In a 35-minute flight over the area surrounding Manaus, the largest city in the Brazilian Amazon, U.S. President Joe Biden was able to observe the effects of extreme drought on the biome, the advance of deforestation in areas that were previously more preserved, and the impact of fire in the forest. This is according to two people who accompanied Biden on the flyover, which took place on Sunday afternoon (17) aboard the Marine One helicopter, from the U.S. government, accompanied by six other helicopters from the same fleet.

On the same aircraft as Biden were scientist and researcher Carlos Nobre, from USP (University of São Paulo), and the U.S. government’s climate advisor, John Podesta.

In an interview with Folha after Biden’s visit to this portion of the western Amazon—the first visit by a sitting U.S. president—Nobre said that the president witnessed, from above, fire spots in the forest.

"The president and I saw two fires happening in the middle of a forest. It wasn’t in a pasture; it was in the middle of a forest. Someone set a fire there," said the researcher.

Podesta, in an interview with journalists after Biden’s last act in his visit to Manaus, said that the president was interested in the information shared by Nobre that fire in the Amazon is almost entirely caused by human activity. "The president was very interested in this point, that 96% of the fires in the Amazon are caused by people."