With climate change
scaremongering,
the more you investigate
the claims, the less truth
you find.
The total number of wildfires
in Brazil are above prior years
( but data collection only started in 2013 )
But Global Fire Data show
this year is below average,
so far, for the Amazon.
Brazilian president
Bolnaro has fired
the self-confessed
“militant environmentalist”
Alfredo Sirkis,
then-leader of
The Brazil Forum
for Climate Change.
He also declared
a 30% funding cut
to maintenance costs
of Brazil’s state-owned
universities.
Brazil’s INPE
Space director
was fired.
The INPE have been the source
of the dire wildfire data
used in some media stories.
Bolnaro claimed
the wildfire data was
“not consistent with reality”.
Boinaro is supported by NASA:
NASA says overall fire activity
across the Amazon basin this year
has been close to the average
of the past 15 years.
And while the rest of the world
uses the fires as an excuse
to slam Brazilian President
Jair Bolsonaro,
and his less restrictive
environmental policies,
Bloomberg repored
that Brazil was actually third
in the world in wildfires
during August 22 and 23
( data from the MODIS satellite
analyzed by Weather Source )
Weather Source recorded
6,902 fires in Angola
over those two days,
3,395 in the Democratic
Republic of Congo
and 2,127 in Brazil.
Over those two days,
there were roughly
16,500 wildfires
seen from space,
in the top 10 countries:
According to NASA,
their all time global record
is more than 67,000 fires
is more than 67,000 fires
reported in
a one-week period
in June 2018,
most of which
are believed
to have been
started by farmers.
Brazilian President
Jair Bolsonaro
admitted late last week
that farmers might be
illegally setting fires
to clear land for pastures.
Some blame Bolsonaro
for insisting that Brazil
should open up more
of the rainforest to
business interests
like farming and mining.
Roughly 60%
of the rainforest
is in Brazil.
An ad was published
in a local newspaper
encouraging farmers
to participate
in a "Fire Day,"
during which
they would burn
large areas of forest
"to show Bolsonaro
their willingness to work."
Bolsonaro has
been repeatedly
criticized for his
Amazon policies,
and his reluctance
to blame farmers
for setting them,
giving the impression
that he doesn't see
stopping the fires
as a priority.
On the other hand,
Bolsonaro admitted Brazil
doesn't have the resources
to suppress the 'criminal' fires.
Bolsonaro was also
angered by
what he described
as 'meddling', by
Germany and Norway,
that recently suspended
financing for projects
intended to curb
deforestation.