Just under 29 thousand fires in August alone, almost double compared to the same month last year. An area of over 2,5 million hectares gone up in smoke, equal to the surface area of Sicily, which is the largest Italian region and the largest island in the Mediterranean. Since the beginning of 2024, the hectares of greenery destroyed by flames have been 4,1 million, equal to the surface area of a country like Switzerland.
Amazon is burning, drought in Brazil
The Amazon is literally burning. The alarming numbers, released by the WWF and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, suggest that this could be one of the worst years for the largest rainforest on the planet, a formidable reserve of biodiversity as well as the largest “capturer” of CO2, and this despite the fact that Lula’s return to government had hinted at a change of direction compared to the Bolsonaro presidency, which had recorded record rates of deforestation while completely renouncing protection policies.
And it's not just the Amazon that's engulfed in flames: Brazil, which houses about 60% of the world's lung, is going through the worst drought in its history, with 58% of its territory involved, that is, a total of 5 million square kilometers and 4.500 municipalities where it has not rained for months and will continue to do so in September and October, which are traditionally dry months and this year the heat has also added to the mix (with temperatures in some areas over 5 degrees above average) and arson. Which are also affecting, for example, the Pantanal, where they increased by 3.707% compared to 2023, and above all the Cerrado, the South American savannah, the biome with the greatest biodiversity in the world with over 6 thousand tree species and 800 bird species, and where fires have more than doubled compared to last year (+127%).
Cerrado which has also been worrying environmentalists for some time, because under the Lula government, while the spotlight was on the Amazon where the COP in 2025 in Belem, is shrinking before our eyes: in the first four months of 2023 alone, its surface area had decreased by over 2.000 square kilometers. Not to mention that the fires in the Amazon alone are causing toxic fumes in 11 Brazilian states, with all that this entails in terms of impact on the ecosystem and also on human health and the economy: according to the National Institute of Meteorology, in at least 200 cities these days the air is as dry as in the Sahara desert.
In Brazil, the air is unbreathable
The air quality index in Brazil in these weeks it is enough to make the Po Valley or the most polluted megalopolises on the planet pale in comparison: in the heart of the Amazon there are places where the concentration of Pm 2,5, that is very fine dust and particularly harmful to health, has reached over 300 micrograms per cubic meter, while the World Health Organization considers a threshold of 12 micrograms per cubic meter acceptable for the human body. It can practically be argued that in this period the Amazon forest is, as paradoxical as it may seem, the most polluted place on the planet.
Among the most intoxicated states there is also that of St. Paul, with a population of over 40 million people, roughly equal to that of Spain. Sao Paulo and its hinterland rich in natural resources are also the economic locomotive of Brazil, as well as the most populous and most productive metropolitan area in South America. The thousands of fires in recent weeks, all of which were caused by malicious intent, are impacting theagriculture and not only because they devastate crops but because they impoverish the land and increase production costs and therefore market costs. It is no coincidence that at the beginning of September the sugar price, the main agricultural commodity mined in the state of São Paulo, rose 15% on the New York Stock Exchange futures from its low on August 21, returning to near its peak in early July.
Sugar and coffee in crisis
Sugar had been going through a bearish phase since the beginning of the year, when it had surpassed the 24 cents per pound, while today we are around 20 and a year ago at this time the highest levels since 2011 were recorded at 27 cents. This is why, taking advantage of the drought and the strong wind, agribusiness lobbies They are accused, not without reason, of being the hidden directors of the fires in order to reduce supply and consequently raise prices.
In a few days they went like this tens of thousands of hectares destroyed of sugar cane crops, causing local producers damage estimated very provisionally at 350 million reais, that is, about seventy million euros, only in the state of São Paulo. And the sugar cane, of which Brazil is the world's leading exporter, is just one example: heat waves, droughts and fires are also affecting the coffee market, of which the Portuguese-speaking country is by far the largest producer on the planet, especially robust quality, which due to a mediocre harvest has recently surpassed the price of Arabica, traditionally considered to be of higher value. And the prospects, both in Brazil and in Vietnam, the world's second largest producer, are dire. South America is burning and we are all paying the consequences: from the climate to health, to the cup of coffee.
