Amazon rainforest fire video: Watch Sao Paolo turn BLACK as city swamped in smoke

Brazil’s Amazon rainforest has seen a record number of fires this year and the current unrelenting flames have raised fears about the long-lasting impacts this will have for the country. Brazil’s largest city Sao Paulo was plunged into darkness as the rainforest fire smoke covered the city skies Monday afternoon. CNN’s Shasta Darlington explained: “Thick smoke billowed from over 2,700km (1677miles) away, where fires consuming the world’s largest rainforest are still burning.

“The Amazon basin is burning at a record rate according to Brazil’s research centre.

“More than 27,000 fires have scorched the country this year and over 80 percent increase in compared to the same period in 2018.

“Smoke is spreading across nearly half of Brazil and was visible from space almost a week ago.

“It has spilt into neighbouring Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay with the haze spreading across South America.

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“Although fires are common during Brazil’s dry season some climate scientists say this is far from the normal.

“Environmentalists point to land rays at unprecedented levels.

“As a new government encourages industry to develop the Amazon region.”

Some conservationists have blamed Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for the forest fires, saying he has encouraged loggers and farmers to clear the land.

Mr Bolsonaro said he disagrees with the latest data presented, saying it was the “season of the queimada”, when farmers use fire to clear land.

Josélia Pegorim, a climate meteorologist, told Globo: “The smoke did not come from fires from the state of São Paulo, but from very dense and wide fires that have been going on for several days in Rondônia and Bolivia.

“The cold front changed the direction of the winds and transported this smoke to São Paulo.”

Speaking to Reuters, meteorologist Alberto Setzer from INPE said the institute had recorded “nothing abnormal” about the climate in Brazil this year which could explain the increase in wildfires.

Mr Setzer said: “There is nothing abnormal about the climate this year or the rainfall in the Amazon region, which is just a little below average.

“The dry season creates favourable conditions for the use and spread of fire, but starting a fire is the work of humans, either deliberately or by accident.”

source: express.co.uk