This map is a result of a personal research about bushfires around the globe and their relationship with climate change. The map depicts active fires from the 1st until 31st of August 2019, combining data from VIIRS and MODIS real time fire management systems of NASA.
I have chosen this period of time because of its high increase of fires during this time. There were 79.000 fires in August of 2019 globally, compared to just 16.632 fires in August of 2018.
There is a strong link between rising temperatures, greenhouse gas emissions and bushfires. This linked triangle goes hand to hand with the overconsumption of Western civilization and the current processes of production.
During this research, earth without the concept of borders and other man-made constructs affected by the fire spots and the scars of burned areas, was deeply shocking, even more so from any other footage from this year's bushfires in Siberia, Brazil or Australia. When you are confronted with the image of humanity as a whole, you feel empathy similarly. You also realise that climate change and destruction knows no national borders.
Link for the high res map and google doc with useful links from the research
[2020] [https://drive.google.com/drive/u/4/folders/1UJorKF5mcyUouQZQbWUQAH2cFbP4B2KI]