The G-7 summit held in France decided an immediate $22 million donation to fight the raging fires in the Amazon rainforest. The leaders of the seven nations said that they are preparing to help Brazil battle fires burning across the Amazon region and repair the damages.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, summit host and visitor respectively, suggested that the rainforests that are being ravaged because of the massive fires represent the “lungs” of the planet for its role in absorbing major amounts of carbon dioxide and producing oxygen.

France would provide military support in the region to fight fires, said Macron. He also added that the United States of America supported the aid to South American countries even though President Donald Trump skipped Monday’s G-7 session on the environment. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her country and others will talk with Brazil about reforestation in the Amazon once fires there have been extinguished. “Of course (this is) Brazilian territory, but we have a question here of the rainforests that is really a global question,” she said. “The lung of our whole Earth is affected, and so we must find common solutions.”

The Amazonian regions have detected more than 75000 fires this year, with a large amount of them this month.  The experts have blamed farmers and ranchers for the fires, accusing them of setting the fires to clear lands for farming. But some monitoring experts have reported that there has been a sharp increase in deforestation this year as well.  

(Header credit: Emmanuel Macron, Twitter)