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Climate change: The number of global fires has increased by 13%

australia-wildfires.WWF/Adam Dederer

Australia experienced one of its worst fires on record between 2019-2020

The number of global fire outbreaks has increased by 13% in the last year.

This is according to a new report by conservation organisation World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

The results also revealed that fires in the Amazon are up 52% on the 10-year average.

Fire season is now happening for longer, as well as becoming more extreme and unpredictable, according to the data.

Mike Barrett from WWF said: "The combination of climate change, deforestation and burning land for agriculture leads to more extreme, frequent and longer-lasting fires. And rainforests like the Amazon, previously too wet to burn, are no longer spared."

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WWF/Michael Dantas

The fires in Brazil have had a huge impact on the indigenous communities who live there

The report also showed that humans are responsible for 75% of all wildfires, through things like burning rubbish, accidents or clearing land for farming.

Last year more than 148 indigenous communities were affected by fires, with 1,453 fires being reported in the Amazon in the first seven months of this year.

Bitat茅 Uru-eu-wau-wau,is the president of the Uru-eu-wau-wau Indigenous People's Association, and he said: "I am a young indigenous leader, and it was very painful to see the sadness of the older relatives because of this threatening situation. I want the whole world to know what indigenous peoples are facing in the Amazon.

"Fire poses many problems for indigenous peoples, such as scaring off hunting and affecting our health. As we have low immunity, fires also aggravate respiratory problems, mainly affecting isolated people, who are much more vulnerable. It brings us enormous concern."

How the world has been affected by fires

  • Australia had the worst fire season ever in 2019-2020, with one fifth of all trees destroyed.

  • Russia had the second highest level of forest fires on record, with 16 million hectares burned in 2019.

  • Thailand was hit with the worst forest fires in a decade in April, causing 'critical' levels of air pollution.

  • South America has been hit very badly by forest fires, with 307,000 hectares of trees lost in the first six months in Brazil.

Mike Barrett from WWF said : "Deforestation, climate change and fires are pushing the Amazon towards a point where it cannot recover. If we lose the Amazon, we lose the fight against climate change. There will be no going back."

What's being done about this sort of thing?

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Thanks to a rise in awareness about climate change and the effects it's having on our planet, a lot is being done to try and deal with it.

And thanks to influential people like Greta Thunberg - awareness keeps rising.

The Swedish teenager first staged a "School Strike for Climate" in front of the Swedish Parliament in August 2018, she says much more needs to be done now, before it is too late.

The UK government has had a big meeting this week looking at new laws to tackle deforestation as part of the Environment Bill, which could offer an important first step towards protecting the Amazon rainforest and other landscapes.

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