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Fire Devours South America and Drives Greenhouse Gas Emissions to Record Levels

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• Brazil and Bolivia have released 210 megatons of carbon dioxide in 2024 due to a devastating regional wave of fires worsened by a historic drought.

Geographer Ane Alencar has started hearing cicadas from her office in Brasília. Finally, some good news. Because their piercing sound heralds the arrival of rain. And that’s crucial because only rain can extinguish the fires consuming much of South America, emphasizes Alencar, scientific director of the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM).

The fires are causing massive devastation in Ecuador, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela, and Argentina as the southern hemisphere enters spring. Damage on land and in the atmosphere. The burning of vegetation has skyrocketed greenhouse gas emissions, as warned this week by the European Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service. Their satellite images show an L-shaped gas plume suffocating the region. In countless South American cities, simply opening a window reveals dense smoke obscuring the horizon.

The environmental situation is especially severe in Bolivia, the Brazilian Amazon, and another ecosystem called the Pantanal, which are emitting record levels of gases in 20 years. So far this year, Brazil has released over 180 megatons of carbon dioxide, and Bolivia, 30, according to Copernicus.

Experts and authorities point to arsonists, intentional fires, because as the fire wave spread, countries banned its use for forest and agricultural management. Thus, they are the work of irresponsible and inept farmers or criminals who use fire to pave the way for deforestation. This season, the usual impunity has been joined by the worst drought in decades as an ally. The bone-dry vegetation is now like a powder keg—the slightest spark ignites everything violently. South America has recorded 400,000 fire hotspots so far this year, nearly double the same period in 2023, according to the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE).

Alencar, who also heads MapBiomas Fogo, another organization, warns of an added problem. Beyond the emissions from current fires, there are future emissions that will persist even after the flames are extinguished. She explains that when native forest burns, when flames affect standing trees with thin bark, they emit more carbon dioxide over the next 10 years than they capture and store. Fire degrades vegetation, weakens the canopy, exposes it to more radiation, and increases the risk of recurrent fires. All this diminishes its capacity to mitigate climate change, which is battering the planet with increasingly frequent, violent, and devastating extreme events.

Ecuador, 14-Hour Power Outages
Ecuador has been burning for three months, with a 160% increase in fire hotspots. Meanwhile, drought impacts worsen with power cuts of up to 14 hours and drinking water restrictions. So far this year, fires have devoured 38,542 hectares of forest, and authorities have declared a red alert across nearly the entire country. The southern province of Loja is the hardest hit. Much of its protected forests has been destroyed by flames—an annual phenomenon but one growing increasingly intense.

The latest major wildfire, just this week, struck Quito’s green belt. With four outbreaks hitting the capital in different areas, it consumed 146 hectares in the city’s worst fire in 30 years. Over 200 firefighters worked for three days to extinguish the flames, fueled by daytime heat and winds. The 300 fires in the capital have destroyed 2,000 hectares of forest, wildlife, and homes. Quito’s mayor, Pabel Muñoz, has labeled them criminal and terrorist acts. So far, only one suspected arsonist has been arrested.

The government’s delayed response has reached a critical point amid an energy crisis caused by severe drought. The drastic drop in rivers feeding hydroelectric plants has led to power cuts of up to 14 hours daily and forced water rationing in some highland towns.

Recent government measures to combat fires highlight poor preparedness, coming after this year’s 3,364 fires, which have caused devastating losses, especially in rural and agricultural sectors. The environment minister stated she will seek international cooperation to train personnel in prevention; an interagency agreement was signed with the Interior Ministry to prevent and prosecute environmental crimes, focusing on organized crime. The Attorney General’s Office has announced investigations to identify those responsible.

A testament to nature’s fury: three months ago, this continental country faced brutal floods that submerged an entire state, Rio Grande do Sul, and now suffers a severe fire wave exposing authorities’ lack of preparedness. Brazil (with 206,000 hotspots, a 93% increase) has been burning since June, when the Pantanal, the world’s largest wetland, signaled what was coming as the dry season starts earlier each year. Within days, thousands of fire hotspots emerged. IPAM’s scientific director stresses that firefighting should be the exception—absolute priority must be prevention. “Of course, more firefighters are needed, but they’ll never be enough,” she notes.

The Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, is suffering a worse wave than the one that outraged the world in 2019. In this region, where rivers are the highways, the worst drought in 70 years affects an area the size of Italy, causing severe supply and transport issues. Meanwhile, smoke covers 80% of Brazil, air quality is terrible, and one in ten municipalities has declared a state of emergency due to fires causing economic losses of 1.3 billion reais (215 million euros).

Experts note many fires are criminal in origin. Alongside those burning rainforest for pasture or crops, some seek revenge on environmental inspectors, while others, ahead of October’s municipal elections, destroy the Amazon as a preview of their governance agenda.

