Outrage as fire rips through Brazil’s Amazon

There is an ongoing widespread public outrage on social media platforms over global response to the burning rainforest of Brazil’s Amazon.

Amazon which is the single largest tropical rainforest in the world, is being destroyed as wildfires devour the green forest so intensely that smoke from the blaze has covered nearby cities in a dark haze.

According to CNN, the country’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) recorded 72,843 fires this year, an 80 percent increase from 2018.

It is believed that more than 9,000 of those fires have been spotted in the past weeks with scientists warning that it could have negative impact to the fight against climate change.

Dubbed the planet’s lungs, the Amazon produces 20 per cent of the oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere. As the largest rainforest on the planet, it is considered a vital instrument in slowing global warming.

However, in the past three weeks, the rainforest has been burning at an unprecedented rate, as videos and images shared on social media platforms show giant plumes of smoke billowing from the forest leaving blackened waste in their wake.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had raised the alarm on August 11, that the flames were large enough that they could be spotted from space.

“This is without any question one of only two times that there have been fires like this in the Amazon,” said Thomas Lovejoy, an ecologist.

Twitter users have begun to call for global response using the hashtag #PrayForTheAmazon.

See tweets below: