The smoke from a massive forest fire in the Amazon rainforest has covered the skies of Brazil and can even be seen from space.

The fire, which began more than two weeks ago, blackened the skies of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s most populous city, for about an hour on Monday, providing an eerie level of darkness. Sao Paulo is located about 2,700 kilometres south of the fires

Wildfires in the Amazon rainforest are rare because of the wet weather, but activity begins in July and August due to the arrival of dry season, which lasts until November. These fires can occur naturally, but humans also illegally set the forest ablaze to make room for farmland.

Last week, NASA released a pair of satellite images of the fires, which show giant plumes of smoke covering the Brazilian state of Amazonas, which has issued a state of emergency due to the rising number of fires.

Several fires are can also be found in the states of Rondonia, Para and Mato Grosso.

Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE) has detected 72,843 wildfires in the Amazon rainforest so far this year, an 83-per-cent increase over the same time last year.

Concerned social media users have blamed Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for the fires in part due to an increase in deforestation since he took office on Jan. 1. Last week, thousands of Indigenous women took to the streets of Brasilia, Brazil’s capital city, to denounce Bolsonaro’s polices on a variety of issues, including deforestation and the president’s desire to open up Indigenous land for mining.

The INPE found Brazilians have destroyed more than 1,500 square kilometres of additional rainforest than it had a year ago. Bolonsaro denied the increases as “lies” that hurt the country’s reputation and later fired the director of the INPE.

In response, Germany and Norway pulled foreign aid to Brazil’s rainforest conservation projects. </s> – Around midday on Monday, the sky suddenly blackened, and day became night in Sao Paulo.

Sure, smog is bad in the Western Hemisphere’s largest city, where traffic jams can stretch for dozens of miles. But not this bad. What was going on? Was the end near?

Experts tried to puzzle it out, but their conclusions at times appeared to be conflicting, deepening the mystery. The National Institute of Meteorology said the city, which sits at an elevation of 2,500 feet, was “inside a cloud.” Others explained that it was a cold front. Metsul, a Brazilian meteorology company, said the culprit was smoke that had come in from forest fires in Bolivia, Paraguay and remote parts of Brazil.

In fact, it appeared to be a combination of all three factors — clouds, smoke and a cold front — that ushered in the smoke from afar, plunging the city into darkness in the middle of the day.

“The smoke didn’t come from fires in the state of Sao Paulo, but from very dense and wide fires that have been happening for several days in [the state of] Rondonia and Bolivia,” Josélia Pegorim, a meteorologist with Climatempo, told Globo. “The cold front changed direction and its winds transported the smoke to Sao Paulo.”

The news highlighted the number of forest fires in Brazil, which rose by more than 80% this year, according to data released this week by the National Institute of Space Science.

“This central Brazil and south of the Amazon Rainforest region has been undergoing a prolonged drought,” Alberto Setzer, a researcher at Inpe, told local media outlets. “And there are some places where there has not fallen a drop of rain for three months.”

Most of the Amazon was once considered fireproof, but as climate change and deforestation remake the world, wildfires are increasing in frequency and intensity, recent research has shown.

“Wildfires in the Amazon are not natural events, but are instead caused by a combination of droughts and human activities. Both anthropogenic climate change and regional deforestation are linked to increases in the intensity and frequency of droughts over Amazonia,” British researchers wrote this year on the Conversation website. </s> What began as a “day of fire” a week and a half ago has now turned daytime skies in São Paulo an inky black. The Amazon has been in deep, deep trouble ever since far-right president Jair Bolsnaro took over running Brazil. Advocates feared his regime would commit ecological “genocide” in the Amazon and with each passing month, those fears are becoming reality.

Deforestation rates have spiked in recent months, and now large swaths of the world’s largest rainforest have exploded in flames set by human activities. The fires could accelerate the decline of the Amazon and its ability to foster biodiversity and store carbon.

The Amazon has seen 71,497 fires ignited since January, according to data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (more commonly known by its Portuguese acronym, INPE). That’s an 82 percent increase compared to last year and well above 2016's extreme count of 66,622 blazes.

The Brazilian state of Pará saw a huge burst of fire activity last week after farmers called for a “day of fire” on August 10, according to Brazilian paper Folha de S. Paolo. INPE spotted hundreds of fires across the state as farmers lit up rainforest, a practice often used to clear land to put in mono crops like soybeans or open land for pastures and cattle farming. The fires have also sent carbon dioxide emissions spiraling well above normal, according to data from the European Union’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service.

