Amazon forests are being destroyed at an unprecedented speed in the last 10 years

According to data recently provided by the Brazilian Ministry of Environment, the rate of forest trees destroyed in 2018 was 72% higher than in the same period of 2004.

Recently, the Brazilian Ministry of Environment published preliminary estimates of the rate of deforestation in Amazon in recent years. And indeed, these are sad numbers, because people are destroying forests and land to the greatest extent within the past decade.

At least 7,900km ² of Amazon forest disappeared within 1 year, from 8/2017 - 7/2018.

Specifically, according to satellite data, at least 7,900 square kilometers of Amazon forest disappeared within 1 year, from 8/2017 - 7/2018. That is five times the size of London, 10 times New York, 75 times Paris, and about 6.3 million times the area of ​​an Olympic standard pool.

That number is of course very large, but it is important that it is larger than the area destroyed in the previous year to 13.7%. Along with that, more than 1.12 billion trees were cut down.

The figures show an ominous trend, especially in the coming year when the Brazilian government can come up with priority policies to develop industries. Environmentalists say that these policies may cause deforestation to increase dramatically in the future.

Deforestation may also be related to weapons smuggling.

Edson Duarte - Brazil's Minister of Environment said that the responsibility here belongs to the loggers - organized deforestation. In addition, deforestation may also be related to weapons smuggling.

"We need to expand the mobilization of all levels of government, society and businesses to combat environmental encroachment, to protect the sustainable development of the ecosystem," Duarte said.

To get this result, the Ministry of Environment used satellite data - which is used to track cleared areas larger than 6.25 hectares. As a result, as mentioned above, more than 7,900 km ^{2 of} forest was cut down in just one year, while the previous year was only 6,947 km ² . And compared to 2004 figures, the rate has increased by 72%.

If this forest is lost, the amount of money people will have to pay is 50 times higher than what it takes to save the forest.

Experts now think it is still early to say this is a sign of a trend, and they also hope that is not true. Because Amazon is not only a diverse ecosystem, a place to store CO2 in the atmosphere, but also plays an important role for the global economy.

If this forest is lost, the amount of money people will have to pay is 50 times higher than what it takes to save the forest. And we have no time to decide, because time is running out. According to a study in March 2018, the Amazon forest is heading to an irreversible stage, if the rate of deforestation continues.