Brazil’s Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland, has experienced the greatest number of fires in the first half of 2024 than in the same period of any year since official record-keeping of burns in the region began in 1998. From Jan. 1 to July 7, an unprecedented 3,919 wildfires torched 7,629 square kilometers (2,946 sq. miles) of the seasonally flooded biome, an area larger than the U.S. state of Delaware. The vast bulk of them—2,639—started in June, a month earlier than the usual beginning of the region’s four-month dry season. As in the past, the blazes are believed to have grown out of fires that escaped control after being started by humans involved in activities ranging from ranching to burning garbage. Rio de Janeiro Federal University’s Environmental Satellite Applications Laboratory (LASA) says that from Jan. 1 to July 7, the burns consumed 5.05% of Brazil’s portion... [Log in to read more]