NASA’s satellite images show forest fires in Africa more intense than Amazon

According to a recent Weather Source data reported by news agency Bloomberg, last week Angola had around three times more forest fires than that in Brazil. As per the data quoted by Bloomberg, there were 6,902 fires in Angola over a period of 48 hours and 3,395 fires in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In comparison, Brazil had 2,127 fires during the same period.

The recent outrage across the world has been triggered because of more than 26,000 forest fires that have been recorded in the Amazon so far this month — the highest number in a decade, according to a report by The New York Times.

The fires in Amazon forests were one of the key agendas of the Group of 7 leaders who met in Biarritz in France during the past weekend. The meeting hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron where G7 countries pledged to earmark $20 million for providing help to Brazil for bringing these fires under control.

Coming to the central African region now, this area too holds a key for the climate. The stretch of forests at Congo Basin is also referred to as the second green lung of the Earth after the Amazon forests. There is a forest cover of 3.3 million square kilometres which is spread across the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo, Gabon, Cameroon and a few other central African nations.

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Both Amazon and Congo basin forests are important for combatting climate change and recent fires are likely to impact the global environment.