Studies have shown that the Amazon Rainforest could hit a tipping point by 2050 due to water stress, land clearance, and climate disruption.

Last month, the Brazil Institute for Space Research announced that as of February 28, 2,940 wildfires burned in the Amazon that month. So far this year there have been over 10,000 wildfires- there have never been this many fires this early into the year. It has reached over 11,000 square kilometers, which is about the same size as Jamaica. Scientists are worried that the fires will soon become unstoppable and that the Amazon might collapse. It has passed a safe boundary and needs to be fixed to improve the ecosystem.

The lead author of the study says we need to act now and everyone needs to help internationally to lower carbon emissions. It’s going through a drought; usually during this time of the year it’s raining heavily, so fires have been catching in parts of the rainforest that usually aren’t on fire. Flames are higher than 100 feet, smoke is being sent to South American cities, and Venezuela, northern Brazil, Guyana, and Suriname have recorded the highest number of fires ever in February. Fires aren’t the only thing endangering the Amazon as farmers deforest the Amazon for money.

Brazil has been trying to fight climate change, which is mostly caused by oil burning and fossil fuels. When former President Jair Bolsonaro was administrating, deforestation increased, and he said the data and numbers were inaccurate. He lost his 2022 reelection, and current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has reduced deforestation in the Amazon. He is also in charge of Petrobras, a Brazilian oil company that will soon become one the world’s largest producers, to make things like flights, meat, and air conditioners cheaper. Luiz has said he will stop people from farming in the Amazon and set a goal for no deforestation by 2030.