“The recent increase of the deforestation combined with fires could exponentially affect Amazonia by liberating CO2 and other greenhouse gases,” Vitor Gomes, an environmental scientist at the Federal University of Pará in Brazil, told Earther.

Those fires, along with others in the state of Amazonas to the northwest, have continued burning for the past 10 days, unleashing a massive plume of smoke. Prevailing winds on Monday and Tuesday took that smoke and transported it nearly 2,000 miles to southeast. That blackened São Paulo skies on Monday, creating eerie scenes like darkened streets and cars driving with headlights in mid-afternoon.

The vibe is reminiscent of last year, when smoke from wildfires did the exact same thing in British Columbia. But in some ways, the Brazilian situation is more ominous. After all, the fires in British Columbia weren’t inspired by a fascist president looking to open the forest up for business.

Brazil’s blazes are a whole other story. Bolsonaro ran on a campaign platform that was pro-big business, anti-LGBTQ, and straight up racist. He promised to open the Amazon to mining, fossil fuel exploitation, timber, and agriculture while kicking indigenous groups off their land. From the moment he took office in January, he has done just that.

The result led to an acceleration in deforestation. In July, a soccer pitch-sized hunk of rainforest disappeared every three minutes. The fires this month could drive deforestation rates even higher still. The wanton destruction has led Germany and Norway to pull money out of the Amazon Fund, a program for sustainability-related projects in the Amazon that was designed as an incentive to cut down on deforestation. That could, ironically, lead to even more deforestation.

“As humans cut down more forests, what you see is forest fragmentation,” Jacquelyn Shuman, a scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s terrestrial research section, told Earther. “You have more edges of forest. In a forest that’s broken up where you have pasture or cleared land, it’ll have more edges exposed to drier conditions. When you have these dry edges, the forest at that edge is more susceptible to fire.”

As trees disappear, Shuman noted, the unique properties that make a rainforest, well, a rainforest could change as well. Evapotranspiration from trees in the Amazon helps feed the clouds that then dump downpours over the forest. As more open land pops up, Shuman said that “forest-cloud cycle is broken.”

The double-edged deforestation disruption comes at a time when climate change is also ratcheting up the pressure on the Amazon. The rainforest is key to combatting climate change, sucking up 2.4 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide annually or a quarter of all carbon absorbed by forests globally. Yet climate change has contributed to drying the region out, weakening the so-called lungs of our planet. Fires like the ones currently burning can even cause parts of the forest to become a net emitter of carbon dioxide as all those decades of stored carbon goes up in smoke, creating a nasty feedback loop.

Eventually, rising temperatures and drought coupled with deforestation could permanently alter one of the world’s most iconic ecosystems, effectively cleaving the Amazon in two. It’s not like the damage can be easily undone. Once the Amazon is gone, it’s gone. And the remaining fractured forest wouldn’t have anywhere near the carbon sequestering capacities of its former self, meaning climate change could accelerate there and the rest of the planet.



Under the Bolsonaro administration, the rise in deforestation is sending the Amazon careening toward a very dangerous place not just for the forest but for the planet as a whole. It might not be at a tipping point, but that’s hardly any consolation.

“We should be worried in finding that out, because probably there will be no turning back after we cross a tipping point,” Gomes said. </s> Equipped with hoses connected to rubber backpacks, Brazilian firefighters in the Amazon on Monday raced in a truck along dirt roads toward plumes of smoke after a spotter in a military helicopter directed them to a fast-spreading fire.

A landowner opened the gate of a barbed wire fence and the firefighters set to work, dousing a conflagration they believed was intentionally set to prepare land for crops or pasture. When their water supply ran out, they made a fire break, clearing brush with machetes and chainsaws to starve the blaze of its fuel.

The smoke-shrouded scene near the lush Jacunda national forest in the Amazonian state of Rondonia, witnessed by an Associated Press team, showed the enormity of the challenge ahead: putting out a multitude of blazes and safeguarding — in the long term — a vast region described by world leaders as critical to the health of the planet.

The country's National Space Research Institute, which monitors deforestation, has recorded that the number of fires has risen by 85% to more than 77,000 in the last year, a record since the institute began keeping track in 2013. About half of the fires have been in the Amazon region, with many in just the past month.

At a summit in France, the Group of Seven nations pledged $20 million on Monday to help fight the flames in the Amazon and protect the rainforest, in addition to a separate $12 million from Britain and $11 million from Canada.

The international pledges came despite tensions between European countries and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has accused rich countries of treating the region like a "colony" and suggested the West is angling to exploit Brazil's natural resources.

But the funds, which are widely seen as critical support, are still a relatively meager amount for dealing with an environmental crisis that threatens what French President Emmanuel Macron has called "the lungs of the planet."

The AP team drove for hours at a stretch outside the Rondonia capital of Porto Velho without seeing any major fires, suggesting that many had been extinguished or burned themselves out since rapidly spreading in recent weeks. Many fires were set in already deforested areas to clear land for farming and livestock.

Still, smoke billowed from charred fields and scrub, shrouding the sky. The airport in Porto Velho closed for more than one hour on Monday morning because of poor visibility caused by the haze.

Under international pressure to act, Bolsonaro said he might visit the Amazon region this week to check on firefighting efforts and would make 44,000 troops available to fight the blazes. However, the military presence in the area seemed scarce on Monday, with only a few soldiers seen patrolling roads and lending a hand.

At dawn, the blazing sun was hidden under thick smoke that blanketed the horizon like fog. Trucks carrying fresh timber sped through a road that cut through lands where heaps of ash were piled around charred logs.

Some local residents seemed torn between knowing that the fires were devastating the environment around them, and needing to extract the Amazon's rich natural resources to make a living.

"We have to preserve the land. The government has to help small farmers more, prioritize and take care of the large reserves, where people do most of the illegal things," said Willian Sabara Dos Santos, a farm manager. Behind him, a Brazilian flag on a pole fluttered in the wind next to a statue of a bull that he said was a replica of the iconic "Charging Bull" sculpture on New York's Wall Street.

In a nearby village, Darcy Rodrigo De Souza walked barefoot into a shop where people drank coffee and ate Pao de Queijo, traditional Brazilian cheese bread, on a street named "New Progress."

"We have many problems with the fires. But we also depend on the wood for our economy. If it wasn't for that, there would be nothing," said De Souza, who wore a straw hat. "It's true that the Amazon has to be protected, but this president is going to protect it. The Americans want us to protect Brazil. But why don't they protect their stuff?"

About 60% of the Amazon region is in Brazil; although the vast forest also spans parts of Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru and Suriname. The Amazon's rainforests are a major absorber of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and described by environmentalists as a critical defense against climate change.

On Monday, army Maj. Fabio da Paixão Pinheiro said officials have determined that the fires around Porto Velho have decreased as a result of rains over the last couple of days.

But near the Jacunda national forest, thunder boomed as firefighters worked to suffocate flames that continued to burn into the evening.

One fireman prayed for rain as he put on a protective mask. All around him, the heavy smell of burning wood permeated the air, making it hard to breathe.

Associated Press writer Luis Andres Henao reported from Jacunda National Forest and AP writer Christopher Torchia reported from Rio de Janeiro. </s> “The Amazon rainforest has been burning for three weeks! We are on the verge of losing it completely if the fire isn’t put out. The loss of trees, the loss of biodiversity is what is accelerating climate change.”

The hashtag #PrayForAmazonia went viral on Tuesday as social media users attempted to draw the world’s attention to the Amazon rainforest, which has been devastated for weeks by fires so intense they can be seen from space.

According to Euro News, it is unclear whether the fires were caused by agricultural activity or deforestation. Both have accelerated rapidly under Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who made opening the Amazon to corporate exploitation a key plank of his election campaign.

Twitter users on Tuesday slammed the media for paying too little attention to the Amazon blazes, particularly given the essential role the rainforest plays in absorbing planet-warming carbon dioxide—a capacity that earned it the nickname “lungs of the world.”

“The Amazon has been burning for three weeks, and I’m just now finding out because of the lack of media coverage,” wrote one observer. “This is one of the most important ecosystems on Earth.”

Satellite data collected by the Brazilian government’s National Space Research Institute (INPE) published in June showed that deforestation has risen dramatically under Bolsonaro, who dismissed the research as “a lie” and fired INPE director Ricardo Galvão for defending the data.

