Fires still blaze across the Amazon rainforest at a rate that continues to surpass the number of fires in 2018. But while August saw a nine-year high in fires, September—a dry month which the number of fires has historically tended to increase— saw a sharp drop. Scientists are not sure why.
In this aerial view the red dust of the BR230 highway, known as"Transamazonica", mixes with fires at sunset in the agriculture town of Ruropolis, Para state, northen Brazil, on September 6, 2019.Fires still blaze across the Amazon rainforest in South America, at a rate that continues to surpass the number of fires in 2018. But while August saw a nine-year high in fires, September—a dry month which the number of fires has historically tended to increase— saw a sharp drop.
In total, the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research found that there were roughly 20,000 fires in the part of the Amazon within Brazil in the month of September, according to theThat was a 35 percent decline from August, when somewhere near 31,000 fires burned. There were 20 percent fewer than in September 2018, when there were 24,500 fires.
Most of the fires are caused by humans. People often deliberately set the Amazon on fire as part of an ancient technique known as"slash-and-burn agriculture" that farmers use in order to create space to plant their crops and room for their livestock to live and graze. "Farmers cut down trees at the end of the dry season and then burn them right before the rains start," said Dr. Erin Sills, a North Carolina State professor, according to."This leaves a nutrient-rich layer of ash on the ground that provides fertilizer for crops."
Some have suggested that the decrease may be attributable to rainfall as well the Brazilian government's use of soldiers to combat the blaze, the
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