Amazon Forest Fires

South America is being ravaged by fire from Brazil's Amazon rainforest through the world's largest wetlands to dry forests in Bolivia, breaking a previous record for the number of blazes seen in a year up to September 11.

Residents of Porto Velho in the Brazilian Amazon have barely seen sunlight in days as a thick cloud of smoke from forest fires envelops their city.

Destruction across the Amazon rainforest so far this year has slowed dramatically, down 55.8% from the same period a year ago in a major turnaround for the region vital to curbing climate change, according to an analysis provided to Reuters.

Forest fires that have raged for days in Colombia's Amazon on Saturday put its Andean capital, Bogota, on an environmental alert as bad air quality spanned an area the size of greater Paris, authorities said.

Deforestation in the Amazon destroyed an area bigger than Spain from 2000 to 2018, wiping out eight percent of the world's largest rainforest, according to a study released Tuesday.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has said it is a "lie" that fires are ravaging the Amazon rainforest, despite data from his own government showing the number of blazes is rising.

The number of fires in the Amazon rainforest grew 30.5% in 2019 from the previous year, according to data released by space research agency INPE on Wednesday.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro claimed on Friday that Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio financed fires being set in the Amazon rainforest, without presenting any evidence, the right-wing leader's latest broadside in casting blame over forest fires that have generated international concern.

Pope Francis opened a synod Sunday to champion the Amazon's poverty-stricken and isolated indigenous communities by condemning the destructive "interests" he blamed for the fires that devastated the region.

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro said Tuesday it was a lie that the Amazon was being devastated by fire and accused countries critical of him of having a "colonialist spirit."

The number of blazes in Indonesia's rainforests has jumped sharply, satellite data showed Thursday, spreading smog across Southeast Asia and adding to concerns about the impact of increasing wildfire outbreaks worldwide on global warming.

Presidents and ministers from seven Amazon countries met in Colombia on Friday to agree on measures to protect the world's biggest rainforest, under threat from wildfires and rampant deforestation.

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro will skip a regional summit on fires that have devastated swaths of the Amazon because doctors want him to get ready for surgery scheduled for next week, a spokesman said Monday.

The number of fires in Brazil's Amazon basin is still on the rise, even though the government has banned burning, officials said on Saturday.

Raging wildfires have drawn the world's attention to the Amazon but immolation is just one of the dangers facing the world's largest rain forest, environmental experts across the region say.

South America is being ravaged by fire from Brazil's Amazon rainforest through the world's largest wetlands to dry forests in Bolivia, breaking a previous record for the number of blazes seen in a year up to September 11.

Residents of Porto Velho in the Brazilian Amazon have barely seen sunlight in days as a thick cloud of smoke from forest fires envelops their city.

Destruction across the Amazon rainforest so far this year has slowed dramatically, down 55.8% from the same period a year ago in a major turnaround for the region vital to curbing climate change, according to an analysis provided to Reuters.

Forest fires that have raged for days in Colombia's Amazon on Saturday put its Andean capital, Bogota, on an environmental alert as bad air quality spanned an area the size of greater Paris, authorities said.

Deforestation in the Amazon destroyed an area bigger than Spain from 2000 to 2018, wiping out eight percent of the world's largest rainforest, according to a study released Tuesday.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has said it is a "lie" that fires are ravaging the Amazon rainforest, despite data from his own government showing the number of blazes is rising.

The number of fires in the Amazon rainforest grew 30.5% in 2019 from the previous year, according to data released by space research agency INPE on Wednesday.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro claimed on Friday that Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio financed fires being set in the Amazon rainforest, without presenting any evidence, the right-wing leader's latest broadside in casting blame over forest fires that have generated international concern.

Pope Francis opened a synod Sunday to champion the Amazon's poverty-stricken and isolated indigenous communities by condemning the destructive "interests" he blamed for the fires that devastated the region.

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro said Tuesday it was a lie that the Amazon was being devastated by fire and accused countries critical of him of having a "colonialist spirit."

The number of blazes in Indonesia's rainforests has jumped sharply, satellite data showed Thursday, spreading smog across Southeast Asia and adding to concerns about the impact of increasing wildfire outbreaks worldwide on global warming.

Presidents and ministers from seven Amazon countries met in Colombia on Friday to agree on measures to protect the world's biggest rainforest, under threat from wildfires and rampant deforestation.

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro will skip a regional summit on fires that have devastated swaths of the Amazon because doctors want him to get ready for surgery scheduled for next week, a spokesman said Monday.

The number of fires in Brazil's Amazon basin is still on the rise, even though the government has banned burning, officials said on Saturday.

Raging wildfires have drawn the world's attention to the Amazon but immolation is just one of the dangers facing the world's largest rain forest, environmental experts across the region say.