As The Guardian reported, the INPE findings showed the Amazon “lost 739sq km during the 31 days [of May], equivalent to two football pitches every minute.”

One large fire, which started in late July, burnt around 1,000 hectares of an environmental reserve in the Brazilian state of Rondônia—located on the border with Bolivia. This blaze, along with others in the region, created dense plumes of smoke that spread far across the state, endangering the health of people living in the area and the lives of animals. Two weeks ago, the state of Amazonas in the northwest of the country declared a state of emergency in response to an increase in the number of fires there… Various fires have also been burning in the state of Mato Grosso, according to satellite imagery.

The fires have become so intense that smoke from the blaze darkened the afternoon sky on Monday in São Paulo, Brazil’s most populous city.

“The Amazon rainforest has been on fire for weeks, and it’s so bad it’s literally blotting out the sun miles away,” tweeted Robert Maguire, research director at U.S. government watchdog group Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington.

The advocacy group Amazon Watch on Tuesday called the Bolsonaro regime’s attacks on the world’s largest rainforest “an international tragedy.”

“What can we do?” the group tweeted. “1. Support the courageous resistance of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon. 2. Make clear to the agribusiness and financiers involved in the destruction that we won’t buy their products.” </s> The Amazon rainforest in Brazil has been burning for weeks and people around the world are starting to pay attention. The hashtag #PrayforAmazonia was shared frequently on Twitter today as the fires grow. Read on to see maps of the fires that you can use to remain updated on the fire size and growth, and learn more about what’s happening.

Interactive Maps Can Help You See the Extent of the Amazon Rainforest Fires in Brazil

InfoAmazonia provides a map that shows the fires currently burning in Brazil. The information is freely provided from journalists in the region, organizations, and residents, and it’s free to use and download. The map below shows fires in the region. The red dots indicate fires in the last 24 hours. The yellow shading indicates intense fires. The sources on the map are from NASA.

The map shows that fires in the area are up 65 percent this year. According to InfoAmazonia, the map is updated every day with information streamed from NASA. The map shows that Brazil’s 2019 fires are the highest in seven years.

There’s also a real-time Amazon deforestation map that lets you compare the rate of deforestation with where you live. Put your location in the map here and you’ll see how much forest the Amazon has recently lost, put in terms of what it would look like your location had the same rate of loss.

The map below shows Rondonia and Bolivia on fire. Red spots indicate high carbon monoxide concentrations, which is an indicator of an active fire. The map is provided by Windy.com. You can see the full interactive map here and an embed is below. The map lets you see radar and satellite images and you can zoom in and out, see the temperatures, and other features. It indicates current fire conditions in the region.

On August 12, the Brazilian state of Amazonas declared an emergency because of the fires, Euro News reported. This year 1,699 forest fires were detected in the Amazonas. It’s not clear if the fires right now are from deforestation or agricultural activity. Ane Alencar, direct of science for the Amazon Environmental Research Institute, told Newsweek that the area didn’t have extreme droughts, so weather can’t account for the fires.

One of the fires in Rondonia burned 1,000 hectares of an environmental reserve, Newsweek reported. Painel Politico warned that the fires were causing smoke that was a danger to the health of people and animals in the region.

Brazi’s President Jair Bolsonaro said in July that he didn’t believe data from INPE which indicated deforestation in July was 300 percent higher than in July 2018. He said the report was made up to hurt trade talks, Newsweek reported.

Smoke from the fires caused a blackout in Sao Paula on Monday even though the fires in Rondonia were 2,700 km away, BBC reported. This is what started the #prayforamazonia hashtag on Twitter that later went viral.

Here are some more tweets about #PrayforAmazonia.

READ NEXT: WATCH: Man with TV on Head Leaves CRT TVs on Porches in Virginia </s> Amid smoke from forest fires, cattle graze on a farm along the road to Jacunda National Forest, near the city of Porto Velho in the Vila Nova Samuel region which is part of Brazil’s Amazon, Monday, Aug. 26, 2019. The Group of Seven nations on Monday pledged tens of millions of dollars to help Amazon countries fight raging wildfires, even as Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro accused rich countries of treating the region like a “colony.” (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

PORTO VELHO, Brazil (AP) — Acrimony between Brazil and European countries seeking to help fight Amazon fires deepened on Tuesday, jeopardizing hopes of global unity over how to protect a region seen as vital to the health of the planet.

