🕷️ Crawler Inspector

URL Lookup

Direct Parameter Lookup

Raw Queries and Responses

1. Shard Calculation

Query:

Response:

Calculated Shard: 181 (from laksa051)

2. Crawled Status Check

Query:

curl -X POST \
  'http://laksa181.int.ahrefs:8124/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
  -H 'X-ClickHouse-Database: crawler3' \
  -H 'Authorization: Basic YXBpOg==' \
  -d 'SELECT getAhrefsURLFromUnparsed(src_unparsed) AS found_url, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(download_stamp), 0) AS crawl_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(props_url_first_seen), 0) AS first_indexed_time, download_http_code AS http_code, src_unparsed AS src_unparsed, src_root_hash AS src_root_hash, history_drop_reason AS history_drop_reason, meta_title AS meta_title, meta_descriptions AS meta_descriptions, attrs_boilerpipe_text AS attrs_boilerpipe_text, attrs_markdown AS attrs_markdown, attrs_readable_markdown AS attrs_readable_markdown, meta_canonical AS meta_canonical FROM crawler3.page_info_local FINAL PREWHERE (src_root_hash, src_unparsed) IN ((getAhrefsRootHashFromUnparsed(getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.businessinsider.com/fires-in-the-amazon-rainforest-were-started-by-humans-2019-8\')), getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.businessinsider.com/fires-in-the-amazon-rainforest-were-started-by-humans-2019-8\'))) FORMAT JSONEachRow'

Response:

{"found_url":"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/fires-in-the-amazon-rainforest-were-started-by-humans-2019-8","crawl_time":1776249787,"first_indexed_time":1566514478,"http_code":200,"src_unparsed":"com,businessinsider!www,\/fires-in-the-amazon-rainforest-were-started-by-humans-2019-8 s443","src_root_hash":"15170859634011428381","history_drop_reason":null,"meta_title":"How the Amazon Rainforest Fires Started: Farmers Do Seasonal Burns - Business Insider","meta_descriptions":["Farmers regularly set fires to clear new tracts of land. Scientists and environmentalists think they're behind this month's record-setting blazes."],"attrs_boilerpipe_text":"A man works in a burning tract of Amazon jungle as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Iranduba, Amazonas state, Brazil, August 20, 2019.\nBruno Kelly\/Reuters\nAug 23, 2019, 1:40 PM GMT\nThe\nAmazon rainforest is burning at a record rate\n. Brazil has seen more than 74,000 fires this year ⁠— nearly double 2018's total of about 40,000 fires. About 10,000 new fires started in the last week alone.\nScientists\nand environmentalists say the reason the Amazon is on fire is because farmers are deliberately starting blazes in their efforts to clear land for crops or livestock. One researcher estimated that humans start 99% of all\nAmazon rainforest fires\n.\nSuch\nfires\nare a major cause of\ndeforestation\nin the Amazon. If too much of the rainforest disappears, it could pass a tipping point after which it may become a savannah.\nVisit Business Insider's homepage for more stories\n.\nEarth's \"lungs\" are\nburning more than ever before\n. This isn't a natural disaster, it's something humans are likely responsible for.\nThe Amazon rainforest in Brazil has seen more fires in 2019 than in any year since researchers began keeping track in 2013 — and there are still four months to go. About 10,000 new fires have started in the last week alone.\nEnvironmentalists and researchers say humans are probably behind the surge.\nAbout 99% of Amazon fires start from human actions, \"either on purpose or by accident,\" Alberto Setzer, a senior scientist at Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE),\ntold CNN\n. Setzer said people often set the forest ablaze to clear land for agriculture. \nThose fires can then get out of control.\nA tract of Amazon jungle burns as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Novo Airao, Amazonas state, Brazil August 21, 2019. \nBruno Kelly\/Reuters\nAs the world's largest rainforest, the Amazon plays a crucial role in keeping our planet's carbon-dioxide levels in check. Plants and trees take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen back into the air in the process of photosynthesis. This is why the Amazon, which covers 2.1 million square miles,\nis often referred to as the \"lungs of the planet.\"\nBut when trees burn, they release carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere, where it contributes to climate change.\n\"The Amazon is incredibly important for our future, for our ability to stave off the worst of climate change,\" Christian Poirier, the program director of non-profit organization Amazon Watch, told CNN. \"This isn't hyperbole. We're looking at untold destruction — not just of the Amazon but for our entire planet.\"\nHumans are driving record-breaking fires\nSmoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas State, Brazil on August 17, 2019. \nUeslei Marcelino\/Reuters\nThis year so far, scientists have recorded more than \n74,000 fires\n in Brazil. That's nearly double 2018's total of about 40,000 fires.\nMore than 9,500 of them have started since August 15, primarily in the Amazon basin. This represents an 83% increase in wildfires over the same period of 2018, INPE reported.\nSatellites that detect heat signatures issued over 136,000 fire alerts in Brazil this year, with\nmore than 109,000\nof them between August 13 and 20.\nBig wildfires like this are not a natural part of the Amazon rainforest ecosystem.\n\"The important thing to know about the Amazon is that few fires occur there naturally,\" Mikaela Weisse, who tracks deforestation and fires for the World Resources Institute,\ntold Vice\n. \"Pretty much everything is started by humans.\"\nOn Tuesday, when\n \nReuters reporters asked\nBrazilian President Jair\nBolsonaro about the fires in Brazil, he pointed to the fact that it's a time of year when farmers purposefully use fire to clear land — a seasonal cycle called \"queimada.\"\n\"I used to be called Captain Chainsaw. Now I am Nero, setting the Amazon aflame,\" Bolsonaro\n \nsaid. \"But it is the season of the queimada.\"\nBrazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at the Brazilian Steel Conference in Brasilia, August 21, 2019. \nREUTERS\/Adriano Machado\nAs CNN meteorologist Haley Brink explained in the network's report, \"[Farmers] wait for the dry season and they start burning and clearing the areas so that their cattle can graze. That's what we're suspecting is going on down there.\"\nLast week, in fact, farmers organized a \"fire day\" to burn down forest for new pasture, according to\nBrazilian news outlet\nBrasil de Fato\n.\n\"Because the use of fire is a traditional part of tropical agriculture to clean agricultural land, grazing land, it is very difficult to stop it,\" Lincoln Muniz Alves, a researcher at INPE, told CNN.\nDry, hot weather helps the flames spread\nA tract of Amazon jungle burns as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Novo Airao, Amazonas state, Brazil, August 21, 2019. \nBruno Kelly\/Reuters\nBut even during the dry season, which lasts from July to November, tropical rainforests are some of the Earth's wettest ecosystems. That's why researchers and environmentalists think this month's fires were started by humans, rather than natural causes like lightning strikes.\n\"The vast majority of these fires are human-lit,\" Poirier said.\nIn addition to farmers, illegal loggers and miners sometimes light fires as well, in order to destroy evidence of their activities or drive away indigenous people,\nVox reported\n.\nAt least 400 indigenous tribes\n live in the rainforest, and their cultures and livelihoods are intimately linked with the state of the Amazon.\nThe Amazon's humidity usually stifles these fires before they get too big, but this year was particularly hot and dry worldwide.\nSmoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas State, Brazil on August 14, 2019. \nUeslei Marcelino\/Reuters\nIn that sense, climate change and uncontrolled rainforest blazes are interconnected, since hot, dry weather and decreased rainfall — both tied to climate change — make the Amazon more vulnerable to fires. That means there could be more to come, since the Amazon's dry season doesn't peak until September.\n\"Humans are driving these fires, either in a very direct sense or a global sense by changing the ecosystem so much,\" Ruth DeFries, an ecology professor at Columbia University,\ntold Vice\n.\nFires themselves also make the forest prone to even more blazes, since they suck moisture out of the air.\nDeforestation could drive the Amazon to a tipping point\nIn the Amazon, these queimada fires drive deforestation .\nThe month of July set a new record for the most deforestation ever in the Amazon in a single month, \nThe Guardian reported\n. The Amazon shrunk by 519 square miles (1,345 square kilometers) — more than twice the area of Tokyo.\nData \nfrom Brazilian satellites\n indicated that about three football fields' worth of Amazonian trees fell every minute last month. The total deforested area in July was \nup 39%\n from the same month last year.