With the burning of the rainforests, would it be better to live away from the cities, but at higher altitude, or nearer sea level?

The smoke goes to all elevations and being near the oceans isn’t a good idea with the rising sea levels and the threat of tsunamis. Best hang out inland at about 2500 feet.

Along the coasts with the prevailing winds from the ocean.

Don’t go too high, there is less oxygen up there to begin with. Cities are polluted already. Living in a congested city puts more pollution in your lungs than rural areas, barring some sort of polluting manufacturing plant out in the country. Even as rainforests burn I think these generalizations will stay true.

May be a silly question but in all the documentaries about the Amazon, its all too wet and difficult to even make a fire. Is it the dry undergrowth burning or ?

I’m in the Midwest, we dont really have this problem often.

^^^ With global warming, the rain forests are experiencing a drought. The fires appear to be mainly people deliberately clearing forests to plant cash crops.

President Bolsonaro of Brazil is a Trump like figure who claims that environmental protection of the Amazon hinders economic growth. He recently got rid of Ricardo Galvao, the head of Brazil’s National Space Research Institute, because his (accurate) figures for deforestation of the Amazon were “smearing Brazil’s reputation” and were a “lie”.

Bolsonaro has given loggers and cattle ranchers a free hand to destroy the rainforest by cutting down or burning huge areas for profit. You can see the results on Google Earth particularly in the states of Rondonia and Mato Grosso.

The effects are most tragically seen in Brazil itself but it is a global problem and no part of the Earth’s surface will be spared the consequences.

@fluther From what I recall, that was happening in the 80’s, too. How sad.

Have you heard the latest? Some fires are being reset after being put out.