A personal spat between the leaders of Brazil and France seemed to dominate the dispute, but it also centered on Brazilian perceptions of alleged interference by Europe on matters of sovereignty, economic development and the rights of indigenous people. Brazil said it will set conditions for accepting any aid from the Group of Seven nations, which offered tens of millions of dollars for firefighting and rainforest protections.

The Amazon’s rainforests are a major absorber of carbon dioxide, considered a critical defense against rising temperatures and other disruptions caused by climate change. While many of the recorded fires this year were set in already deforested areas by people clearing land for cultivation or pasture, Brazilian government figures indicate that they are much more widespread this year, suggesting the threat to the vast ecosystem is intensifying.

The effect of the fires was evident in the Amazonian city of Porto Velho, where a thick pall of smoke covered the sky for most of the day. Elane Diaz, a nurse in the city, spoke about respiratory problems while waiting for a doctor’s appointment at a hospital with her 5-year-old-son Eduardo.

“The kids are affected the most. They’re coughing a lot,” Diaz said. “They have problems breathing. I’m concerned because it affects their health.”

Still, Diaz and some other residents in Porto Velho, the capital of Rondonia state, were supportive of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, saying he was doing what he could to protect the Amazon and that international criticism was unfounded.

“Germany had already been helping through NGOs and they couldn’t prevent this,” said Mona Lisa Pereira, an agronomist. “It seems like this is the fire of a lifetime. But it’s not. We have fires every year.”

Bolsonaro, who took office this year with a promise to boost development in Latin America’s biggest economy, has questioned whether offers of international aid mask a plot to exploit the Amazon’s resources and weaken Brazilian growth. On Tuesday, he said French President Emmanuel Macron had called him a liar and that he would have to apologize before Brazil considers accepting rainforest aid.

Macron has to retract those comments “and then we can speak,” Bolsonaro said.

In a video message, Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho offered an apology to France for what he called Bolsonaro’s “hysteria,” saying the Brazilian government had resorted to insults to dodge responsibility for the Amazon fires.

Bolsonaro met governors of states in the Amazon region, some of whom criticized laws that protect the environment and the rights of indigenous people that they said limited opportunities for economic development.

Marcos Jose Rocha dos Santos, the governor of Rondonia state, questioned the intentions of international aid.

“International resources are welcome as long as who uses those resources is us,” Rocha dos Santos said. “We will determine where the money will be applied, it’s useless if those resources get here and go to international NGOs.”

At a summit in France on Monday, the G-7 nations pledged $20 million to help fight the flames in the Amazon and protect the rainforest, in addition to a separate $12 million from Britain and $11 million from Canada.

Onyx Lorenzoni, the Brazilian president’s chief of staff, sharpened the criticism, saying Europe should use the funds for its own problems.

“Macron could not avoid an obvious fire in a church that is a world heritage site,” Lorenzoni told the G1 news website, referring to the Notre Dame Cathedral that was ravaged by fire in April.

Macron, who has questioned Bolsonaro’s trustworthiness and commitment to protecting biodiversity, shrugged off the snub from the Brazilian president. The French leader said Bolsonaro’s interpretation was a “mistake” and that the aid offer is “a sign of friendship.”

He said the aid money isn’t just aimed at Brazil, but at nine countries in the vast Amazon region that also spans Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, an overseas region of France. About 60% of the Amazon region is in Brazil.

Even so, Macron has threatened to block a European Union trade deal with several South American states, including Brazil. He has also acknowledged that Europe, by importing soya from Brazil, shares some blame for agricultural pressure on the rainforest. Bolsonaro has previously said he wants to convert land for more cattle pastures and soybean farms.

In contrast to the tension between France and Brazil, U.S. President Donald Trump praised the Brazilian president. “He is working very hard on the Amazon fires and in all respects doing a great job for the people of Brazil – Not easy,” Trump tweeted Tuesday.

Bolsonaro also said that Japan is “extremely aligned with us” and seeks a deeper trade partnership with South American nations.

Brazil’s National Space Research Institute, which monitors deforestation, said the number of fires has risen by 85% to more than 77,000 in the last year, a record since the institute began keeping track in 2013. About half of the fires were in the Amazon region, with most just in the past month.

