After the catastrophic floods of Rio Grande do Sul in May, economic losses were enormous, and now fire returns to Brazil in another chapter of a climate threat that is accelerating across the country. Mato Grosso, Rondônia, and São Paulo become stages for fierce blazes. Rural areas in Brazil’s largest economic and demographic region were shrouded in smoke in just 90 minutes, a stark reminder of the scale of the crisis that still leaves residents shocked. At least two deaths have been reported.
The National Institute for Space Research (INPE) reported that Brazil recorded 104,928 fires in the first eight months of the year, the highest total since 2010 when about 118,000 episodes were noted. Compared with 2023, fire incidents are up by 75 percent.
August tends to be a problematic month. A magnitude of increase in the most affected regions was not anticipated. The number of fires in the São Paulo region rose by 338 percent, while in Mato Grosso the climb stood at 236 percent. That area is home to one of nature’s great treasures, the Pantanal, which straddles borders with Paraguay and Bolivia, and the alarm has sounded there as well.
The world’s largest tropical wetland, spanning more than 176,000 square kilometers, has again felt the devouring reach of fire. About 18,000 square kilometers have already burned. Experts fear that biodiversity losses could surpass the catastrophic levels seen in 2020, with up to a quarter of the biome affected and around 17 million animals dying.
The charred landscapes of the Pantanal in some places resemble a gray mantle, a grim effect not by chance but driven by climate change. The Pantanal also suffers from drought due to insufficient rainfall. The degradation of springs has dried the ecosystem over time, and deforestation spurred by the push to expand agricultural frontiers has further contributed to this new disaster.
Other hotspots
Scenes from the Pantanal have mirrored in Rondônia, a state in the northwest that borders the Amazon. The fires have consumed 107,216 hectares of forest, a 42 percent increase from the previous year. Authorities declared a state of emergency due to the rapid spread of flames. Drought again fed the fire in this region, and critical situations developed near urban areas and in conservation zones.
Flávio Dino, a Supreme Court justice, ordered the Lula da Silva government to allocate within two weeks the largest possible contingent of troops and police to battle the blazes. He stressed the need for persistent, swift, and effective work to prevent what has already been described as a public calamity with irreparable and grave damage.
The fires are not the only worry for Brazil in 2024. The government expresses strong suspicion that criminal activity orchestrates much of the blaze outbreak. Lula himself raised this concern in the face of unusual scenes in São Paulo’s region. The environment minister echoed those concerns. The São Paulo state government later confirmed that about 99 percent of the fires are linked to human activity, whether accidental or deliberate. Six people have been detained.
Officials and lawmakers call for accountability. The agriculture minister urged those responsible to be punished. The Federal Police noted that from 2023 to the present year, thirty-two investigations have been opened to determine the origins of fires connected to human activity. Critics from the political opposition, wary of environmental narratives and the Paris Agreement, have pressed for the president to answer questions about the state’s response to the disaster.
The underlying problem
Since June 2023, with the start of El Niño and global warming, Brazil has faced climate perturbations across all five regions, bringing heavy rains in the south and drought in the rest of the country. A winter drought in 2024 was already described as intense by analysts. The federal government even expanded firefighting infrastructure in the Amazon, but experts say the measures fall short. It is time for authorities at all levels to monitor climate effects and implement urgent prevention and containment plans.
The Brazilian press, including major outlets, cites specialists who link firefighting difficulties to natural conditions, El Niño, rainfall patterns, and drought. Beyond that, there is a call for more brigades, equipment, and aircraft, as well as sustained funding for preventive actions from Ibama, the national environmental agency. With the cost of fighting forest fires high and effectiveness uneven, officials stress that more resources are essential.
New threats
Threats appear in many forms. When fires subside, water returns as a new threat. In the broader fight against fires, the United Nations Secretary-General has warned about rising sea levels that threaten major coastal cities in G20 nations and small developing states in the Pacific.
The latest UN report warns that Rio de Janeiro, known as the Marvelous City, and Atafona in the northern region will be directly affected by sea level rise, projected to reach 13 centimeters due to higher temperatures. By 2050, the outlook grows grimmer. The report emphasizes that sea-level rise is a human-made crisis and calls for urgent global action, now rather than later.
The current fire season in Brazil underscores the need for comprehensive climate adaptation, better land-management practices, and stronger enforcement to safeguard biodiversity, communities, and economic stability across the country. It is a stark reminder that climate risks are not abstract predictions but immediate realities that demand coordinated responses from government, civil society, and the private sector alike.