OTTAWA—Part environmental scare, part diplomatic spat, the situation surrounding the fires in the Amazon has captured the attention of world leaders and galvanized activists intent on pushing them to do more to combat climate change.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing populist admirer of Donald Trump, has refused to accept a $26.5-million aid package developed during the recent Group of Seven summit because of his disgruntlement with French President Emmanuel Macron. He said Tuesday that Brazil would only accept the G7 offering if Macron withdrew comments he made questioning Bolsonaro’s commitment to preserving the largest tropical rainforest on Earth.

Meanwhile, Canada says its own separate commitment of $15 million and water bombers to help combat the fires is moving along. Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland has spoken with her Brazilian and Bolivian counterparts about the situation, and Canada’s money—destined for those two countries, plus Peru and Paraguay—is still on the table, her office said Tuesday.

“Countries are currently assessing their needs and Canada stands ready to help,” said Freeland’s spokesperson, Adam Austen, in a statement to the Star.

Leaders were gripped with the situation in the Amazon during the G7, after Brazil’s space institute reported the number of fires in the South American country is nearly twice as high so far this year compared with the pace in 2018. That had world leaders sounding the alarm, with Macron calling for action to save the “lungs of the planet,” and demonstrators urging the protection of the Amazon in protests outside Brazilian embassies in various countries.

Even Leonardo DiCaprio’s Earth Alliance organization got in on the action, reportedly pitching in $6.6 million this week to help local groups protect the rainforest.

Here’s a deeper look at what’s going on in the Amazon, and why it matters.

How bad are the fires?

Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research is reporting the highest number of fires in the Brazilian Amazon since the government agency started publicly tracking them in 2013. As of Aug. 26, the agency recorded 42,719 fires in the Brazilian portion of the rainforest this year — an increase of 128 per cent over the first nine months of 2018.

Smoke from the fires is visible from space, with NASA publishing satellite images of the plumes drifting across South America.

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What’s causing them?

Unlike in the boreal forest of Canada, almost all the fires in tropical rainforests like the Amazon are caused by humans, said Mike Flannigan, a professor of wildland fire at the University of Alberta. That’s because the rainforest is so lush and moist, with thick jungle that’s harder to catch fire and sheltered from winds to fan the flames, he said.

Some experts have pinned this uptick in man-made fires on illegal activity to clear the forest for ranching and crops, a long-standing practice in Brazil that may have gained steam under a government perceived to be more permissive.

“The Bolsonaro regime is not really—it’s not helping at all,” said Eduardo Souza-Rodrigues, a University of Toronto economist who has studied deforestation in the Amazon.

“They have been sending bad signals that they don’t really care about the rainforest.”

What signals?

Bolsonaro denounced protections for the Amazon during his successful campaign for the Brazilian presidency last year. He promised to open Indigenous lands to mining and development, and reportedly said “not one square centimetre” of land would be set aside for reserves that protect land from development. Once in power, Bolsonaro transferred regulation of these reserves to the agriculture ministry, prompting fears that forest would be easier to clear.

He also fired the head of the space research institute that has tracked the increase in fires, after he publicly contested its reported 88 per cent increase in deforestation this June compared with June 2018, the BBC reported.

Earlier this month, Norway suspended its regular donations as the largest contributor to the Amazon Fund, a preservation initiative of the Brazilian government, after Bolsonaro changed its governance structure.

The president has also reportedly blamed non-governmental organizations for starting fires in the rainforest in a bid to hurt his government’s reputation.

Why should we care?

Macron has described the Amazon as the “lungs of the planet,” a key source of clean air that must be protected from destruction for the good of the entire world.

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While Flannigan said there are many good reasons the Amazon should be protected — the preservation of the region’s diversity of plants and animals, for one — the creation of oxygen for humans to breathe is not one of them.

It’s better to think of the Amazon as a huge reserve of carbon dioxide, he said — a sort of “carbon bank” that is stored primarily in the thick carpet of peat soil that’s rich with organic material and lines the floor of the rainforest. Studies cited in the journal Nature estimated that the Amazon accounted for about 25 per cent of the world’s terrestrial carbon storage in recent decades.

Flannigan said there is research that suggests climate change could be drying out the Amazon into a more “savannah-like” ecosystem. Not only would that make it more susceptible to fire, it would make it more likely to release the massive bank of carbon that’s stored in the forest, he said — a major problem as the world grapples to reduce the carbon in the atmosphere that is a main contributor to climate change.

“This is definitely releasing more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, which is not what we want at all,” Flannigan said.

With files from the Associated Press

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