\nThis November 17, 2014 photo shows the four stages of land management on a big cattle farm in the Brazilian Amazon: cleared land that was recently burned, a grassy pasture waiting for cattle, burning forest, and native forest that will eventually meet the same fate. \nRicardo Funari\/Getty\nScientists fear that the deforestation and fires could kill so many trees that they trigger an irreversible process that could turn the Amazon into an African savannah-type landscape.\nIf that happens, the tropical trees — and the fauna they support — would disappear, releasing \nup to 140 billion tons\n of stored carbon into the atmosphere and causing an uptick in already rising global temperatures.\nEnvironment\nBrazil\nClimate Change\nMore\nAgriculture\nRead 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Österreich](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.de\/?IR=C)\n\n[España](https:\/\/businessinsider.es\/)\n\n[Japan](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.jp\/)\n\n[Polska](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com.pl\/?IR=C)\n\n[TW 全球中文版](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.tw\/)\n\n[Get the app](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/app \"Get the Business Insider app\")\n\n[News](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/news)\n\n# The fires in the Amazon are the result of seasonal burning that farmers do every year. Here's why they've gotten so bad this summer.\nBy   [Aylin Woodward](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/author\/aylin-woodward)   and   [Morgan McFall-Johnsen](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/author\/morgan-mcfall-johnsen)\n\n![amazon rainforest fires farmer](https:\/\/i.insider.com\/5d5f196bf4fc2452c56b9e78?width=700)\n\nA man works in a burning tract of Amazon jungle as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Iranduba, Amazonas state, Brazil, August 20, 2019.    [Bruno Kelly\/Reuters](https:\/\/www.reutersconnect.com\/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2019%3Anewsml_RC1AF7C54AA0&share=true)\n\nAug 23, 2019, 1:40 PM GMT\n\nShare\n\nCopy link\n\n[Email](<mailto:?subject=The fires in the Amazon are the result of seasonal burning that farmers do every year. Here's why they've gotten so bad this summer.&body=The%20fires%20in%20the%20Amazon%20are%20the%20result%20of%20seasonal%20burning%20that%20farmers%20do%20every%20year.%20Here's%20why%20they've%20gotten%20so%20bad%20this%20summer.%0D%0A%0D%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2Ffires-in-the-amazon-rainforest-were-started-by-humans-2019-8&> \"Email\")\n\nFacebook\n\nWhatsApp\n\nX\n\nLinkedIn\n\nBluesky\n\nThreads\n\nAn icon in the shape of a lightning bolt.\n\nImpact Link\n\nSave Saved\n\n[Read in app](https:\/\/insider-app.onelink.me\/4cpG\/?af_js_web=true&af_ss_ver=2_3_0&af_dp=insider%3A%2F%2Fbi%2Fpost%2Ffires-in-the-amazon-rainforest-were-started-by-humans-2019-8&af_force_deeplink=true&is_retargeting=true&deep_link_value=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2Ffires-in-the-amazon-rainforest-were-started-by-humans-2019-8&pid=businessinsider&c=post_page_share_bar_v2_smart_4.13.23 \"Download the app\")\n\n- The [Amazon rainforest is burning at a record rate](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/amazon-rainforest-fires-breaking-records-2019-8). Brazil has seen more than 74,000 fires this year ⁠— nearly double 2018's total of about 40,000 fires. About 10,000 new fires started in the last week alone.\n- [Scientists](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/brazil-president-bolsonaro-destroy-the-amazon-2018-10) and environmentalists say the reason the Amazon is on fire is because farmers are deliberately starting blazes in their efforts to clear land for crops or livestock. One researcher estimated that humans start 99% of all [Amazon rainforest fires](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/amazon-fires-may-help-dieback-emit-carbon-hurry-climate-change-2019-8).\n- Such [fires](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/amazon-fires-eclipse-sun-above-sao-paulo-brazil-2019-8) are a major cause of [deforestation](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/amazon-rainforest-experiencing-record-breaking-deforestation-2019-7) in the Amazon. If too much of the rainforest disappears, it could pass a tipping point after which it may become a savannah.\n- [Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/?hprecirc-bullet).\n\nEarth's \"lungs\" are [burning more than ever before](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/how-to-help-amazon-rainforest-what-charities-to-donate-to-2019). This isn't a natural disaster, it's something humans are likely responsible for.\n\nThe Amazon rainforest in Brazil has seen more fires in 2019 than in any year since researchers began keeping track in 2013 — and there are still four months to go. About 10,000 new fires have started in the last week alone.\n\nEnvironmentalists and researchers say humans are probably behind the surge.\n\nAbout 99% of Amazon fires start from human actions, \"either on purpose or by accident,\" Alberto Setzer, a senior scientist at Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE), [told CNN](https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2019\/08\/22\/americas\/amazon-fires-humans-intl-hnk-trnd\/index.html). Setzer said people often set the forest ablaze to clear land for agriculture.\n\nThose fires can then get out of control.\n\n![amazon rainforest fire farmers](https:\/\/i.insider.com\/5d5f04e021214c547d78f0c0?width=500&format=jpeg&auto=webp)\n\nA tract of Amazon jungle burns as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Novo Airao, Amazonas state, Brazil August 21, 2019.   [Bruno Kelly\/Reuters](https:\/\/www.reutersconnect.com\/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2019%3Anewsml_RC117D887A10&share=true)\n\nAs the world's largest rainforest, the Amazon plays a crucial role in keeping our planet's carbon-dioxide levels in check. Plants and trees take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen back into the air in the process of photosynthesis. This is why the Amazon, which covers 2.1 million square miles, [is often referred to as the \"lungs of the planet.\"](http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/future\/story\/20130226-amazon-lungs-of-the-planet)\n\nBut when trees burn, they release carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere, where it contributes to climate change.\n\n\"The Amazon is incredibly important for our future, for our ability to stave off the worst of climate change,\" Christian Poirier, the program director of non-profit organization Amazon Watch, told CNN. \"This isn't hyperbole. We're looking at untold destruction — not just of the Amazon but for our entire planet.\"\n\n## Humans are driving record-breaking fires\n![August 17 Amazon fires](https:\/\/i.insider.com\/5d5f04dd21214c547d78f0ab?width=500&format=jpeg&auto=webp)\n\nSmoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas State, Brazil on August 17, 2019.  Ueslei Marcelino\/Reuters\n\nThis year so far, scientists have recorded more than [74,000 fires](http:\/\/queimadas.dgi.inpe.br\/queimadas\/portal\/situacao-atual) in Brazil. That's nearly double 2018's total of about 40,000 fires. More than 9,500 of them have started since August 15, primarily in the Amazon basin. This represents an 83% increase in wildfires over the same period of 2018, INPE reported.\n\nSatellites that detect heat signatures issued over 136,000 fire alerts in Brazil this year, with [more than 109,000](https:\/\/fires.globalforestwatch.org\/report\/index.html#aoitype=GLOBAL&reporttype=globalcountryreport&country=Brazil&dates=fYear-2019!fMonth-8!fDay-13!tYear-2019!tMonth-8!tDay-20) of them between August 13 and 20.\n\nBig wildfires like this are not a natural part of the Amazon rainforest ecosystem.\n\n\"The important thing to know about the Amazon is that few fires occur there naturally,\" Mikaela Weisse, who tracks deforestation and fires for the World Resources Institute, [told Vice](https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en_us\/article\/wjw5bb\/the-amazon-wildfires-arent-natural-blame-humans). \"Pretty much everything is started by humans.\"\n\nOn Tuesday, when [Reuters reporters asked](https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-brazil-environment-wildfires\/amazon-burning-brazil-reports-record-forest-fires-idUSKCN1VA1UK) Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro about the fires in Brazil, he pointed to the fact that it's a time of year when farmers purposefully use fire to clear land — a seasonal cycle called \"queimada.\"\n\n\"I used to be called Captain Chainsaw. Now I am Nero, setting the Amazon aflame,\" Bolsonaro said. \"But it is the season of the queimada.