Criminals may be leveraging climate change as record acreage burns in Brazil’s Amazon

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Wildfires in Brazil have swept through an area the size of Switzerland, a level of destruction that will take decades to recover, if it ever does, according to a new satellite assessment.

The breadth of forest that has been lost or degraded was revealed as smoke that has blanketed the country cleared, thanks to rains that may be ending the worst drought Brazil has ever recorded.

“The data is exceptionally alarming, it’s a very abrupt surge,” Ane Alencar, science director at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute, a Brazilian nonprofit, told The Associated Press.

The area that burned between January and mid-October 2024 represents an 846% increase over the same period in 2023. That’s five times larger than the forest fires of 2019 when, under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, rampant destruction of the Amazon made headlines worldwide.

The estimate comes from the National Institute for Space Research, which tracks Brazil’s official deforestation rate.

This surge in fire comes one year before the Amazon city of Belem will host the annual U.N. climate conference, COP30. The level of destruction is raising suspicions among Brazilian officials and experts that criminals are using climate change to their advantage.

Deforestation in the Amazon usually begins with chainsaws. Wet, fallen trees are left lying on the ground until they’re dry enough to set afire. They’re not even used for lumber.

Now with the forest drying out from drought, lawbreakers seeking to create more pasture may be skipping the expensive, labor-intensive step of felling trees. A lighter and a few gallons of gasoline suffice to start a blaze.

“The drought played a major role in fueling the spread, but fire has also been weaponized,”