'Worst of wildfires still to come' despite Brazil claiming crisis is under control
Source: The Guardian
‘Worst of wildfires still to come’ despite Brazil claiming crisis is under control
Forestry expert warns annual burning season had yet to fully play out and calls for urgent steps to reduce potential damage
Tom Phillips Latin America correspondent
Wed 28 Aug 2019 21.26 BST First published on Wed 28 Aug 2019 16.25 BST
The fires raging in the Brazilian Amazon are likely to intensify over the coming weeks, a leading environmental expert has warned, despite government claims the situation had been controlled.
About 80,000 blazes have been detected in Brazil this year – more than half in the Amazon region – although on Saturday the far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, claimed the situation was “returning to normal”.
On Monday Brazil’s defense minister, Fernando Azevedo e Silva, told reporters: “The situation is not straightforward but it’s under control and already cooling down nicely.”
But in an article for Brazil’s O Globo newspaper on Wednesday, one prominent forestry expert warned that the country’s annual burning season had yet to fully play out and called for urgent steps to reduce the potential damage.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/28/brazil-amazon-wildfires-worst-to-come