Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has arrived in the Amazon amidst growing concerns over the severe droughts and wildfires ravaging the rainforest and other parts of Brazil.
During his visit to a riverside community near the city of Tefé, the Brazilian president remarked that the Amazon region is experiencing its worst drought in more than four decades.
Lula said his trip was intended to understand “what is happening with these mighty rivers,” which in some areas have turned into near-deserts.
Lula expressed alarm over the fires, often set illegally, that are consuming three of Brazil’s six biomes: the Amazon, the Cerrado savanna, and the Pantanal wetlands.
“It seems to me that things are getting worse, year after year,” he said while visiting communities affected by drought in Amazonas state, where all 62 municipalities have declared a state of emergency. Reports indicate that more than 340,000 people have been impacted.
“In the Pantanal, we’ve had the worst drought in the last 73 years. This is an issue we must resolve, or humanity will destroy our planet,” Lula emphasized. “We cannot destroy the very things that sustain our life.”
Lula’s visit comes as vast regions of South America’s largest country, along with neighboring nations like Bolivia and Peru, face the consequences of extreme climate events. These events have led to record-breaking temperatures and widespread fires.
In Rio Branco, the capital of Acre, a state within the Amazon, smoke from the fires forced school closures and flight diversions as pollution levels soared. Similarly, in Porto Velho, the capital of Rondônia state, the Madeira River has dropped to its lowest level since the 1960s.
Drought in The Amazon (Photo: Bruno Kelly)The effects of the fires and droughts have reached distant cities like Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, where air quality has significantly deteriorated in recent days.
On Monday, a scientist from Brazil’s space agency, Inpe, reported that smoke from the fires covered an area of 5 million square kilometers – about 60% of the country.
“We are witnessing a historic moment, one unlike anything we’ve seen before,” said Danicley de Aguiar, an Amazon campaigner for Greenpeace Brazil, who has been monitoring the crisis.
“We’ve had severe droughts in Brazil before, but never like this. I don’t think we’ve ever experienced a drought that impacts not only the north but also the midwest, south, southeast, and part of the northeast as well.”
Aguiar described the situation as a “gigantic drought,” one worsened by the accompanying fires. He added that at least five Indigenous territories in the Amazon are currently burning.
One such area, the Sararé territory near Brazil’s western border with Bolivia, has seen 59% of its total land burned. Fires are also raging in the Kayapó Indigenous territory to the northeast.
“And after the drought comes hunger,” Aguiar warned, voicing concerns that the crisis could threaten the crops Indigenous communities rely on for survival.
Brazil’s environment minister, Marina Silva, partially attributed the worsening situation to global climate change and the El Niño weather phenomenon, which are expected to exacerbate the conditions in the weeks to come.