Rainforest Facts
In 2021, scientists found that for the first time the Amazon emits more carbon dioxide than it absorbs.
About 12 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation, roughly equivalent to emissions from all the cars and trucks on Earth.
Between 2001 and 2019, Brazil lost 218,148 square miles of tree cover — an area larger than the state of California — to deforestation.
Commercial agriculture drives 40 percent of deforestation worldwide.
Leading banks financed $119 billion to companies linked to deforestation.
Agricultural expansion, illegal logging, mining and urbanization continue to drive deforestation around the world.
The Amazon rainforest is the largest rainforest in the world. If the Amazon was a country, it would be the ninth largest country in the world..
Many of the world's most important medicines have been derived from plants found in the rainforest, including treatments for cancer, malaria, and other diseases.