Order, Progress, and Flames

In September, droughts, heatwaves, and wildfires have been representing Brazil more than football and samba.With flames consuming parts of the Amazon rainforest and areas of the Pantanal wetlands critical for biodiversity, a large blanket of smoke has spread across the Brazilian territory, painting cities in gray and forcing people to live with poor air quality.

São Paulo woke up on Monday with the worst air quality in the world, considering only large metropolises around the globe. It sadly persisted for three days in a row. 

Reports show that the area of ​​native forest burned in the Amazon increased by 132 percent in August 2024 compared to the same month in 2023. In many cases, fires are human-induced, which would require strong legislation and supervision to prevent them from happening. 

But the climate calamity is not just a Brazilian problem. In its South American neighbor Bolivia, wildfires have torched more than 3 million hectares in 2024, with 30 percent of these affected areas being woods, primary forests, and wetlands. 

Breathing contaminated air will sadly become the rule in Brazil in the coming months, as record-breaking temperatures will only make fires occur more frequently. 

For years, many Brazilians didn’t pay attention to environmentalists’ alerts about the long-anticipated “point of no return.” 

That point may well have been passed. 

Check out the creation of this cartoon here on The Brazilian Report’s TikTok account (@brazilianreport)

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