The Carbon Question

Tropical forests are the planet's largest land-based carbon sink. Living trees pull carbon dioxide out of the air and lock it away in wood, roots, and soil.

The Amazon alone holds an estimated 150 to 200 billion tons of carbon. That is decades of human emissions, stored quietly in one forest and held in place only as long as the trees stand.

That balance flips the moment the trees come down.

When tropical forest is cleared or burned, the carbon it was holding escapes back into the sky as CO2. Tropical deforestation drives roughly 10% of all human greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Cutting a forest does not just stop a carbon sink; it turns the land into a carbon source.