\"\n\n![Brazil Jair Bolsonaro](https:\/\/i.insider.com\/5d5f196cf4fc2452c56b9e7a?width=500&format=jpeg&auto=webp)\n\nBrazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at the Brazilian Steel Conference in Brasilia, August 21, 2019.  REUTERS\/Adriano Machado\n\nAs CNN meteorologist Haley Brink explained in the network's report, \"\\[Farmers\\] wait for the dry season and they start burning and clearing the areas so that their cattle can graze. That's what we're suspecting is going on down there.\"\n\nLast week, in fact, farmers organized a \"fire day\" to burn down forest for new pasture, according to [Brazilian news outlet *Brasil de Fato*](https:\/\/www.brasildefato.com.br\/2019\/08\/15\/estimulados-por-bolsonaro-fazendeiros-promovem-dia-do-fogo-na-amazonia\/).\n\n\"Because the use of fire is a traditional part of tropical agriculture to clean agricultural land, grazing land, it is very difficult to stop it,\" Lincoln Muniz Alves, a researcher at INPE, told CNN.\n\n## Dry, hot weather helps the flames spread\n![amazon rainforest fire](https:\/\/i.insider.com\/5d5f196cf4fc2452c56b9e7b?width=500&format=jpeg&auto=webp)\n\nA tract of Amazon jungle burns as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Novo Airao, Amazonas state, Brazil, August 21, 2019.   [Bruno Kelly\/Reuters](https:\/\/www.reutersconnect.com\/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2019%3Anewsml_RC16FB0DFD00&share=true)\n\nBut even during the dry season, which lasts from July to November, tropical rainforests are some of the Earth's wettest ecosystems. That's why researchers and environmentalists think this month's fires were started by humans, rather than natural causes like lightning strikes.\n\n\"The vast majority of these fires are human-lit,\" Poirier said.\n\nIn addition to farmers, illegal loggers and miners sometimes light fires as well, in order to destroy evidence of their activities or drive away indigenous people, [Vox reported](https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2019\/8\/22\/20828219\/amazon-rainforest-wildfire-photos-fire-greenland). [At least 400 indigenous tribes](https:\/\/www.survivalinternational.org\/about\/amazontribes) live in the rainforest, and their cultures and livelihoods are intimately linked with the state of the Amazon.\n\nThe Amazon's humidity usually stifles these fires before they get too big, but this year was particularly hot and dry worldwide.\n\n![August 14 Amazon fires](https:\/\/i.insider.com\/5d5f196cf4fc2452c56b9e7c?width=500&format=jpeg&auto=webp)\n\nSmoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas State, Brazil on August 14, 2019.  Ueslei Marcelino\/Reuters\n\nIn that sense, climate change and uncontrolled rainforest blazes are interconnected, since hot, dry weather and decreased rainfall — both tied to climate change — make the Amazon more vulnerable to fires. That means there could be more to come, since the Amazon's dry season doesn't peak until September.\n\n\"Humans are driving these fires, either in a very direct sense or a global sense by changing the ecosystem so much,\" Ruth DeFries, an ecology professor at Columbia University, [told Vice](https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en_us\/article\/wjw5bb\/the-amazon-wildfires-arent-natural-blame-humans).\n\nFires themselves also make the forest prone to even more blazes, since they suck moisture out of the air.\n\n## Deforestation could drive the Amazon to a tipping point\nIn the Amazon, these queimada fires drive deforestation .\n\nThe month of July set a new record for the most deforestation ever in the Amazon in a single month, [The Guardian reported](https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2019\/jul\/25\/amazonian-rainforest-near-unrecoverable-tipping-point). The Amazon shrunk by 519 square miles (1,345 square kilometers) — more than twice the area of Tokyo.\n\nData [from Brazilian satellites](http:\/\/terrabrasilis.dpi.inpe.br\/app\/dashboard\/alerts\/legal\/amazon\/aggregated\/) indicated that about three football fields' worth of Amazonian trees fell every minute last month. The total deforested area in July was [up 39%](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/07\/28\/world\/americas\/brazil-deforestation-amazon-bolsonaro.html) from the same month last year.\n\n![brazil amazon fire deforestation](<data:image\/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'%3F%3E%3Csvg xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg' width='1' height='1'\/%3E>)\n\nThis November 17, 2014 photo shows the four stages of land management on a big cattle farm in the Brazilian Amazon: cleared land that was recently burned, a grassy pasture waiting for cattle, burning forest, and native forest that will eventually meet the same fate.  Ricardo Funari\/Getty\n\nScientists fear that the deforestation and fires could kill so many trees that they trigger an irreversible process that could turn the Amazon into an African savannah-type landscape.\n\nIf that happens, the tropical trees — and the fauna they support — would disappear, releasing [up to 140 billion tons](https:\/\/www.rainforesttrust.org\/climate-change-series-part-1-rainforests-absorb-store-large-quantities-carbon-dioxide\/) of stored carbon into the atmosphere and causing an uptick in already rising global temperatures.\n### Recommended video\n- [Environment](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/category\/environment \"Environment\")\n- [Brazil](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/category\/brazil \"Brazil\")\n- [Climate Change](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/category\/climate-change \"Climate Change\")\n- More\n- [Agriculture](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/category\/agriculture \"Agriculture\")\n\n## Read next\n![](<data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg 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[Main content](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/fires-in-the-amazon-rainforest-were-started-by-humans-2019-8#post-headline)\n2. [Search](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/fires-in-the-amazon-rainforest-were-started-by-humans-2019-8#search)\n3. [Account](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/fires-in-the-amazon-rainforest-were-started-by-humans-2019-8#account)\n4. [Jump to top of page](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/)","attrs_readable_markdown":"![amazon rainforest fires farmer](https:\/\/i.insider.com\/5d5f196bf4fc2452c56b9e78?width=700)\n\nA man works in a burning tract of Amazon jungle as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Iranduba, Amazonas state, Brazil, August 20, 2019.    [Bruno Kelly\/Reuters](https:\/\/www.reutersconnect.com\/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2019%3Anewsml_RC1AF7C54AA0&share=true)\n\nAug 23, 2019, 1:40 PM GMT\n\n- The [Amazon rainforest is burning at a record rate](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/amazon-rainforest-fires-breaking-records-2019-8). Brazil has seen more than 74,000 fires this year ⁠— nearly double 2018's total of about 40,000 fires. About 10,000 new fires started in the last week alone.\n- [Scientists](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/brazil-president-bolsonaro-destroy-the-amazon-2018-10) and environmentalists say the reason the Amazon is on fire is because farmers are deliberately starting blazes in their efforts to clear land for crops or livestock. One researcher estimated that humans start 99% of all [Amazon rainforest fires](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/amazon-fires-may-help-dieback-emit-carbon-hurry-climate-change-2019-8).\n- Such [fires](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/amazon-fires-eclipse-sun-above-sao-paulo-brazil-2019-8) are a major cause of [deforestation](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/amazon-rainforest-experiencing-record-breaking-deforestation-2019-7) in the Amazon. If too much of the rainforest disappears, it could pass a tipping point after which it may become a savannah.\n- [Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/?hprecirc-bullet).\n\nEarth's \"lungs\" are [burning more than ever before](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/how-to-help-amazon-rainforest-what-charities-to-donate-to-2019). This isn't a natural disaster, it's something humans are likely responsible for.\n\nThe Amazon rainforest in Brazil has seen more fires in 2019 than in any year since researchers began keeping track in 2013 — and there are still four months to go. About 10,000 new fires have started in the last week alone.\n\nEnvironmentalists and researchers say humans are probably behind the surge.\n\nAbout 99% of Amazon fires start from human actions, \"either on purpose or by accident,\" Alberto Setzer, a senior scientist at Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE), [told CNN](https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2019\/08\/22\/americas\/amazon-fires-humans-intl-hnk-trnd\/index.html). Setzer said people often set the forest ablaze to clear land for agriculture.