Neighboring Bolivia is battling its own vast blazes. The largest are in the Chiquitanía region, a zone of dry forest, farmland and open prairies that has seen an expansion of farming and ranching. President Evo Morales, who has been under criticism for an allegedly slow response to the fires, was in the region on Tuesday overseeing firefighting efforts involving more than 3,500 people, including soldiers, police and volunteers.

The Amazon has experienced an increased rate of fires during drought periods in the last 20 years, but the phenomenon this year is “unusual” because drought has not yet hit, said Laura Schneider of Rutgers University-New Brunswick.

Schneider, an associate professor in the geography department, said fire is commonly used by people to clear land for cultivation, and the actual area burned this year must be measured for an accurate comparison with damage in past years.

The funds offered this week by the world’s richest countries are widely viewed as useful but insufficient for dealing with the threats to the Amazon in the long term. Under international pressure, Bolsonaro has said he would make 44,000 troops available to fight the blazes.

However, federal prosecutors in the Amazon state of Para said they had warned Brazil’s environmental protection agency about a “fire day” organized by farmers earlier this month to clear land. The agency said it lacked support from military police to protect its field teams in risky monitoring operations, according to prosecutors.

Grace Quale, a laboratory technician at the 9 of July hospital in Porto Velho, said more people were undergoing tests because of respiratory problems caused by smoke. Children and the elderly are suffering the most, said Quale, who supports Bolsonaro and believes fires are being set by opponents trying to discredit him.

“What’s happening is disrespectful to our humans, to our animals, because if they end the Amazon, how will we survive?” she said.

Torchia reported from Rio de Janeiro. Associated Press writers Anna Jean Kaiser in Rio de Janeiro and Carlos Valdez in La Paz, Bolivia, contributed to this report. </s> Amid smoke from forest fires, cattle graze on a farm along the road to Jacunda National Forest, near the city of Porto Velho in the Vila Nova Samuel region which is part of Brazil’s Amazon, Monday, Aug. 26, 2019. The Group of Seven nations on Monday pledged tens of millions of dollars to help Amazon countries fight raging wildfires, even as Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro accused rich countries of treating the region like a “colony.” (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

JACUNDA NATIONAL FOREST, Brazil (AP) — Equipped with hoses connected to rubber backpacks, Brazilian firefighters in the Amazon on Monday raced in a truck along dirt roads toward plumes of smoke after a spotter in a military helicopter directed them to a fast-spreading fire.

A landowner opened the gate of a barbed wire fence and the firefighters set to work, dousing a conflagration they believed was intentionally set to prepare land for crops or pasture. When their water supply ran out, they made a fire break, clearing brush with machetes and chainsaws to starve the blaze of its fuel.

The smoke-shrouded scene near the lush Jacunda national forest in the Amazonian state of Rondonia, witnessed by an Associated Press team, showed the enormity of the challenge ahead: putting out a multitude of blazes and safeguarding — in the long term — a vast region described by world leaders as critical to the health of the planet.

The country’s National Space Research Institute, which monitors deforestation, has recorded that the number of fires has risen by 85% to more than 77,000 in the last year, a record since the institute began keeping track in 2013. About half of the fires have been in the Amazon region, with many in just the past month.

At a summit in France, the Group of Seven nations pledged $20 million on Monday to help fight the flames in the Amazon and protect the rainforest, in addition to a separate $12 million from Britain and $11 million from Canada.

The international pledges came despite tensions between European countries and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has accused rich countries of treating the region like a “colony” and suggested the West is angling to exploit Brazil’s natural resources.

But the funds, which are widely seen as critical support, are still a relatively meager amount for dealing with an environmental crisis that threatens what French President Emmanuel Macron has called “the lungs of the planet.”

The AP team drove for hours at a stretch outside the Rondonia capital of Porto Velho without seeing any major fires, suggesting that many had been extinguished or burned themselves out since rapidly spreading in recent weeks. Many fires were set in already deforested areas to clear land for farming and livestock.

Still, smoke billowed from charred fields and scrub, shrouding the sky. The airport in Porto Velho closed for more than one hour on Monday morning because of poor visibility caused by the haze.

Under international pressure to act, Bolsonaro said he might visit the Amazon region this week to check on firefighting efforts and would make 44,000 troops available to fight the blazes. However, the military presence in the area seemed scarce on Monday, with only a few soldiers seen patrolling roads and lending a hand.

At dawn, the blazing sun was hidden under thick smoke that blanketed the horizon like fog. Trucks carrying fresh timber sped through a road that cut through lands where heaps of ash were piled around charred logs.

Some local residents seemed torn between knowing that the fires were devastating the environment around them, and needing to extract the Amazon’s rich natural resources to make a living.

“We have to preserve the land. The government has to help small farmers more, prioritize and take care of the large reserves, where people do most of the illegal things,” said Willian Sabara Dos Santos, a farm manager. Behind him, a Brazilian flag on a pole fluttered in the wind next to a statue of a bull that he said was a replica of the iconic “Charging Bull” sculpture on New York’s Wall Street.

In a nearby village, Darcy Rodrigo De Souza walked barefoot into a shop where people drank coffee and ate Pao de Queijo, traditional Brazilian cheese bread, on a street named “New Progress.”

“We have many problems with the fires. But we also depend on the wood for our economy. If it wasn’t for that, there would be nothing,” said De Souza, who wore a straw hat. “It’s true that the Amazon has to be protected, but this president is going to protect it. The Americans want us to protect Brazil. But why don’t they protect their stuff?”

About 60% of the Amazon region is in Brazil; although the vast forest also spans parts of Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru and Suriname. The Amazon’s rainforests are a major absorber of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and described by environmentalists as a critical defense against climate change.

On Monday, army Maj. Fabio da Paixão Pinheiro said officials have determined that the fires around Porto Velho have decreased as a result of rains over the last couple of days.

But near the Jacunda national forest, thunder boomed as firefighters worked to suffocate flames that continued to burn into the evening.

One fireman prayed for rain as he put on a protective mask. All around him, the heavy smell of burning wood permeated the air, making it hard to breathe.

Associated Press writer Luis Andres Henao reported from Jacunda National Forest and AP writer Christopher Torchia reported from Rio de Janeiro. </s> Amid smoke from forest fires, cattle graze on a farm along the road to Jacunda National Forest, near the city of Porto Velho in the Vila Nova Samuel region which is part of Brazil’s Amazon, Monday, Aug. 26, 2019. The Group of Seven nations on Monday pledged tens of millions of dollars to help Amazon countries fight raging wildfires, even as Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro accused rich countries of treating the region like a “colony.” (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

PORTO VELHO, Brazil (AP) — Acrimony between Brazil and European countries seeking to help fight Amazon fires deepened on Tuesday, jeopardizing hopes of global unity over how to protect a region seen as vital to the health of the planet.

A personal spat between the leaders of Brazil and France seemed to dominate the dispute, but it also centered on Brazilian perceptions of alleged interference by Europe on matters of sovereignty, economic development and the rights of indigenous people. Brazil said it will set conditions for accepting any aid from the Group of Seven nations, which offered tens of millions of dollars for firefighting and rainforest protections.

The Amazon’s rainforests are a major absorber of carbon dioxide, considered a critical defense against rising temperatures and other disruptions caused by climate change. While many of the recorded fires this year were set in already deforested areas by people clearing land for cultivation or pasture, Brazilian government figures indicate that they are much more widespread this year, suggesting the threat to the vast ecosystem is intensifying.

The effect of the fires was evident in the Amazonian city of Porto Velho, where smoke drifted over the sky for parts of the day. Elane Diaz, a nurse in the city, spoke about respiratory problems while waiting for a doctor’s appointment at a hospital with her 5-year-old-son Eduardo.

“The kids are affected the most. They’re coughing a lot,” Diaz said. “They have problems breathing. I’m concerned because it affects their health.”

Still, Diaz and some other residents in Porto Velho, the capital of Rondonia state, were supportive of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, saying he was doing what he could to protect the Amazon and that international criticism was unfounded.

“Germany had already been helping through NGOs and they couldn’t prevent this,” said Mona Lisa Pereira, an agronomist. “It seems like this is the fire of a lifetime. But it’s not. We have fires every year.”

Bolsonaro, who took office this year with a promise to boost development in Latin America’s biggest economy, has questioned whether offers of international aid mask a plot to exploit the Amazon’s resources and weaken Brazilian growth. On Tuesday, he said French President Emmanuel Macron had called him a liar and that he would have to apologize before Brazil considers accepting rainforest aid.

Macron has to retract those comments “and then we can speak,” Bolsonaro said.

