Ministry of Environment in Brazil has released the data skimpy initial estimations on the rate of deforestation in the Amazon over the past year. It is something miserable because humans are cutting down a lot of trees and destroying many lands than they have in a decade.

As stated by satellite imagery, 7,900 square kilometers (3,050 square miles) of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest were lost between August 2017 and July 2018. Therefore, this is equal to landmass five times the size of London, 10 times the size of New York, 75 times the size of Paris, and 6.3 million times the size of an Olympic swimming pool.

Additionally, it is an area 13.7 percent larger than the area destroyed by deforestation the earlier year and, as stated by BuzzFeed, signifies around 1.185 billion trees – a stat that highlights an upsetting trend.

Unfortunately, the main reason for global warming is deforestation, accounting for around 15 percent of annual emissions of heat-trapping gases, similar to that of the transportation sector.

Edson Duarte is the environment minister of Brazil, Duarte said that illegal logging was the main reason behind the increase in deforestation in the Amazon.
He also points the finger of blame towards illegal loggers, noting “the upsurge of organized crime that acts in the illegal deforestation of the Amazon”. The criminals, he says, are associated with other illegal practices, including arms trafficking.

“In addition to intensifying enforcement actions as the federal government has been doing in recent years, we need to broaden the mobilization of all levels of government, society, and the productive sector in the fight against environmental violations and in defense of the sustainable development of the biome,” Duarte said

As stated by a network of non-governmental organizations, the upsurge also caused by Brazil’s growing commodities sector as farmers want to expand.

“It is a lot of destroyed forest,” said Marcio Astrini, Greenpeace Brasil’s public policy coordinator. “The situation is very worrying… what is bad will get worse.”

It also expects deforestation to worsen once Jair Bolsonaro’s new government begins. He has frequently attacked what he calls the “fines industry” of agencies such as Ibama, and wants to allow mining in protected indigenous reserves – some of the Amazon’s least-destroyed forests – and even considered making the environment ministry part of the agriculture ministry.

Figures confirm that striking rise in the rate of deforestation compared to this time last year when a still sizable 6,947 square kilometers (2,682 square miles) of land was destroyed. However, it is also only a 0.08 percent increase on the year before that when 7,893 square kilometers (3,048 square miles) of land were deforested. It is a 72 percent development on 2004 figures, the year the Brazilian federal government started procedures to fight deforestation.

many scientists have considered that the Amazon as one of nature’s best protection against global warming, as it acts as a giant carbon “sink” by absorbing the gas.

“It’s when forests stop breathing that man bids farewell.”
― Anthony T. Hincks