systems, the largely man made fires were an avoidable disaster. The Brazilian Government's attempts to confuse and direct global perception does not change the facts.