In a video message, Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho offered an apology to France for what he called Bolsonaro’s “hysteria,” saying the Brazilian government had resorted to insults to dodge responsibility for the Amazon fires.

Bolsonaro met governors of states in the Amazon region, some of whom criticized laws that protect the environment and the rights of indigenous people that they said limited opportunities for economic development.

Marcos Jose Rocha dos Santos, the governor of Rondonia state, questioned the intentions of international aid.

“International resources are welcome as long as who uses those resources is us,” Rocha dos Santos said. “We will determine where the money will be applied, it’s useless if those resources get here and go to international NGOs.”

At a summit in France on Monday, the G-7 nations pledged $20 million to help fight the flames in the Amazon and protect the rainforest, in addition to a separate $12 million from Britain and $11 million from Canada.

Onyx Lorenzoni, the Brazilian president’s chief of staff, sharpened the criticism, saying Europe should use the funds for its own problems.

“Macron could not avoid an obvious fire in a church that is a world heritage site,” Lorenzoni told the G1 news website, referring to the Notre Dame Cathedral that was ravaged by fire in April.

Macron, who has questioned Bolsonaro’s trustworthiness and commitment to protecting biodiversity, shrugged off the snub from the Brazilian president. The French leader said Bolsonaro’s interpretation was a “mistake” and that the aid offer is “a sign of friendship.”

He said the aid money isn’t just aimed at Brazil, but at nine countries in the vast Amazon region that also spans Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, an overseas region of France. About 60% of the Amazon region is in Brazil.

Even so, Macron has threatened to block a European Union trade deal with several South American states, including Brazil. He has also acknowledged that Europe, by importing soya from Brazil, shares some blame for agricultural pressure on the rainforest. Bolsonaro has previously said he wants to convert land for more cattle pastures and soybean farms.

In contrast to the tension between France and Brazil, U.S. President Donald Trump praised the Brazilian president. “He is working very hard on the Amazon fires and in all respects doing a great job for the people of Brazil – Not easy,” Trump tweeted Tuesday.

Bolsonaro also said that Japan is “extremely aligned with us” and seeks a deeper trade partnership with South American nations.

Brazil’s National Space Research Institute, which monitors deforestation, said the number of fires has risen by 85% to more than 77,000 in the last year, a record since the institute began keeping track in 2013. About half of the fires were in the Amazon region, with most just in the past month.

Neighboring Bolivia is battling its own vast blazes. The largest are in the Chiquitanía region, a zone of dry forest, farmland and open prairies that has seen an expansion of farming and ranching. President Evo Morales, who has been under criticism for an allegedly slow response to the fires, was in the region on Tuesday overseeing firefighting efforts involving more than 3,500 people, including soldiers, police and volunteers.

The Amazon has experienced an increased rate of fires during drought periods in the last 20 years, but the phenomenon this year is “unusual” because drought has not yet hit, said Laura Schneider of Rutgers University-New Brunswick.

Schneider, an associate professor in the geography department, said fire is commonly used by people to clear land for cultivation, and the actual area burned this year must be measured for an accurate comparison with damage in past years.

The funds offered this week by the world’s richest countries are widely viewed as useful but insufficient for dealing with the threats to the Amazon in the long term. Under international pressure, Bolsonaro has said he would make 44,000 troops available to fight the blazes.

However, federal prosecutors in the Amazon state of Para said they had warned Brazil’s environmental protection agency about a “fire day” organized by farmers earlier this month to clear land. The agency said it lacked support from military police to protect its field teams in risky monitoring operations, according to prosecutors.

Grace Quale, a laboratory technician at the 9 of July hospital in Porto Velho, said more people were undergoing tests because of respiratory problems caused by smoke. Children and the elderly are suffering the most, said Quale, who supports Bolsonaro and believes fires are being set by opponents trying to discredit him.

“What’s happening is disrespectful to our humans, to our animals, because if they end the Amazon, how will we survive?” she said.

Torchia reported from Rio de Janeiro. Associated Press writers Anna Jean Kaiser in Rio de Janeiro and Carlos Valdez in La Paz, Bolivia, contributed to this report.
After fifteen days of raging fires in the Amazon Forest in Rondônia, thick smoke clouds cover the Brazilian city of São Paulo in darkness. Street lamps had to be lit in the city around 2PM. The fires, suspected to be intentional, are still burning the forest.