Bolsonaro says Brazil lacks resources to fight Amazon fires

[Judi Lynn]

2. Humans are to blame for the burning Amazon, not wind and heat, environmental group says

BY CAITLIN O'KANE

AUGUST 22, 2019 / 2:01 PM / CBS NEWS

The Amazon rainforest is being ravaged by flames. Soot from thousands of wildfires has blackened skies across Brazil, and the smoke is even visible from space. Brazil's Environmental Minister Ricardo Salles has been using Twitter to give updates on the devastating fires, writing in one tweet that "dry weather, wind and heat" were to blame for their spread.

Environmentalists, however, say humans are the root cause of the fires devastating the Amazon.

Amazon Watch, a group that works to protect the rainforest and the indigenous people of the Amazon, says farmers have been setting forests ablaze to create pastures. Farmers and ranchers have been emboldened to do so by the government, said Amazon Watch program director Christian Poirier.

"The unprecedented fires ravaging the Amazon are an international tragedy and a dangerous contribution to climate chaos," Poirier said in a statement on the group's website. "This devastation is directly related to President Bolsonaro's anti-environmental rhetoric, which erroneously frames forest protections and human rights as impediments to Brazil's economic growth."

More:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/humans-are-to-blame-for-the-burning-amazon-not-wind-and-heat-environmentalist-group-says/