NPR spent 2 weeks in the Amazon to find out. Take 10 mins to look at our photos and learn about why it’s so hard for us to stop deforestation — and what could happen if we don’t.  From: apps.npr.org

GR:  This slide show, composed of beautiful photos and brief comments, drills right through to the problems that continue to destroy Brazilian rain forest.  Small land owners continue to burn and ignore the fines that they have no money to pay anyway.  Elected congressional representatives run illegal logging enterprises.  The people of Brazil live in the world’s eighth largest economy built and maintained through the destruction of the rain forest.  Brazil’s large commitments to eliminate deforestation and cut greenhouse gasses are admirable, but they are unlikely to be approved by the Brazilian Congress.  So the Earth’s lungs shrink and the temperature rises.