Burning Brasil

“Move along now, move along now, nothing to see here.” Blindfolded, the climate change deniers clap their hands in happy negation. September the 15th 2024. A new map of Brasil appears on the front page of the Folha de São Paulo, a satellite photo taken from the Copernicus Observatory. It shows the levels of air pollution from the wildfires that have swept across the country and produced a vast toxic smoke cloud from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast. Parts of the Amazon, the Pantanal and the interior of the state of São Paulo are in flames. There have always been droughts, periods of intense dry heat and seasonal fires, but nothing on this scale, which every thinking scientist has shown, with detailed empirical evidence, is the direct result of human engineered global warming. The weather forecast on the beach of Itararé is for another day of uninterrupted sunshine and blue skies. But there is clearly something wrong. A dirt orange-grey haze obscures the sun above Niemeyer’s apartment block. It is only two in the afternoon. People with breathing difficulties struggle. There is an odd taste in the air. The local government has issued health warnings. Paradise is ill, but there really is nothing to be seen here, move long now, move along.