NewsTracker Answers for week of Sep. 16, 2024

Q: Wildfires are breaking records this year in South America with smoke darkening the skies over cities in Bolivia and Brazil. Most fires are being set to clear land for agriculture, but scientists say climate change is helping the blazes spread faster. Where are Bolivia and Brazil?

Circle the area on this map


Q: About 3.5 million square miles of South America has been covered by smoke at times, including the continent’s largest city ...

A. Buenos Aires

B. Lima

C. Rio de Janeiro

D. Sao Paulo


D. With more than 22 million people, Sao Paulo’s metropolitan area is the most populous in the western hemisphere. The smoke recently made Sao Paulo’s air the most polluted in the world. Inhaling wildfire smoke contributes to an average of 12,000 early deaths a year in South America, according to a 2013 study.


Q: Hundreds of people marched in Bolivia's political capital to demand action against the fires, holding banners and placards saying "Bolivia in flames" and "For cleaner air stop burning." What is the capital of Bolivia?

A. Bogata

B. La Paz

C. Montevideo

D. Santa Cruz


B. At an elevation of 11,975 feet above sea level, La Paz is the highest capital city in the world. It has an urban area population of 2.2 million people, the second largest in Bolivia. The lowland Bolivian region of Santa Cruz is the most populous in the nation, and it has been blanketed by wildfire smoke like Sao Paulo.


Q: The 1.2 million-square-mile Amazon Rainforest covers large areas of Bolivia and Brazil and covers parts of seven other nations. How much of the rainforest has been lost to slash-and-burn clearance to make way for cattle ranching, farming, and mining?

A. 11%

B. 16%

C. 26%

D. 33%


C. By the year 2022 around 26% of the forest was considered as deforested or highly degraded. Deforestation of the Amazon is making droughts far more common, which allows the human-set fires to spread faster and farther. Scientists worry that deforestation has reached a tipping point that will turn the entire rainforest into a vast grassland.


Q: Cattle ranching has been blamed for 80% of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest. What is being blamed formed for much of the destruction of rainforests of Southeast Asia?

A. Agriculture

B. Logging

C. Mining

D. All of the above


D. The demand for lumber has cleared much of the forests in Southeast Asia. But vast rainforests are still being burned yearly to make way for agriculture, particularly huge palm oil plantations. And like South America, the heavy smoke is cutting many lives short.