"Tenty-five years ago people could be excused for not knowing much or doing much, about climate change. Today we have no excuse." -- Desmond Tutu
"If you really think that the environment is less important than the economy, try holding your breath while you count your money." -- Guy McPherson
"I'm often asked whether I believe in global warming. I now just reply with the question: Do you believe in gravity?" -- Neil deGrasse Tyson
"We are the first generation to feel the sting of climate change, and we are the last generation that can do something about it." -- Jay Inslee
"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." -- Native American Proverb
Overview
Across the burning Amazon, smoke is rising and fine particles of charcoal are falling softly to the ground.
At last count, more than 93,000 fires were alight in the Brazilian Amazon, up more than 60 percent from the
same time last year, and the highest number since 2010. According to NASA, this year’s fires are more intensethan in previous years, too.
But Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research (INPE) has only been keeping fire records since 1998, and
two decades isn’t long in the life of a forest where trees live for centuries and humans have been setting
fires for millennia.
In terms of climate change
Cutting trees both adds carbon dioxide to the air and removes the ability to absorb
existing carbon dioxide. If tropical deforestation were a country, according to the World Resources Institute,
it would rank third in carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions, behind China and the U.S.
The numbers are grim, but many conservationists see reasons for hope. A movement is under way to preserve existing
forest ecosystems
and restore lost tree cover.
Here is Greta Thunberg's speech at the UN Climate Change COP24 Conference