wetlands

A continent ablaze: South America surpasses record for fires

South America is being ravaged by fire from Brazil's Amazon rainforest through the world's largest wetlands to dry forests in Bolivia, breaking a previous record for the number of blazes seen in a year up to Sept. 11. Satellite data analyzed by Brazil's space research agency Inpe has registered 346,112 fire hotspots so far this year in all 13 countries of South America, topping the earlier 2007 record of 345,322 hotspots in a data series that goes back to 1998. A Reuters photographer traveling...

August 9, 2024 12:39 PM

Climate change fueled record early fires in Brazil’s wetlands, study says

Climate change intensified by 40% the weather feeding devastating wildfires that have likely killed millions of animals this year in Brazil's Pantanal, the world's largest wetlands, scientists said in a study published on Thursday. Climate change also made the hot, dry and windy conditions this year four to five times more likely, according to the study by World Weather Attribution, a global team of scientists that examines the role played by climate change in extreme weather. The Pantanal's n...