An environmental and social catastrophe is happening in the tropics. Forest fires are burning through tens of thousands of square kilometers of rainforests -- the lungs of the planet -- in Indonesia and Brazil.
While the situation has been worsened by El Nino -- a climatic pattern which dries tropical areas -- the fact that fires do not occur naturally in most tropical regions mean that humans are to blame. Evidence shows that these fires are being set to clear land for plantation and grazeland development.
