The Amazon rainforest is considered vital in slowing global warming, and it is also home to uncountable species of fauna and flora. Roughly half the size of the US, it is the largest rainforest on the planet.
The Amazon river stretches across several of these South American countries, but the majority -- more than two-thirds -- of the rainforest lies in Brazil.
People worldwide are sharing their horror on social media. Fans of the K-Pop band BTS, who call themselves the Army, are even rallying on Twitter to spread word of the fires, with tens of thousands of people tweeting the hashtag #ArmyHelpThePlanet.Environmental groups have long been campaigning to save the Amazon, blaming Brazil's far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, for the endangerment of the vital rainforest.
Just weeks ago, the director of INPE was fired after a spat with the president -- the director had defended satellite data that showed deforestation was 88% higher in June than a year earlier, and Bolsonaro called the findings"lies." Bolsonaro's pro-business stance may have emboldened loggers, farmers and miners to seize control of a growing area of Amazon land, Carlos Rittl, executive secretary of the environmental non-profit organization Observatorio do Clima , told CNN en Español last month.
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