\n\nThose fires can then get out of control.\n\n![amazon rainforest fire farmers](https:\/\/i.insider.com\/5d5f04e021214c547d78f0c0?width=500&format=jpeg&auto=webp)\n\nA tract of Amazon jungle burns as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Novo Airao, Amazonas state, Brazil August 21, 2019.   [Bruno Kelly\/Reuters](https:\/\/www.reutersconnect.com\/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2019%3Anewsml_RC117D887A10&share=true)\n\nAs the world's largest rainforest, the Amazon plays a crucial role in keeping our planet's carbon-dioxide levels in check. Plants and trees take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen back into the air in the process of photosynthesis. This is why the Amazon, which covers 2.1 million square miles, [is often referred to as the \"lungs of the planet.\"](http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/future\/story\/20130226-amazon-lungs-of-the-planet)\n\nBut when trees burn, they release carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere, where it contributes to climate change.\n\n\"The Amazon is incredibly important for our future, for our ability to stave off the worst of climate change,\" Christian Poirier, the program director of non-profit organization Amazon Watch, told CNN. \"This isn't hyperbole. We're looking at untold destruction — not just of the Amazon but for our entire planet.\"\n\n## Humans are driving record-breaking fires\n![August 17 Amazon fires](https:\/\/i.insider.com\/5d5f04dd21214c547d78f0ab?width=500&format=jpeg&auto=webp)\n\nSmoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas State, Brazil on August 17, 2019.  Ueslei Marcelino\/Reuters\n\nThis year so far, scientists have recorded more than [74,000 fires](http:\/\/queimadas.dgi.inpe.br\/queimadas\/portal\/situacao-atual) in Brazil. That's nearly double 2018's total of about 40,000 fires. More than 9,500 of them have started since August 15, primarily in the Amazon basin. This represents an 83% increase in wildfires over the same period of 2018, INPE reported.\n\nSatellites that detect heat signatures issued over 136,000 fire alerts in Brazil this year, with [more than 109,000](https:\/\/fires.globalforestwatch.org\/report\/index.html#aoitype=GLOBAL&reporttype=globalcountryreport&country=Brazil&dates=fYear-2019!fMonth-8!fDay-13!tYear-2019!tMonth-8!tDay-20) of them between August 13 and 20.\n\nBig wildfires like this are not a natural part of the Amazon rainforest ecosystem.\n\n\"The important thing to know about the Amazon is that few fires occur there naturally,\" Mikaela Weisse, who tracks deforestation and fires for the World Resources Institute, [told Vice](https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en_us\/article\/wjw5bb\/the-amazon-wildfires-arent-natural-blame-humans). \"Pretty much everything is started by humans.\"\n\nOn Tuesday, when [Reuters reporters asked](https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-brazil-environment-wildfires\/amazon-burning-brazil-reports-record-forest-fires-idUSKCN1VA1UK) Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro about the fires in Brazil, he pointed to the fact that it's a time of year when farmers purposefully use fire to clear land — a seasonal cycle called \"queimada.\"\n\n\"I used to be called Captain Chainsaw. Now I am Nero, setting the Amazon aflame,\" Bolsonaro said. \"But it is the season of the queimada.\"\n\n![Brazil Jair Bolsonaro](https:\/\/i.insider.com\/5d5f196cf4fc2452c56b9e7a?width=500&format=jpeg&auto=webp)\n\nBrazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at the Brazilian Steel Conference in Brasilia, August 21, 2019.  REUTERS\/Adriano Machado\n\nAs CNN meteorologist Haley Brink explained in the network's report, \"\\[Farmers\\] wait for the dry season and they start burning and clearing the areas so that their cattle can graze. That's what we're suspecting is going on down there.\"\n\nLast week, in fact, farmers organized a \"fire day\" to burn down forest for new pasture, according to [Brazilian news outlet *Brasil de Fato*](https:\/\/www.brasildefato.com.br\/2019\/08\/15\/estimulados-por-bolsonaro-fazendeiros-promovem-dia-do-fogo-na-amazonia\/).\n\n\"Because the use of fire is a traditional part of tropical agriculture to clean agricultural land, grazing land, it is very difficult to stop it,\" Lincoln Muniz Alves, a researcher at INPE, told CNN.\n\n## Dry, hot weather helps the flames spread\n![amazon rainforest fire](https:\/\/i.insider.com\/5d5f196cf4fc2452c56b9e7b?width=500&format=jpeg&auto=webp)\n\nA tract of Amazon jungle burns as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Novo Airao, Amazonas state, Brazil, August 21, 2019.   [Bruno Kelly\/Reuters](https:\/\/www.reutersconnect.com\/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2019%3Anewsml_RC16FB0DFD00&share=true)\n\nBut even during the dry season, which lasts from July to November, tropical rainforests are some of the Earth's wettest ecosystems. That's why researchers and environmentalists think this month's fires were started by humans, rather than natural causes like lightning strikes.\n\n\"The vast majority of these fires are human-lit,\" Poirier said.\n\nIn addition to farmers, illegal loggers and miners sometimes light fires as well, in order to destroy evidence of their activities or drive away indigenous people, [Vox reported](https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2019\/8\/22\/20828219\/amazon-rainforest-wildfire-photos-fire-greenland). [At least 400 indigenous tribes](https:\/\/www.survivalinternational.org\/about\/amazontribes) live in the rainforest, and their cultures and livelihoods are intimately linked with the state of the Amazon.\n\nThe Amazon's humidity usually stifles these fires before they get too big, but this year was particularly hot and dry worldwide.\n\n![August 14 Amazon fires](https:\/\/i.insider.com\/5d5f196cf4fc2452c56b9e7c?width=500&format=jpeg&auto=webp)\n\nSmoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas State, Brazil on August 14, 2019.  Ueslei Marcelino\/Reuters\n\nIn that sense, climate change and uncontrolled rainforest blazes are interconnected, since hot, dry weather and decreased rainfall — both tied to climate change — make the Amazon more vulnerable to fires. That means there could be more to come, since the Amazon's dry season doesn't peak until September.\n\n\"Humans are driving these fires, either in a very direct sense or a global sense by changing the ecosystem so much,\" Ruth DeFries, an ecology professor at Columbia University, [told Vice](https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en_us\/article\/wjw5bb\/the-amazon-wildfires-arent-natural-blame-humans).\n\nFires themselves also make the forest prone to even more blazes, since they suck moisture out of the air.\n\n## Deforestation could drive the Amazon to a tipping point\nIn the Amazon, these queimada fires drive deforestation .\n\nThe month of July set a new record for the most deforestation ever in the Amazon in a single month, [The Guardian reported](https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2019\/jul\/25\/amazonian-rainforest-near-unrecoverable-tipping-point). The Amazon shrunk by 519 square miles (1,345 square kilometers) — more than twice the area of Tokyo.\n\nData [from Brazilian satellites](http:\/\/terrabrasilis.dpi.inpe.br\/app\/dashboard\/alerts\/legal\/amazon\/aggregated\/) indicated that about three football fields' worth of Amazonian trees fell every minute last month. The total deforested area in July was [up 39%](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/07\/28\/world\/americas\/brazil-deforestation-amazon-bolsonaro.html) from the same month last year.\n\n![brazil amazon fire deforestation](<data:image\/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'%3F%3E%3Csvg xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg' width='1' height='1'\/%3E>)\n\nThis November 17, 2014 photo shows the four stages of land management on a big cattle farm in the Brazilian Amazon: cleared land that was recently burned, a grassy pasture waiting for cattle, burning forest, and native forest that will eventually meet the same fate.  Ricardo Funari\/Getty\n\nScientists fear that the deforestation and fires could kill so many trees that they trigger an irreversible process that could turn the Amazon into an African savannah-type landscape.\n\nIf that happens, the tropical trees — and the fauna they support — would disappear, releasing [up to 140 billion tons](https:\/\/www.rainforesttrust.org\/climate-change-series-part-1-rainforests-absorb-store-large-quantities-carbon-dioxide\/) of stored carbon into the atmosphere and causing an uptick in already rising global temperatures.\n\n- [Environment](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/category\/environment \"Environment\")\n- [Brazil](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/category\/brazil \"Brazil\")\n- [Climate Change](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/category\/climate-change \"Climate Change\")\n- More\n- [Agriculture](https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/category\/agriculture \"Agriculture\")\n\nRead next","meta_canonical":null}

