(08-24-2019 07:38 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  The point that I think needs to be made is that we keep hearing that somehow global warming is causing the Amazon basin to catch fire, or alternatively that the burnout is destroying the Amazon rain forest and eliminating a huge CO2 sink and oxygen source, and I'm not at all certain that either is factually correct. There's a map showing the location of the fires, and it appears that more of them are in the Mato Grosso area than in the Amazon basin. There's a reason. Brazil's agricultural areas are primarily in the Mato Grosso rather than the Amazon basin. They don't get a winter to kill off of bugs and pests. Therefore they have to burn off their fields each year to keep pests down. I'm reading that the vast majority of these fires are the annual burn-off. That makes sense because the photos and videos I've seen primarily show fires in areas surrounded by fields, not fires in rain forest areas. I'm quite certain that some of it is burning off Amazon rain forest, some intentional, some not.

Some of the rain forest is being converted to agriculture each year. It is a very expensive and time- and resource-consuming process, and it results in less than optimum quality farming conditions, so they are the world's highest-cost producer. But the people there need to eat, so they do whatever they can. Environmentalism is a rich man's game; when you don't have anything to eat or wear, or a place to live, you really don't worry too much about what the temperature of the planet will be in 100 years. I have read that the Amazon basin produces something like 20% of the planet's oxygen, suggesting that burning it all away could be catastrophic. But I have also read that the number is closer to 6%, that it's obviously not all going away, and that the agricultural production replacing it will produce a similar quantity, or more, of oxygen (and therefore absorb a comparable amount of CO2). I don't know which statements are true or false, and I have not been able to find any definitive conclusion.

I see from a post right now by Super Fly Cat in the Kyra Spin Room that says

As of August 16, 2019, an analysis of NASA satellite data indicated that total fire activity across the Amazon basin this year has been close to the average in comparison to the past 15 years. (The Amazon spreads across Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and parts of other countries.) Though activity appears to be above average in the states of Amazonas and Rondônia, it has so far appeared below average in Mato Grosso and Pará, according to estimates from the Global Fire Emissions Database, a research project that compiles and analyzes NASA data.

So while it's good I guess that the fire activity is average, this seems to conflict your belief that the fires are mostly in Mato Grosso. That link he puts in there does say the fire season in Brazil is now until November, so let's hope it stays average.

And I don't believe I've heard once that global warming is causing the fires. We pretty much all know that humans cause the fires, whether by accident or on purpose. Unless they're in the midst of a significant drought, you can safely assume the majority of fires are agriculturally related.