amazon rainforest

Smoke rises from the fires ravaging the Amazon basin in August. On Monday, Brazilian authorities released data revealing the highest rate of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in a decade — partly due to a recent surge in wildfires throughout the region.

Amazon Rainforest Sees Biggest Spike In Deforestation In Over A Decade

Colin Dwyer

Not since 2008 has the Amazon been destroyed at a faster rate, according to Brazilian authorities. They say an area more than 12 times the size of New York City was deforested in the span of a year.

Demonstrators march on Friday in São Paulo, Brazil, holding a banner with a message that reads in Portuguese: "The Amazon belongs to the people." Brazilians staged protests across the country throughout the weekend demanding action to combat the fires in the Amazon.

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SOS From Brazil's Amazon Fire Protesters: 'We Need The World's Help Right Now'

Catherine Osborn

Protesters took to the streets across Brazil this weekend to voice outrage over the fires burning through the Amazon.

Moacir Cordeiro, who works in a local cattle farm, looks on after digging grooves with a tractor in an attempt to stave off fires in the Alvorada da Amazonia region in Novo Progresso, Para state, Brazil, on Sunday.

G-7 Leaders Pledge Money To Help Fight Amazon Rainforest Blazes, Macron Says

Scott Neuman

As the summit in France wrapped up, Brazil's far-right president tweeted that the international alliance treats his country "as if we were a colony or no man's land."

An illegally chopped down tree in Machadinho d'Oeste in the western Brazilian state of Rondonia.

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Deforestation Of The Amazon Up 29 Percent From Last Year, Study Finds

Camila Domonoske

Brazil's National Institute for Space Research found that more than 3,000 square miles of forest cover were lost between August 2015 and July 2016 — a substantial increase over the year before.