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Boilerpipe Text	A man works in a burning tract of Amazon jungle as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Iranduba, Amazonas state, Brazil, August 20, 2019. Bruno Kelly/Reuters Aug 23, 2019, 1:40 PM GMT The Amazon rainforest is burning at a record rate . Brazil has seen more than 74,000 fires this year ⁠— nearly double 2018's total of about 40,000 fires. About 10,000 new fires started in the last week alone. Scientists and environmentalists say the reason the Amazon is on fire is because farmers are deliberately starting blazes in their efforts to clear land for crops or livestock. One researcher estimated that humans start 99% of all Amazon rainforest fires . Such fires are a major cause of deforestation in the Amazon. If too much of the rainforest disappears, it could pass a tipping point after which it may become a savannah. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories . Earth's "lungs" are burning more than ever before . This isn't a natural disaster, it's something humans are likely responsible for. The Amazon rainforest in Brazil has seen more fires in 2019 than in any year since researchers began keeping track in 2013 — and there are still four months to go. About 10,000 new fires have started in the last week alone. Environmentalists and researchers say humans are probably behind the surge. About 99% of Amazon fires start from human actions, "either on purpose or by accident," Alberto Setzer, a senior scientist at Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE), told CNN . Setzer said people often set the forest ablaze to clear land for agriculture. Those fires can then get out of control. A tract of Amazon jungle burns as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Novo Airao, Amazonas state, Brazil August 21, 2019. Bruno Kelly/Reuters As the world's largest rainforest, the Amazon plays a crucial role in keeping our planet's carbon-dioxide levels in check. Plants and trees take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen back into the air in the process of photosynthesis. This is why the Amazon, which covers 2.1 million square miles, is often referred to as the "lungs of the planet." But when trees burn, they release carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere, where it contributes to climate change. "The Amazon is incredibly important for our future, for our ability to stave off the worst of climate change," Christian Poirier, the program director of non-profit organization Amazon Watch, told CNN. "This isn't hyperbole. We're looking at untold destruction — not just of the Amazon but for our entire planet." Humans are driving record-breaking fires Smoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas State, Brazil on August 17, 2019. Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters This year so far, scientists have recorded more than 74,000 fires in Brazil. That's nearly double 2018's total of about 40,000 fires. More than 9,500 of them have started since August 15, primarily in the Amazon basin. This represents an 83% increase in wildfires over the same period of 2018, INPE reported. Satellites that detect heat signatures issued over 136,000 fire alerts in Brazil this year, with more than 109,000 of them between August 13 and 20. Big wildfires like this are not a natural part of the Amazon rainforest ecosystem. "The important thing to know about the Amazon is that few fires occur there naturally," Mikaela Weisse, who tracks deforestation and fires for the World Resources Institute, told Vice . "Pretty much everything is started by humans." On Tuesday, when Reuters reporters asked Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro about the fires in Brazil, he pointed to the fact that it's a time of year when farmers purposefully use fire to clear land — a seasonal cycle called "queimada." "I used to be called Captain Chainsaw. Now I am Nero, setting the Amazon aflame," Bolsonaro said. "But it is the season of the queimada." Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at the Brazilian Steel Conference in Brasilia, August 21, 2019. REUTERS/Adriano Machado As CNN meteorologist Haley Brink explained in the network's report, "[Farmers] wait for the dry season and they start burning and clearing the areas so that their cattle can graze. That's what we're suspecting is going on down there." Last week, in fact, farmers organized a "fire day" to burn down forest for new pasture, according to Brazilian news outlet Brasil de Fato . "Because the use of fire is a traditional part of tropical agriculture to clean agricultural land, grazing land, it is very difficult to stop it," Lincoln Muniz Alves, a researcher at INPE, told CNN. Dry, hot weather helps the flames spread A tract of Amazon jungle burns as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Novo Airao, Amazonas state, Brazil, August 21, 2019. Bruno Kelly/Reuters But even during the dry season, which lasts from July to November, tropical rainforests are some of the Earth's wettest ecosystems. That's why researchers and environmentalists think this month's fires were started by humans, rather than natural causes like lightning strikes. "The vast majority of these fires are human-lit," Poirier said. In addition to farmers, illegal loggers and miners sometimes light fires as well, in order to destroy evidence of their activities or drive away indigenous people, Vox reported . At least 400 indigenous tribes live in the rainforest, and their cultures and livelihoods are intimately linked with the state of the Amazon. The Amazon's humidity usually stifles these fires before they get too big, but this year was particularly hot and dry worldwide. Smoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas State, Brazil on August 14, 2019. Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters In that sense, climate change and uncontrolled rainforest blazes are interconnected, since hot, dry weather and decreased rainfall — both tied to climate change — make the Amazon more vulnerable to fires. That means there could be more to come, since the Amazon's dry season doesn't peak until September. "Humans are driving these fires, either in a very direct sense or a global sense by changing the ecosystem so much," Ruth DeFries, an ecology professor at Columbia University, told Vice . Fires themselves also make the forest prone to even more blazes, since they suck moisture out of the air. Deforestation could drive the Amazon to a tipping point In the Amazon, these queimada fires drive deforestation . The month of July set a new record for the most deforestation ever in the Amazon in a single month, The Guardian reported . The Amazon shrunk by 519 square miles (1,345 square kilometers) — more than twice the area of Tokyo. Data from Brazilian satellites indicated that about three football fields' worth of Amazonian trees fell every minute last month. The total deforested area in July was up 39% from the same month last year. This November 17, 2014 photo shows the four stages of land management on a big cattle farm in the Brazilian Amazon: cleared land that was recently burned, a grassy pasture waiting for cattle, burning forest, and native forest that will eventually meet the same fate. Ricardo Funari/Getty Scientists fear that the deforestation and fires could kill so many trees that they trigger an irreversible process that could turn the Amazon into an African savannah-type landscape. If that happens, the tropical trees — and the fauna they support — would disappear, releasing up to 140 billion tons of stored carbon into the atmosphere and causing an uptick in already rising global temperatures. Environment Brazil Climate Change More Agriculture Read next
