"Climate Terrorism"; Eight and a Half Million Hectares of the Amazon Destroyed in 2024

A regulatory body has reported that in 2024, parts of Brazil's forests and grasslands covering an area larger than Italy or 20% of Iran's total area were consumed by fire. Meanwhile, Brazilian officials are still struggling to combat fires that farmers and ranchers are illegally igniting to expand their pastures. The monitoring center "MapBiomas" announced on Wednesday, January 23, that nearly 31 million hectares of forests and grasslands burned last year, warning of a 79% increase in these incidents compared to 2023. Approximately 58% of this destruction is related to the Amazon rainforest, known as the "lungs of the Earth," which is vital for the planet's biodiversity. The rate and speed of destruction due to fires in the Amazon have been much higher than in other parts of Brazil. Last year, about eight and a half million hectares of this forest burned down, compared to 2.2 million hectares in 2023, indicating an almost fourfold increase in the destruction of this forest in just one year. An area the size of Switzerland of tropical forests around the world was lost in 2022. Meanwhile, satellite images from Brazil's Space Research Institute recorded over 140,000 fire incidents in the Brazilian Amazon in 2024. In comparison, less than 100,000 incidents were recorded in 2023. Furthermore, studies show that for the first time, the area of forest lost to fire has exceeded that of grasslands and pastures. The director of "MapBiomas" states that this is particularly concerning because burning forests prepares the conditions for future fires. These alarming statistics have been released while the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is set to host a climate conference known as "COP 30" in about 10 months in the city of "Belém" in the heart of the Amazon. Climate changes have made vegetation cover drier compared to the past, making it more vulnerable to fires. Human activities and drought have destroyed "more than one-third of the Amazon forests." However, the main cause of the fires in Brazil is farmers and ranchers who illegally expand their lands by deliberately burning forests and grasslands. During the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, the government did not impose strict measures against this type of "deforestation"; however, Lula da Silva has now declared the protection of natural resources, especially the Amazon, as a priority for his government. Nevertheless, the Brazilian president confirmed last October that the country is not fully prepared to combat the wave of forest fires, which he referred to as "climate terrorism." Meanwhile, researchers and climatologists warn that continued destruction of Amazonian forest lands will lead this natural human heritage to a point where it will emit more carbon than it absorbs, accelerating climate change.