By BBC
The severity of fires in the Amazon has prompted a global outcry. But, amid the protest, some are questioning how this compares with the rest of the world, with surprising results.
The issue has got people checking out Nasa’s maps of fires around the world. When you look at the map from Sunday, it clearly shows more fires burning in central Africa. Over a period of two days last week Angola had roughly three times more fires than Brazil, according to data Bloomberg news agency obtained from Weather Source.
The data said there were 6,902 fires in Angola and 3,395 fires in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, compared with just 2,127 fires in Brazil.
On Monday Mr Macron announced that the leaders of the G7 – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US – would release $22m (£18m) to help fight fires in the Amazon rainforest.
But then he drew attention to the African fires.
“The forest is also burning in sub-Saharan Africa” he tweeted.
Mr Macron added that he was “considering the possibility of launching a similar initiative” in sub-Saharan African to that announced for the Amazon. Read more…
