Weather

 Axios - Wildfires have spiked to new highs across huge parts of South America, with large blazes burWildfires have spiked ning deep in the Amazon rainforest, new reports show. The fires are emitting record amounts of planet-warming greenhouse gases in a region that humanity counts on for being a net absorber of carbon dioxide.

• A severe drought and unprecedented heat this year have resulted in a rare case in which the deep, normally moist rainforest is prone to burning.
• According to Global Forest Watch, a platform used to keep tabs on tropical forest destruction, the number of fire alerts detected via satellites and other sources has been 79% higher than average for this time of year...

Estimated emissions from the Brazilian Amazon have been well above average so far this year, with record-high emissions in two key northern states that contain large concentrations of the rainforest — Amazonas and Mato Grosso du Sul, according to CAMS information gleaned from satellite monitoring of wildfire activity.

• Bolivia's wildfire-induced carbon emissions so far this year are already at the highest cumulative annual total for that country in CAMS' 22-year data set, at 76 million tonnes of carbon. That beats out 2010, when annual emissions were 73 million tonnes of carbon.
• The fires have been fouling air quality across large parts of Brazil and nearby countries, "stretching from Ecuador to São Paulo," CAMS researchers said.

Destruction of the Amazon, which is happening across multiple countries, is occurring despite an ambitious but non-binding pledge more than 100 world leaders signed at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in 2021.

• According to the World Resources Institute, Amazon wildfires are now burning at least twice as much forest compared to 20 years ago.