?A climate change activist holds a placard to highlight environment hazards, deforestation and wildfires of the Amazon forest outside the Brazilian Consulate General in Mumbai, India, Aug. 23, 2019. Climate change activists protested outside the Brazilian Consulate General here on Friday to show solidarity with the people of the Amazon Rainforest who have been facing a severe fire over the past two weeks. (Photo by Fariha Farooqui/Xinhua)
MUMBAI, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Climate change activists protested outside the Brazilian Consulate General here on Friday to show solidarity with the people of the Amazon Rainforest who have been facing a severe fire over the past two weeks.
"We want to draw the attention of the common citizens towards this grave crisis that will lead to climate change like the current unprecedented rains that we have witnessed in India followed by floods," said Shikhar Dhawan, a climate activist.
Similar demonstration was also held in India's capital New Delhi as well as in several other cities across the globe to put combined pressure on the Brazilian government, he said.
The Amazon Rainforest, located in Brazil, produces 20 percent of the world's oxygen and its current fire is one among the more than 72,000 fires around the world this year, an 84-percent increase on the same period in 2018, said Brazil's National Institute for Space Research.
Such fires have led to a sharp rise in deforestation during July and has further been followed by extensive burning in August.
The activists will submit a letter to the Brazilian Consulate General in the coming days to express their concern about the fire and climate change issue not only in the Amazon Rainforest, but also other parts of the world.
