Brazil burns.

Bushfires and forest fires are nothing at all new. In fact, they're so commonplace most of them don't even make the news anymore. But this week, they've made worldwide news. That's because this time the area involved is the Amazon Rainforest, the biggest forest on Earth and an entity that has been called vital for combating climate change.

(Scan of the Amazon basin on 20 August.)

Now, there's nothing I can do about these fires for several reasons. Except, maybe, to use this blog to maintain awareness of this unfolding crisis. It has me concerned, as I consider myself something of an environmentalist. 

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, above, has publicly rejected how widespread the situation has become, a rejection which has, I think, deservedly warranted him worldwide condemnation. He's a conservative, but it never ceases to amaze (and anger) me how he and so many of his ideological ilk are unwilling to try to conserve the environment. More specifically, the Amazon Rainforest is what Brazil is best-known for overseas. Thus, for him to be so indifferent towards it going up in flames would be like my prime minister sitting back while Uluru eroded to the ground, or Xi Jinping taking a jackhammer to the Great Wall of China. Or, if the myth is true, like how Nero fiddled while Rome burned.

According to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research, at least 75 336 wildfires have occurred in the region just this year. At least. The international community should've have needed anywhere near that many to stop and pay attention to this crisis, and the Brazilian government certainly shouldn't have left it this long. They, and we, can't afford to leave it any longer.