The differences between the Australian and Amazon wildfire

Climate change has accentuated the causes and prevention of fires around the world

Flames that have been spreading through Australian forests for months have now reached more than 5 million hectares. In addition, more than 1,500 homes have been destroyed and at least 25 people have died since September last year. The damage caused in the country of Oceania is unprecedented in fauna. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and University of Sydney environmentalists, it is estimated that more than one billion native animals, including koalas and kangaroos, were killed by fire.

Still according to experts, the permanence of heat waves in the region has no perspective of control. So, there are still 130 active fire outbreaks. The situation is critical, to the point that last Tuesday (7), the smoke from the fires traveled 12 thousand kilometers carried by the wind and reached Argentina, Chile and now the south of Brazil.

Erika Berenguer, a Brazilian researcher at the British universities of Oxford and Lancaster, recently presented her analysis of the recent burnings in the Brazilian Amazon. “It’s not because it’s fire it’s the same. This is not a valid comparison, “says Berenguer, who studies the impacts of fire on the Amazon. In addition, Rômulo Batista, from the Greenpeace Forests campaign, explains that the causes of the fires are distinct and that the analysis must be done separately.

“There, what has been burned, is what we call dry rainforest, completely different from the rainforest that is characteristic of the Amazon. Most of the Amazonian fire outbreaks have occurred in areas that were previously deforested or are in the deforestation arc where fire was used to clear the forest and occupy the ground with another alternative,” he says.

THE CAUSES

Australian fires occur naturally, so that the Australian flora evolved by the fire. That is, the burns happen mostly by the incidence of lightning. But with a minority of purposeful cases. What differs from other times is that, according to Berenguer, the effects of climate change have increased this frequency. “Temperatures are already higher and Australia’s longest dry spell, which favors the spread of fire.”

Already in the Amazon rainforest, the burning does not occur naturally. This is because the forest is wet or “rain forest”. Thus, Berenguer states that “fire does not occur naturally in this ultra humid environment that is the Amazon. It needs to be started by someone.” Based on this, it is understood that the fire in the Brazilian region would have been initiated, mostly, on purpose.

PREVENTION

The changes the planet has been going through lately about the weather are responsible for accentuating the fires. In 2017 alone, Brazil emitted about 2 billion tons of CO2, according to the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Estimation System (Seeg). Which makes the country the seventh largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world.

Naturally, the Amazon can protect itself from fires with an understory under the treetops, the same ones that maintain moisture and prevent the fire from spreading. However, periods of intense drought weaken the natural protective layer of the forest, making fire easier.

Thus, the way to prevent the forest can no longer protect itself. Besides, of course, the abolition of premeditated burns. We need to reduce the chances of burning. For this, options such as reforestation of degraded areas with fruit trees, a project headed by Fruits of the Amazon, is a great solution. The project, besides being viable, also has socioeconomic values involved. For besides contributing to the planet, Fruits thinks about the care and development of those who inhabit it.

Written and edited by: Leonardo Sevilhano