We are in an age where environmental issues are becoming increasingly political. Two of the biggest fires in 2019 and 2020 have caught the imagination of the world. First it was Amazon Basin that was hit by the biggest fire in over a decade in 2019 and then it was Australia that experienced a fire that created havoc in the country and resulted in damage to the forests on an unprecedented scale.
But why did these fires take place? What are the main causes and how much worse is it than in previous years? How does a forest fire even start in a rainforest? These are the questions that are on everyone’s mind and also what are going to be the future ramifications. Let us first look at fire in rainforests. Before we discuss the fires, let us look at some context of the environmental and political background of the Amazon and its relation to fires. The Amazon Basin spans approximately 6.7 million square kilometres, which is twice the size of India. The basin is shared by eight countries Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname, as well as the overseas territory of French Guiana. Approximately 60% of the Amazon Basin is located within Brazil, and due to this the political situation in Brazil has a big impact on the region.
How can there be fires in a rainforest?
Amazon Basin is also called ‘rainforest’. Despite the name ‘rainforest’, it does have a dry season. However, this dry season still has a lot of water though less than the wet season which sees heavy rains on a daily basis during monsoon. It is a known fact that most fires within Amazon rainforest are human made and not natural. Some obvious reasons are illegal logging, deforestation and agricultural burning among others.
Scientists who study forests say that spontaneous fires are rare in the moist rainforest. What has been observed is that workers first cut the trees, leave them to dry and then set them on fire in the dry season. Another factor is that in the absence of transport or roads, timber cannot be sold and workers find it the easiest option to burn the trees to clear the land. This is known as slash-and-burn method and is used to clear the forest for agriculture, livestock, logging and mining purposes. It is particularly easy for these “controlled” fires to become uncontrolled and transform into forest fires, which are then notoriously difficult to stop. Although it is illegal to do so in the Amazon rainforest, regulations are lax and are hardly enforced. On top of that, budget cuts to Brazilian Environmental Agency in recent years have resulted in fewer men and other resources to enforce the regulations in the most affected regions of the basin.
Politics of playing with fire
World leaders almost unanimously agree that climate change is a reality. The politics of the rainforest has been intense for many years. With growing environmentalism as a consequence of climate change, the politics on the subject has become more intense and heated. For over a century now, every Brazilian ruler has tried to move into the interiors of Amazon supposedly to develop it. From a populist President in the 1930s to military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985 and now the new President Jair Bolsonaro have all justified it and the justification is the same – ‘economic gain’. The idea has been to integrate the territory into Brazil by building roads and developing agricultural and corporate enterprises.
Jair Bolsonaro, is seen as the most aggressive on this plan. He is a supporter of agribusiness and has openly opposed several agencies and foreign nations aiming to safeguard the Amazon rainforest. He has said he will not tolerate the agenda of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and has come out strongly against lands reserved for indigenous tribes. He even tried to take shelter in a conspiracy theory that NGOs were setting the forest on fire to discredit his government. On top of that he has also cut funding of Brazilian Environmental Agency that resulted in agency’s enforcement actions being reduced by twenty percent. His words and actions led to large scale unregulated burning of the basin in 2019. Though Bolsonaro initially rejected media’s attention to the crisis and public condemnation by international leaders, he finally dispatched 44,000 troops to control the fire after he was threatened at G7 Summit that he will lose EU-Mercosur free trade agreement. The problem was resolved but it’s unlikely that we have heard the last of this story as Bolsonaro will be in power for several more years.
Another country, same story
They are continents apart but the forest fire story is the same. Australia saw its worst in terms of loss of human lives, homes destroyed, and species killed in the inferno raging for the last few months beginning late July. It’s the worst wildfires seen in decades with large parts of the country devastated. Authorities have been struggling to contain the fire, with firefighting assistance from several countries including the United States, but have not been successful yet. Persistent heat and drought has made the matter worse. There are many who are pointing towards climate change as the reason that makes natural disasters go from bad to worse.
Where are the fires?
Not a single state in Australia has remained unaffected from multiple fires but New South Wales has been hardest hit. Australia’s largest cities like Melbourne and Sydney have also been affected where fires have damaged homes in the outer suburbs and thick smoke has completely blanketed urban centres. In December, the situation in Sydney turned so bad that air quality measured eleven times the hazardous level. Though there are natural causes of fires like lightning strike in drought affected areas, humans are also to be blamed. NSW has charged twenty four people with deliberately starting bushfires and has taken legal action against almost two hundred people for fire related offences.
Story of a decade 2009 to 2019
Fire season in Australia is always dangerous. In 2009, what is termed as ‘Black Saturday bushfires’, killed hundred and seventy three people in Victoria. It’s the deadliest fire disaster on record till date. But this year conditions have been unusually severe. The Country’s Met department has said that last spring was driest on record and making thing worse, in December, heatwave broke the record with nationwide average temperature at 40 degrees Celsius and even higher in some places. Experts believe that climate change has worsened the situation and impacts of natural disasters like fire and flood have become more severe. They say that weather conditions are growing more extreme. For years now fires have been starting earlier and spreading with greater intensity and at times turning into infernos. Several high ranking emergency officials have been writing to Prime Minister Scott Morrison warning of the impact of climate crisis on Australia. While Morrison pledged to reduce carbon emission, at the same time he also said that he would stick to ‘sensible’ policies and there was not ‘a single policy, whether it be climate or otherwise’ that can completely protect against the fires.
The damage so far
Towns after towns have been engulfed in flames and New South Wales has been worst affected. Till date, 17.9 million acres have been burned across six states of Australia; which is more than the area of Belgium and Denmark combined. The 2019 Amazon rainforest fires burned 17.5 million acres. California, known for its deadly fires burned 2,47,000 acres in 2019. Apart from loss of human lives, a conservative estimate says that half a billion animals have been affected by the fires and millions are feared dead. According to ecologists at the University of Sydney the number of animals affected could be as high as one billion nationwide.
Too little too late
Make no mistake, it’s climate change
The ‘Beautiful Mind’ Australian actor Russell Crowe picked up a Golden Globe on January 6 for his role in a mini series. He could not attend the ceremony in California because he was protecting his family and home back in Australia. His winning speech was read out by Hollywood actress Jennifer Aniston. “Make no mistake,” the statement began, “the tragedy unfolding in Australia is climate change based. We need to act based on science, move our global workforce to renewable energy and respect our planet for the unique and amazing place it is. That way, we all have a future.”