A deforested area of at least 4,500 square kilometers in the Brazilian Amazon, three times larger than the city of São Paulo, Brazil, is ready to burn. The result of the sum of what was felled in the first four months of last year—still not burned. This fallen vegetation on the ground can go up in smoke with the dry season that began in June in another season of intense fire like we observed in 2019. If this happens, the number of hospitalizations for respiratory problems can increase significantly, putting further pressure on the region’s healthcare system, which is already severely affected by COVID-19.
Fires in the Cerrado in 2024: a snapshot from January to September
Fires in the Cerrado in 2024: a snapshot from January to September
The Cerrado biome is of extreme ecological and economic importance, playing a crucial role in water regulation (Sawyer et al. 2017), feeding the country's main river basins, and is the tropical savanna with the highest biodiversity in the world (Myers et al. 2000,...