While the world watched a smoky haze from jungle fires engulf Southeast Asia recently, another large tropical forest also saw an increase in fires - the Amazon. Airports have been repeatedly closed, drivers complain about low visibility, and more people report breathing problems as a portion of the world's largest rain forest has been torched for commerce and subsistence farming. An area larger than Connecticut is being burned each year, and Brazil now ranks No. 1 in deforestation, according to the Washington-based World Wildlife Fund. Brazil's National Space Research Institute estimates fires have jumped more than a quarter during May to October compared with last year's burning season. But Brazil says more fires don't equal more destruction of the world's largest rain forest, because most are in areas that have already been cleared.
Many environmentalists disagree.
But that information has touched off a raging debate about whether the surge in burnings actually means accelerated destruction of the Amazon. But environmentalists and some state environmental officials counter that where there's smoke there's deforestation - more, at least, than government officials, sensitive about the international impact of Amazon deforestation, are willing to admit. But historically speaking, we know there has always been an increase in deforestation when the number of fires has increased. But it also notes that the last time the Amazon experienced a sudden upswing in burnings in 1988, the deforestation rate also increased. What I do know is that 15,000 square kilometers is a large area no matter where it is.