Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n“It was as if the day had turned into night,”\nresident Gianvitor Dias told the BBC. “Everyone here commented, because\neven on rainy days it doesn’t usually get that dark. It was very\nimpressive.” The agency posted satellite photos of multiple fires tearing\nthrough the Brazilian states of Amazonas, Rond\u00f4nia, Par\u00e1 and Mato Grosso dated\nAugust 11 and 13 of this year. Smoke appeared to blanket the states in the\nstartling images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The agency stated fires are rare in the Amazon region for\nmuch of the year, as its wet weather keeps blazes at bay; fires do typically\nincrease in July and August with the onset of the dry season. NASA explained\n“activity” peaks by early September and stops by mid-November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NASA said the satellite observations revealed the\n“total fire activity in the Amazon basin” was slightly below average,\ncompared to the past 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The state of Amazonas declared a national emergency earlier\nthis month due to the fires. It is the fourth most affected area in Brazil this\nsummer, reports Euronews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fires blaze as the concern for the future of the Amazon\nis high. Since taking office in January, Brazil’s right-wing President Jair\nBolsonaro has been accused of harming the Amazon rainforest and indigenous\npeoples in order to benefit loggers, miners and farmers who helped get him\nelected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bolsonaro, whose anti-environment rhetoric has included a\npledge to end “Shiite ecologist activism,” has questioned the latest\nofficial figures showing deforestation increased 88% in June compared with the\nsame period last year. He uses the word “Shiite” as a synonym for\nradicalism rather than denoting a branch of Islam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Importance of Amazon rainforest<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Rainforests are often called the lungs of the planet<\/strong> for their role in absorbing carbon dioxide, a\ngreenhouse gas, and producing oxygen, upon which all animals depend for\nsurvival. Rainforests also stabilize climate, house incredible amounts of\nplants and wildlife, and produce nourishing rainfall all around the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe importance of forests cannot be underestimated. We\ndepend on forests for our survival, from the air we breathe to the wood we use.\nBesides providing habitats for animals and livelihoods for humans, forests also\noffer watershed protection, prevent soil erosion and mitigate climate change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The powerful winds carried the smoke from the Amazon forest fires burning nearly 1,700 miles away. Almost 73,000 fires have been detected by Brazil’s space research center INPE, according to Reuters. The smoke has traveled from the fires blazing in the Brazilian states of Rond\u00f4nia and Amazon and blackened the sky above the city for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":5238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5237"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5239,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5237\/revisions\/5239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}