The Amazon rainforest contains almost two years of global carbon emissions, but is under threat as a carbon sink, according to a new study.

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest dropped 33.6% in the first six months of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s term, providing an encouraging sign for his administration's environmental efforts.

A delegation from the Brazilian government that includes widows of two slain men who had worked for justice for Indigenous Amazon peoples arrived in the remote region where the two were slain Monday in a symbolic retake of the place, now that a new government has taken office in Brazil.

Environmentalists, Indigenous people and voters sympathetic to their causes were important to Luiz Inácio da Silva's election to a third term as Brazil's president.

Closely-watched numbers for annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon show the total area of forest loss is down somewhat from last year, but that was a 15-year high.

More fires burned in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest this August than in any month in nearly five years, thanks to a surge in illegal deforestation.

After declaring a decision final, an important state court in Brazil has backpedaled and reopened a lawsuit that invalidated a large protected area in the country's Amazon rainforest.

The Brazilian government has granted a preliminary environmental permit for paving a controversial highway that cuts through one of the Amazon’s most preserved areas.

Peru has descended into one of the worst political crises in its history and protection of its Amazon rainforest is failing, according to a report published Thursday.

A pledge by nine grantmakers to give $5 billion to conservation efforts that address threats to biodiversity and to help curb climate change is taking a different approach than philanthropy has embraced in the past — one that may require those organizations to do things differently.

That’s the thing, it goes everywhere, and progress, and it’s a challenge to move things along.” Daniel Brindis, Greenpeace Forest DirectorHow do we fix deforestation and climate change and all things evil that are happening to the earth? The hunger for beef is the demand, the cows are the supply, so one way people can slow deforestation is by eating less red meat. Climate change, unfortunately, is driving deforestation as well, by fueling fires even more.”You can also vote for change. We can’t wiggle our noses and reverse climate change. He says all we can do is our best, “That’s really what we’re looking for right now is the best-case scenario.”Part 1: How deforestation is connected to our health: ‘Nature is really trying to tell us something’Part 2: Deforestation and Disease: Is beef consumption killing the planet?

The red meat trade is massive in Brazil and the United States, and many other places in the world. Chan School of Public Health, says too much beef consumption is harmful in more ways than one. “It’s hard to justify beef consumption,” Bernstein says red meat consumption is killing Americans, “So we know that red meat consumption is driving people to get diseases that are leading them to die early. Dr. Joe Eisenberg, Professor, and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan says science needs to reposition itself for a different perspective on climate change the connection to disease, “I’ve been working in climate change, and disease questions for decades, and it’s true that most climate change researchers Don’t think about the link to disease as much.”Eisenberg says he thinks people are thinking about it more now than ever before. What you can do to help slow down deforestation, climate change, and everything else attached.

Deforestation on the riseThe rate of deforestation is about two to one over forest expansion. Their forest campaign director, Daniel Brindis, says way too many trees are cut down, “Deforestation is on the rise. But not all of those events happen in forests, “We think that COVID emergence happened in a similar way that’s ours emergence happening. Our health is linked to the earth’s health, “Connecting dots right now could not be easier with Coronavirus and wildfires and hurricanes,” says Bernstein. He says you can’t miss the message, “You know, it’s in our faces, nature is really trying to tell us something.

Last month, mainly European investment firms sent a letter expressing concern over rising deforestation and demanded forceful action against illegal activities in the Amazon. We hope the dialogue can bring forward positive results and progress, we wont see the same as last year with all the forest fires, and maybe see positive results coming out of this after awhile. Brazil already receives money from wealthy nations, namely Germany and Norway, to fight deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. Norway alone has donated $1.2 billion to Brazils Amazon Fund since its creation in 2008. However, both European nations suspended contributions last year, citing continued deforestation and questioning whether the government wants to stop it.

The Cerrado is half the size of the Amazon and is 50% deforested, according to Edegar de Oliveira Rosa, director of Conservation and Restoration of Ecosystems at WWF-Brazil. Like in the Amazon, Cerrado habitats are being cleared because of global demand for meat -- to make way for cattle ranches, and later converted to grow soy which is used to feed livestock or exported to other parts of the world. The area has fewer protections than the Amazon, where according to de Oliviera Rosa, around 50% of land remains protected. "It is a forest in a different way -- it is an upside-down forest, because a lot of the biomass is underground," de Oliviera Rosa told CNN. "The Amazon rainforest is firmly established in the psyche of many for decades now, and rightly so -- it's suffering a desperate plight of its own," Gardner told CNN.

(CNN) - Fires are raging at a record rate in Brazil's Amazon rainforest, and scientists warn that it could strike a devastating blow to the fight against climate change. The fires are burning at the highest rate since the country's space research center, the National Institute for Space Research (known by the abbreviation INPE), began tracking them in 2013, the center said Tuesday. There have been 72,843 fires in Brazil this year, with more than half in the Amazon region, INPE said. According to INPE, more than 1 soccer fields of Amazon rainforest are being destroyed every minute of every day. Activists blame Brazil's presidentEnvironmental groups have long been campaigning to save the Amazon, blaming Brazil's far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, for the endangerment of the vital rainforest.

(CNN) - Fires are raging at a record rate in Brazil's Amazon rainforest, and scientists warn that it could strike a devastating blow to the fight against climate change. The fires are burning at the highest rate since the country's space research center, the National Institute for Space Research (known by the abbreviation INPE), began tracking them in 2013, the center said Tuesday. There have been 72,843 fires in Brazil this year, with more than half in the Amazon region, INPE said. According to INPE, more than 1 soccer fields of Amazon rainforest are being destroyed every minute of every day. Activists blame Brazil's presidentEnvironmental groups have long been campaigning to save the Amazon, blaming Brazil's far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, for the endangerment of the vital rainforest.