Bolivia, More International Aid Needed
Three million hectares have burned in Bolivia (74,000 hotspots, a 373% increase) since the start of the fire season. The worst fires are concentrated in the east, in Chiquitania, bordering Brazil. Firefighters are pleading for more international aid as resources fall short despite aircraft loaned by Canada and the EU for water drops and specialists sent by Spain, France, Brazil, and Venezuela. There’s also no effective Bolivian coordination to halt the flames.

Persistent fires reveal farmers continue igniting them despite a government ban on controlled burns. Farmers blame soy industrialists and ranchers, and vice versa. Satellite images show fires on ranchlands, agribusiness plots, and public land. State-owned land is burned to clear it for deforestation and ease allocation to new settlers.

Smoke from Chiquitania, east of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, has choked and polluted the metropolis for months. This region, home to a prized dry forest that burns easily, has been an agricultural expansion zone for years. Hundreds of families have been displaced by fire. Thousands have fallen ill from smoke. San Rafael’s mayor, Jorge Vargas Roca, broke down in tears this week during a local ceremony, devastated by the deaths of jaguars, armadillos, and other animals trapped in the flames.

This crisis also fuels tensions between Santa Cruz and Bolivia’s leftist governments, which have facilitated the migration of indigenous people from the west to the fertile east as part of policies to expand farmland.

Peru, 21 Dead
Compared to neighboring countries, fires have burned little land in Peru—around 5,000 hectares—but claimed 21 lives and 400 animals. When nearly the entire country faced wildfires in mid-September, destroying crops and forests, Prime Minister Gustavo Adrianzén insisted the situation was normal: “No critical reasons to declare an emergency (...) These are natural fires, part of a seasonal process recurring yearly.” The government eventually declared a 60-day emergency in the worst-hit regions: Ucayali, San Martín, and Amazonas.

But Adrianzén’s statement two weeks ago reflects a state that reacted too late to a crisis that also injured 165 people and affected 4,700 animals, including endemic and threatened species like the yellow-tailed woolly monkey and spectacled bear. Of 361 wildfires this season, 291 have been extinguished, 24 contained, and 46 remain active, per the National Civil Defense Institute. The worst-hit areas are the jungle and highlands, though uncontrollable fires recently erupted east of Lima.

President Dina Boluarte blamed the disaster on rural communities and called for a prosecutor’s investigation. “It’s unfair for people to intentionally burn hectares to later easily bring in farming machinery,” she said. Critics also highlight 2023 amendments to the Forestry Law—passed silently by Congress—exempting large companies from proving deforested land is agricultural, not forested, potentially legalizing existing or new deforestation. Environmental groups and indigenous federations demand their repeal.

Venezuela, Relief Thanks to ‘La Niña’
Venezuela’s fire crisis peaked in April, though ongoing blazes reveal poor infrastructure for fire season. Then, rains from La Niña cooled the alarming scenario—a peak detected by NASA, which recorded over 20,000 fire hotspots between January and March, the highest since records began in 1999.

Venezuelan ecologists like Erick Quiroga noted these were the highest numbers in 155 years, since the “great smoke” of 1869, a well-documented drought. Earlier this year, extinguishing flames in Henri Pittier National Park required mobilizing 400 firefighters and helicopters. In Uverito, eastern Venezuela, authorities evacuated 315 families due to fire threats.

Weeks ago, only rain could douse a fire in Mocotíes Valley, Venezuelan Andes, which firefighters failed to control for two days with scarce resources. It burned over 60 hectares of forest, crops, killed animals, destroyed irrigation and water systems, and forced families to flee their homes. The scene repeats yearly.

Argentina, Rapid Escalation in Córdoba
Fires are intensifying in Argentina. In the past week, flames have consumed over 47,000 hectares, with several active hotspots still being fought, per the National Space Activities Commission. The year’s total nears 70,000. The hardest-hit province is Córdoba, in the country’s center, where fires ravaged the tourist-heavy Punilla hills and dozens of homes.

Environmentally, the biggest loss is in Chacani Provincial Park, one of the last well-preserved areas of the great Chaco forest in Córdoba. Its 5,000 hectares of plains and mountain ecosystems are partially burned.

Provincial authorities report nearly all fires were intentional, with 11 arrests. Locals allege real estate interests behind these incidents, aiming to change land use for urban development—a shift banned by law since 2010.

President Javier Milei surveyed fire-affected areas by helicopter this Wednesday but avoided meeting waiting firefighters and residents. He also didn’t declare an emergency to allocate extraordinary firefighting funds. The Environment Undersecretariat and national parks saw nearly 40% budget cuts in the first half of 2024, per the Environment and Natural Resources Foundation (FARN).

Source:El País