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Here's why they've gotten so bad this summer. By [Aylin Woodward](https://www.businessinsider.com/author/aylin-woodward) and [Morgan McFall-Johnsen](https://www.businessinsider.com/author/morgan-mcfall-johnsen) ![amazon rainforest fires farmer](https://i.insider.com/5d5f196bf4fc2452c56b9e78?width=700) A man works in a burning tract of Amazon jungle as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Iranduba, Amazonas state, Brazil, August 20, 2019. [Bruno Kelly/Reuters](https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2019%3Anewsml_RC1AF7C54AA0&share=true) Aug 23, 2019, 1:40 PM GMT Share Copy link [Email](<mailto:?subject=The fires in the Amazon are the result of seasonal burning that farmers do every year. Here's why they've gotten so bad this summer.&body=The%20fires%20in%20the%20Amazon%20are%20the%20result%20of%20seasonal%20burning%20that%20farmers%20do%20every%20year.%20Here's%20why%20they've%20gotten%20so%20bad%20this%20summer.%0D%0A%0D%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2Ffires-in-the-amazon-rainforest-were-started-by-humans-2019-8&> "Email") Facebook WhatsApp X LinkedIn Bluesky Threads An icon in the shape of a lightning bolt. Impact Link Save Saved [Read in app](https://insider-app.onelink.me/4cpG/?af_js_web=true&af_ss_ver=2_3_0&af_dp=insider%3A%2F%2Fbi%2Fpost%2Ffires-in-the-amazon-rainforest-were-started-by-humans-2019-8&af_force_deeplink=true&is_retargeting=true&deep_link_value=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2Ffires-in-the-amazon-rainforest-were-started-by-humans-2019-8&pid=businessinsider&c=post_page_share_bar_v2_smart_4.13.23 "Download the app") - The [Amazon rainforest is burning at a record rate](https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-rainforest-fires-breaking-records-2019-8). Brazil has seen more than 74,000 fires this year ⁠— nearly double 2018's total of about 40,000 fires. About 10,000 new fires started in the last week alone. - [Scientists](https://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-president-bolsonaro-destroy-the-amazon-2018-10) and environmentalists say the reason the Amazon is on fire is because farmers are deliberately starting blazes in their efforts to clear land for crops or livestock. One researcher estimated that humans start 99% of all [Amazon rainforest fires](https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-fires-may-help-dieback-emit-carbon-hurry-climate-change-2019-8). - Such [fires](https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-fires-eclipse-sun-above-sao-paulo-brazil-2019-8) are a major cause of [deforestation](https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-rainforest-experiencing-record-breaking-deforestation-2019-7) in the Amazon. If too much of the rainforest disappears, it could pass a tipping point after which it may become a savannah. - [Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories](https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet). Earth's "lungs" are [burning more than ever before](https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-help-amazon-rainforest-what-charities-to-donate-to-2019). This isn't a natural disaster, it's something humans are likely responsible for. The Amazon rainforest in Brazil has seen more fires in 2019 than in any year since researchers began keeping track in 2013 — and there are still four months to go. About 10,000 new fires have started in the last week alone. Environmentalists and researchers say humans are probably behind the surge. About 99% of Amazon fires start from human actions, "either on purpose or by accident," Alberto Setzer, a senior scientist at Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE), [told CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/22/americas/amazon-fires-humans-intl-hnk-trnd/index.html). Setzer said people often set the forest ablaze to clear land for agriculture. Those fires can then get out of control. ![amazon rainforest fire farmers](https://i.insider.com/5d5f04e021214c547d78f0c0?width=500&format=jpeg&auto=webp) A tract of Amazon jungle burns as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Novo Airao, Amazonas state, Brazil August 21, 2019. [Bruno Kelly/Reuters](https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2019%3Anewsml_RC117D887A10&share=true) As the world's largest rainforest, the Amazon plays a crucial role in keeping our planet's carbon-dioxide levels in check. Plants and trees take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen back into the air in the process of photosynthesis. This is why the Amazon, which covers 2.1 million square miles, [is often referred to as the "lungs of the planet."](http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130226-amazon-lungs-of-the-planet) But when trees burn, they release carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere, where it contributes to climate change. "The Amazon is incredibly important for our future, for our ability to stave off the worst of climate change," Christian Poirier, the program director of non-profit organization Amazon Watch, told CNN. "This isn't hyperbole. We're looking at untold destruction — not just of the Amazon but for our entire planet." ## Humans are driving record-breaking fires ![August 17 Amazon fires](https://i.insider.com/5d5f04dd21214c547d78f0ab?width=500&format=jpeg&auto=webp) Smoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas State, Brazil on August 17, 2019. Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters This year so far, scientists have recorded more than [74,000 fires](http://queimadas.dgi.inpe.br/queimadas/portal/situacao-atual) in Brazil. That's nearly double 2018's total of about 40,000 fires. More than 9,500 of them have started since August 15, primarily in the Amazon basin. This represents an 83% increase in wildfires over the same period of 2018, INPE reported. Satellites that detect heat signatures issued over 136,000 fire alerts in Brazil this year, with [more than 109,000](https://fires.globalforestwatch.org/report/index.html#aoitype=GLOBAL&reporttype=globalcountryreport&country=Brazil&dates=fYear-2019!fMonth-8!fDay-13!tYear-2019!tMonth-8!tDay-20) of them between August 13 and 20. Big wildfires like this are not a natural part of the Amazon rainforest ecosystem. "The important thing to know about the Amazon is that few fires occur there naturally," Mikaela Weisse, who tracks deforestation and fires for the World Resources Institute, [told Vice](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wjw5bb/the-amazon-wildfires-arent-natural-blame-humans). "Pretty much everything is started by humans." On Tuesday, when [Reuters reporters asked](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-environment-wildfires/amazon-burning-brazil-reports-record-forest-fires-idUSKCN1VA1UK) Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro about the fires in Brazil, he pointed to the fact that it's a time of year when farmers purposefully use fire to clear land — a seasonal cycle called "queimada." "I used to be called Captain Chainsaw. Now I am Nero, setting the Amazon aflame," Bolsonaro said. "But it is the season of the queimada." ![Brazil Jair Bolsonaro](https://i.insider.com/5d5f196cf4fc2452c56b9e7a?width=500&format=jpeg&auto=webp) Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at the Brazilian Steel Conference in Brasilia, August 21, 2019. REUTERS/Adriano Machado As CNN meteorologist Haley Brink explained in the network's report, "\[Farmers\] wait for the dry season and they start burning and clearing the areas so that their cattle can graze. That's what we're suspecting is going on down there." Last week, in fact, farmers organized a "fire day" to burn down forest for new pasture, according to [Brazilian news outlet Brasil de Fato](https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2019/08/15/estimulados-por-bolsonaro-fazendeiros-promovem-dia-do-fogo-na-amazonia/). "Because the use of fire is a traditional part of tropical agriculture to clean agricultural land, grazing land, it is very difficult to stop it," Lincoln Muniz Alves, a researcher at INPE, told CNN. ## Dry, hot weather helps the flames spread ![amazon rainforest fire](https://i.insider.com/5d5f196cf4fc2452c56b9e7b?width=500&format=jpeg&auto=webp) A tract of Amazon jungle burns as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Novo Airao, Amazonas state, Brazil, August 21, 2019. [Bruno Kelly/Reuters](https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2019%3Anewsml_RC16FB0DFD00&share=true) But even during the dry season, which lasts from July to November, tropical rainforests are some of the Earth's wettest ecosystems. That's why researchers and environmentalists think this month's fires were started by humans, rather than natural causes like lightning strikes. "The vast majority of these fires are human-lit," Poirier said. In addition to farmers, illegal loggers and miners sometimes light fires as well, in order to destroy evidence of their activities or drive away indigenous people, [Vox reported](https://www.vox.com/2019/8/22/20828219/amazon-rainforest-wildfire-photos-fire-greenland). [At least 400 indigenous tribes](https://www.survivalinternational.org/about/amazontribes) live in the rainforest, and their cultures and livelihoods are intimately linked with the state of the Amazon. The Amazon's humidity usually stifles these fires before they get too big, but this year was particularly hot and dry worldwide. ![August 14 Amazon fires](https://i.insider.com/5d5f196cf4fc2452c56b9e7c?width=500&format=jpeg&auto=webp) Smoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas State, Brazil on August 14, 2019. Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters In that sense, climate change and uncontrolled rainforest blazes are interconnected, since hot, dry weather and decreased rainfall — both tied to climate change — make the Amazon more vulnerable to fires. That means there could be more to come, since the Amazon's dry season doesn't peak until September. "Humans are driving these fires, either in a very direct sense or a global sense by changing the ecosystem so much," Ruth DeFries, an ecology professor at Columbia University, [told Vice](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wjw5bb/the-amazon-wildfires-arent-natural-blame-humans). Fires themselves also make the forest prone to even more blazes, since they suck moisture out of the air. ## Deforestation could drive the Amazon to a tipping point In the Amazon, these queimada fires drive deforestation . The month of July set a new record for the most deforestation ever in the Amazon in a single month, [The Guardian reported](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/25/amazonian-rainforest-near-unrecoverable-tipping-point). The Amazon shrunk by 519 square miles (1,345 square kilometers) — more than twice the area of Tokyo. Data [from Brazilian satellites](http://terrabrasilis.dpi.inpe.br/app/dashboard/alerts/legal/amazon/aggregated/) indicated that about three football fields' worth of Amazonian trees fell every minute last month. The total deforested area in July was [up 39%](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/28/world/americas/brazil-deforestation-amazon-bolsonaro.html) from the same month last year. ![brazil amazon fire deforestation](<data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'%3F%3E%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' width='1' height='1'/%3E>) This November 17, 2014 photo shows the four stages of land management on a big cattle farm in the Brazilian Amazon: cleared land that was recently burned, a grassy pasture waiting for cattle, burning forest, and native forest that will eventually meet the same fate. Ricardo Funari/Getty Scientists fear that the deforestation and fires could kill so many trees that they trigger an irreversible process that could turn the Amazon into an African savannah-type landscape. If that happens, the tropical trees — and the fauna they support — would disappear, releasing [up to 140 billion tons](https://www.rainforesttrust.org/climate-change-series-part-1-rainforests-absorb-store-large-quantities-carbon-dioxide/) of stored carbon into the atmosphere and causing an uptick in already rising global temperatures. ### Recommended video - [Environment](https://www.businessinsider.com/category/environment "Environment") - [Brazil](https://www.businessinsider.com/category/brazil "Brazil") - [Climate Change](https://www.businessinsider.com/category/climate-change "Climate Change") - More - [Agriculture](https://www.businessinsider.com/category/agriculture "Agriculture") ## Read next ![](<data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 1 1'%3E%3C/svg%3E>) ![](https://www.businessinsider.com/public/assets/logos/placeholder.png) ### Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know ![](<data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 1 1'%3E%3C/svg%3E>) ![](https://www.businessinsider.com/public/assets/logos/placeholder.png) ### Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know ![](<data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 1 1'%3E%3C/svg%3E>) ![](https://www.businessinsider.com/public/assets/logos/placeholder.png) ### Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know ![](<data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 1 1'%3E%3C/svg%3E>) ![](https://www.businessinsider.com/public/assets/logos/placeholder.png) ### Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know [HOME](https://www.businessinsider.com/) [Subscribe](https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription "Subscribe") [![Business Insider](<data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 1 1'%3E%3C/svg%3E>) ![](https://www.businessinsider.com/public/assets/logos/stacked-black.svg)](https://www.businessinsider.com/ "Visit Business Insider") [![Download on the App Store](<data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 1 1'%3E%3C/svg%3E>) ![](https://www.businessinsider.com/public/assets/badges/app-store-badge.svg)](https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id554260576?mt=8) [![Get it on Google Play](<data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 1 1'%3E%3C/svg%3E>) ![](https://www.businessinsider.com/public/assets/badges/google-play-badge.svg)](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.freerange360.mpp.businessinsider) Legal & Privacy - [Terms of Service](https://www.businessinsider.com/terms) - [Terms of Sale](https://www.businessinsider.com/terms-of-sale) - [Privacy Policy](https://www.businessinsider.com/privacy-policy) - [Accessibility](https://www.businessinsider.com/accessibility) - [Code of Ethics Policy](https://www.businessinsider.com/code-of-ethics) - [Reprints & Permissions](https://www.parsintl.com/publication/business-insider/) - [Disclaimer](https://www.businessinsider.com/disclaimer) - [Advertising Policies](https://www.businessinsider.com/advertising-policies) - [Conflict of Interest Policy](https://www.businessinsider.com/conflict-of-interest-policy) - [Commerce Policy](https://www.businessinsider.com/commerce-policy) - [Coupons Privacy Policy](https://www.businessinsider.com/coupons-privacy-policy) - [Coupons Terms](https://www.businessinsider.com/coupons-terms) - [Cookie Settings](https://www.businessinsider.com/fires-in-the-amazon-rainforest-were-started-by-humans-2019-8) Company - [About Us](https://www.businessinsider.com/about-us) - [Careers](https://www.businessinsider.com/work-at-business-insider) - [Advertise With Us](https://advertising.businessinsider.com/) - [Contact Us](https://www.businessinsider.com/contact) - [News Tips](https://www.businessinsider.com/secure-news-tips) - [Company News](https://www.businessinsider.com/category/business-insider-press-room) - [Awards](https://www.businessinsider.com/awards) - [Masthead](https://www.businessinsider.com/masthead) Other - [Sitemap](https://www.businessinsider.com/sitemap/html/index.html) - [Stock quotes by finanzen.net](https://www.finanzen.net/) - [Corrections](https://www.businessinsider.com/category/corrections) - [Community Guidelines](https://www.businessinsider.com/community-guidelines) - [AI Use](https://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-business-insider-newsroom-uses-ai) International Editions - [AT](https://www.businessinsider.de/?IR=C) - [DE](https://www.businessinsider.de/?IR=C) - [ES](https://businessinsider.es/) - [JP](https://www.businessinsider.jp/) - [PL](https://www.businessinsider.com.pl/?IR=C) - [TW](https://www.businessinsider.tw/) [Copyright © 2026](https://www.businessinsider.com/terms) Insider Inc. 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Readable Markdown	![amazon rainforest fires farmer](https://i.insider.com/5d5f196bf4fc2452c56b9e78?width=700) A man works in a burning tract of Amazon jungle as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Iranduba, Amazonas state, Brazil, August 20, 2019. [Bruno Kelly/Reuters](https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2019%3Anewsml_RC1AF7C54AA0&share=true) Aug 23, 2019, 1:40 PM GMT - The [Amazon rainforest is burning at a record rate](https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-rainforest-fires-breaking-records-2019-8). Brazil has seen more than 74,000 fires this year ⁠— nearly double 2018's total of about 40,000 fires. About 10,000 new fires started in the last week alone. - [Scientists](https://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-president-bolsonaro-destroy-the-amazon-2018-10) and environmentalists say the reason the Amazon is on fire is because farmers are deliberately starting blazes in their efforts to clear land for crops or livestock. One researcher estimated that humans start 99% of all [Amazon rainforest fires](https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-fires-may-help-dieback-emit-carbon-hurry-climate-change-2019-8). - Such [fires](https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-fires-eclipse-sun-above-sao-paulo-brazil-2019-8) are a major cause of [deforestation](https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-rainforest-experiencing-record-breaking-deforestation-2019-7) in the Amazon. If too much of the rainforest disappears, it could pass a tipping point after which it may become a savannah. - [Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories](https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet). Earth's "lungs" are [burning more than ever before](https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-help-amazon-rainforest-what-charities-to-donate-to-2019). This isn't a natural disaster, it's something humans are likely responsible for. The Amazon rainforest in Brazil has seen more fires in 2019 than in any year since researchers began keeping track in 2013 — and there are still four months to go. About 10,000 new fires have started in the last week alone. Environmentalists and researchers say humans are probably behind the surge. About 99% of Amazon fires start from human actions, "either on purpose or by accident," Alberto Setzer, a senior scientist at Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE), [told CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/22/americas/amazon-fires-humans-intl-hnk-trnd/index.html). Setzer said people often set the forest ablaze to clear land for agriculture. Those fires can then get out of control. ![amazon rainforest fire farmers](https://i.insider.com/5d5f04e021214c547d78f0c0?width=500&format=jpeg&auto=webp) A tract of Amazon jungle burns as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Novo Airao, Amazonas state, Brazil August 21, 2019. [Bruno Kelly/Reuters](https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2019%3Anewsml_RC117D887A10&share=true) As the world's largest rainforest, the Amazon plays a crucial role in keeping our planet's carbon-dioxide levels in check. Plants and trees take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen back into the air in the process of photosynthesis. This is why the Amazon, which covers 2.1 million square miles, [is often referred to as the "lungs of the planet."](http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130226-amazon-lungs-of-the-planet) But when trees burn, they release carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere, where it contributes to climate change. "The Amazon is incredibly important for our future, for our ability to stave off the worst of climate change," Christian Poirier, the program director of non-profit organization Amazon Watch, told CNN. "This isn't hyperbole. We're looking at untold destruction — not just of the Amazon but for our entire planet." ## Humans are driving record-breaking fires ![August 17 Amazon fires](https://i.insider.com/5d5f04dd21214c547d78f0ab?width=500&format=jpeg&auto=webp) Smoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas State, Brazil on August 17, 2019. Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters This year so far, scientists have recorded more than [74,000 fires](http://queimadas.dgi.inpe.br/queimadas/portal/situacao-atual) in Brazil. That's nearly double 2018's total of about 40,000 fires. More than 9,500 of them have started since August 15, primarily in the Amazon basin. This represents an 83% increase in wildfires over the same period of 2018, INPE reported. Satellites that detect heat signatures issued over 136,000 fire alerts in Brazil this year, with [more than 109,000](https://fires.globalforestwatch.org/report/index.html#aoitype=GLOBAL&reporttype=globalcountryreport&country=Brazil&dates=fYear-2019!fMonth-8!fDay-13!tYear-2019!tMonth-8!tDay-20) of them between August 13 and 20. Big wildfires like this are not a natural part of the Amazon rainforest ecosystem. "The important thing to know about the Amazon is that few fires occur there naturally," Mikaela Weisse, who tracks deforestation and fires for the World Resources Institute, [told Vice](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wjw5bb/the-amazon-wildfires-arent-natural-blame-humans). "Pretty much everything is started by humans." On Tuesday, when [Reuters reporters asked](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-environment-wildfires/amazon-burning-brazil-reports-record-forest-fires-idUSKCN1VA1UK) Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro about the fires in Brazil, he pointed to the fact that it's a time of year when farmers purposefully use fire to clear land — a seasonal cycle called "queimada." "I used to be called Captain Chainsaw. Now I am Nero, setting the Amazon aflame," Bolsonaro said. "But it is the season of the queimada." ![Brazil Jair Bolsonaro](https://i.insider.com/5d5f196cf4fc2452c56b9e7a?width=500&format=jpeg&auto=webp) Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at the Brazilian Steel Conference in Brasilia, August 21, 2019. REUTERS/Adriano Machado As CNN meteorologist Haley Brink explained in the network's report, "\[Farmers\] wait for the dry season and they start burning and clearing the areas so that their cattle can graze. That's what we're suspecting is going on down there." Last week, in fact, farmers organized a "fire day" to burn down forest for new pasture, according to [Brazilian news outlet Brasil de Fato](https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2019/08/15/estimulados-por-bolsonaro-fazendeiros-promovem-dia-do-fogo-na-amazonia/). "Because the use of fire is a traditional part of tropical agriculture to clean agricultural land, grazing land, it is very difficult to stop it," Lincoln Muniz Alves, a researcher at INPE, told CNN. ## Dry, hot weather helps the flames spread ![amazon rainforest fire](https://i.insider.com/5d5f196cf4fc2452c56b9e7b?width=500&format=jpeg&auto=webp) A tract of Amazon jungle burns as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Novo Airao, Amazonas state, Brazil, August 21, 2019. [Bruno Kelly/Reuters](https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2019%3Anewsml_RC16FB0DFD00&share=true) But even during the dry season, which lasts from July to November, tropical rainforests are some of the Earth's wettest ecosystems. That's why researchers and environmentalists think this month's fires were started by humans, rather than natural causes like lightning strikes. "The vast majority of these fires are human-lit," Poirier said. In addition to farmers, illegal loggers and miners sometimes light fires as well, in order to destroy evidence of their activities or drive away indigenous people, [Vox reported](https://www.vox.com/2019/8/22/20828219/amazon-rainforest-wildfire-photos-fire-greenland). [At least 400 indigenous tribes](https://www.survivalinternational.org/about/amazontribes) live in the rainforest, and their cultures and livelihoods are intimately linked with the state of the Amazon. The Amazon's humidity usually stifles these fires before they get too big, but this year was particularly hot and dry worldwide. ![August 14 Amazon fires](https://i.insider.com/5d5f196cf4fc2452c56b9e7c?width=500&format=jpeg&auto=webp) Smoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas State, Brazil on August 14, 2019. Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters In that sense, climate change and uncontrolled rainforest blazes are interconnected, since hot, dry weather and decreased rainfall — both tied to climate change — make the Amazon more vulnerable to fires. That means there could be more to come, since the Amazon's dry season doesn't peak until September. "Humans are driving these fires, either in a very direct sense or a global sense by changing the ecosystem so much," Ruth DeFries, an ecology professor at Columbia University, [told Vice](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wjw5bb/the-amazon-wildfires-arent-natural-blame-humans). Fires themselves also make the forest prone to even more blazes, since they suck moisture out of the air. ## Deforestation could drive the Amazon to a tipping point In the Amazon, these queimada fires drive deforestation . The month of July set a new record for the most deforestation ever in the Amazon in a single month, [The Guardian reported](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/25/amazonian-rainforest-near-unrecoverable-tipping-point). The Amazon shrunk by 519 square miles (1,345 square kilometers) — more than twice the area of Tokyo. Data [from Brazilian satellites](http://terrabrasilis.dpi.inpe.br/app/dashboard/alerts/legal/amazon/aggregated/) indicated that about three football fields' worth of Amazonian trees fell every minute last month. The total deforested area in July was [up 39%](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/28/world/americas/brazil-deforestation-amazon-bolsonaro.html) from the same month last year. ![brazil amazon fire deforestation](<data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'%3F%3E%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' width='1' height='1'/%3E>) This November 17, 2014 photo shows the four stages of land management on a big cattle farm in the Brazilian Amazon: cleared land that was recently burned, a grassy pasture waiting for cattle, burning forest, and native forest that will eventually meet the same fate. Ricardo Funari/Getty Scientists fear that the deforestation and fires could kill so many trees that they trigger an irreversible process that could turn the Amazon into an African savannah-type landscape. If that happens, the tropical trees — and the fauna they support — would disappear, releasing [up to 140 billion tons](https://www.rainforesttrust.org/climate-change-series-part-1-rainforests-absorb-store-large-quantities-carbon-dioxide/) of stored carbon into the atmosphere and causing an uptick in already rising global temperatures. - [Environment](https://www.businessinsider.com/category/environment "Environment") - [Brazil](https://www.businessinsider.com/category/brazil "Brazil") - [Climate Change](https://www.businessinsider.com/category/climate-change "Climate Change") - More - [Agriculture](https://www.businessinsider.com/category/agriculture "Agriculture") Read next
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