Pictures from the Amazon rainforest fires
The Amazon rainforest in Brazil has seen a record number of fires this season, scorching vast areas of greenery known as the "lungs of the planet."
Amazon Watch, a group that works to protect the rainforest and the indigenous people of the Amazon, says farmers have been setting forests ablaze to create pastures for agriculture.
In this photo, smoke billows in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas State, Brazil, on August 17, 2019.
Smoke seen from space
Smoke from wildfires burning in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil can be seen from space. This image was taken from NASA's Terra/MODIS satellite on August 21, 2019.
Smoke and flames
Smoke billowing from the burning Amazon rainforest in the state of Rondonia, in northern Brazil, on August 23, 2019.
Many of the fires in the region were deliberately set to clear land for large-scale agriculture, with the encouragement of Brazil's right-wing populist government.
Rainforest on fire
A fire burning during the dry season in Brasilia, Brazil, on August 21, 2019. Deforestation has been accelerating across the Amazon, threatening environmental stability in the region and beyond.
Amazon rainforest fires
Devastation caused by a fire in Brasilia, Brazil, on August 21, 2019.
In Brazil alone, there have been more than 73,000 fires in the first eight months of 2019 – more than an 80% increase compared to 2018.
Smoke in the rainforest
Dry conditions are helping flames spread, but environmental activists say humans are largely to blame. Conservationists hold Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro responsible for reducing funding for environmental agencies and relaxing restrictions on logging.
"Since he came into power he's been stripping protections from the Amazon and other forests in Brazil and encouraging famers to set fire to land and clear it," Richard George, of Greenpeace UK, told CBS News.
Fires deliberately set
A man works in a burning tract of Amazon jungle as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Iranduba, Amazonas state, Brazil, August 20, 2019.
Satellite photos of the Amazon from July 2019 showed an area the size of a soccer field was being cleared every minute, BBC News reported.
World's largest rainforest
The world's largest tropical rainforest, the Amazon covers 5.5 million square kilometers (2.1 million square miles), stretching across portions of nine South American nations.
Smoke engulfs the burning rainforest near Porto Belho, Roraima State, Brazil, on August 21, 2019.
Scorched earth
Scorched earth from a fire southwest of Porto Velho, Brazil, in the upper Amazon River basin, is seen in an image taken by Maxar's WorldView-3 satellite on August 15, 2019.
Charred trees
Trees burned by fires in Brazil's Amazon region, August 22, 2019.
Rainforest on fire
A tract of Amazon jungle is seen burning as it is being cleared by loggers and farmers in Iranduba, Amazonas state, Brazil, on August 20, 2019.
Charred forest
A view of the devastation caused by a fire in Brasilia, Brazil, August 21, 2019.
Aerial view of deforestation
An aerial view shows a deforested plot of the Amazon near Porto Velho, Rondonia State, Brazil, on August 21, 2019.
Indigenous people
Indigenous people from the Mura tribe show a deforested area inside the Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas State, Brazil, on August 20, 2019.
Billowing smoke
Smoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Porto Velho, Rondonia State, Brazil, on August 21, 2019.
Deforestation
Aerial picture showing a deforested piece of land in the Amazon rainforest near an area affected by fires, about 40 miles from Porto Velho, in the state of Rondonia, in northern Brazil, on August 23, 2019.
Driving through flames
In this image taken from social media, flames are seen along a highway in Guajara-Mirim, in Brazil's northern state of Rondonia, near the Amazon rainforest, on August 14, 2019.
Calling for action
Protesters at a demonstration organized by climate change activists outside the Brazilian embassy in London on August 23, 2019, calling on Brazil to act to protect the Amazon rainforest from deforestation and fire.
"Pray for Amazonia"
Youth for Climate protesters outside the Brazil's embassy in Paris, demanding action on the wildfires in the Amazon rainforest, August 23, 2019.
Engulfed in smoke
Two men make their way through smoke from wildfires along a highway in Bolivia, on August 21, 2019,
Fires detected from space
Active fires, represented by red dots, are pictured from space over Bolivia, captured by the Suomi NPP weather satellite on August 22, 2019. The city lights of Santa Cruz, Bolivia's largest city, are visible as the bright, white glow in the left-center of the image.
Burned jungle
A tract of Amazon jungle is seen after a fire in Boca do Acre, Amazonas state, Brazil, August 24, 2019.
On the front lines
Firefighters battle flames in Bolivia, Brazil's neighbor to the west, on August 21, 2019.
Fire brigade commander Hernan Lohse said, "I felt helpless because I couldn't do anything. Every time the fire was coming towards us, with the few tools we had, we couldn't control it."
Wildlife rescue
A firefighter gives water to a tropical bird rescued from a wildfire in the Santa Cruz Province of Bolivia, August 22, 2019.
Smoke rises from the trees
Smoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Porto Velho, Rondonia State, Brazil, on August 21, 2019.
Horizon aflame
A wildfire burns across the horizon in the Santa Cruz Province of Bolivia, August 22, 2019.
Pantanal Forest
A firefighter works to put out a wildfire near Robore, in the Santa Cruz region of eastern Bolivia, on August 22, 2019
Smoke shrouds rainforest
A wildfire in the Santa Cruz region of eastern Bolivia on August 21, 2019. Fires in the country, just west of Brazil, have devastated about 745,000 hectares of forests and pasturelands.
Smoldering forest
Bolivian soldiers at work fighting a forest wildfire in the Santa Cruz region of eastern Bolivia on August 22, 2019.
After the flames
A tract of Amazon jungle is seen after a fire in Boca do Acre, Amazonas state, Brazil, August 24, 2019.