September 13, 2019.  The Amazon forest fire that was first reported on August 4 is still burning today. The Amazon rainforest has been burning for a month. Neighboring cities have been affected because of the massive amounts of smoke that have flooded the skies of São Paulo and left people in darkness. 

Fires are not uncommon in this region of South America. There have been fires in the Amazon before, but none as destructive as the one raging today. 

The fire has been spreading rapidly. On average it is burning a football field a minute. To put that into perspective, an American football field on average is 100 yards. The fire is now a news headliner but, just a few weeks ago, it was not a global issue. Mariana Gonzalez stated,” I heard about it in my APES class.” “ I have seen it on social media; It was reposted on Instagram and Twitter.” 

The President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has been accused by the international community of not acting efficiently to take control of the fire. As of today, 43,000 Brazilian troops have been sent to battle the fires in the Amazon.

The Amazon is one of the oldest rainforests in the world. It is has existed for over 55 million years and has been a home for different species of animals. It provides natural resources to the world, such as coffee, lumber, meat production, and milk production. The Amazon is responsible for a fifth of the earth’s supply of freshwater. It has also been called “The Carbon Sink”  because it soaks up Carbon Dioxide and keeps global temperatures from rising. The water system that is based in the Amazon is essential to the American continent. The Amazon is on the tipping point of destruction with droughts, deforestation, and now this intense fire. 

Mrs. Newman, a staff member of  Anaheim High, was asked: How important it was to stop this fire? She stated, “So vitally important for so many reasons, The Amazon Rainforest not only houses a ton of species of animals in the trees so now habitats are being destroyed by the fire, but also there are certain medicines from the Amazon forest that could better our health that have yet to be discovered, and those are being destroyed as well, so we need to stop this as soon as possible. And another reason is the trees provide so much of the percentage of oxygen that this earth relies on and without those we are going to be oxygen-deprived.”

CITES 

“Natural Resources and Crops.” Amazon Rainforest, 8loucksbr.weebly.com/natural-resources-and-crops.html.

“Water.” Brazil And The Amazon, blogs.nelson.wisc.edu/es112-309-3/water/. 

Scutti, Susan. “Here’s What We Know about the Fires in the Amazon Rainforest.” CNN, Cable News Network, 24 Aug. 2019, www.cnn.com/2019/08/23/americas/amazon-wildfires-411/index.html.