New laws under consideration will likely spark more tree-cutting − despite serious drought already contributing to a big increase in vast destructive fires.

Of last year’s fires, 8,000 occurred in the central region, where the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia share borders. This area, which encroaches on the cerrado, a vast tropical savanna ecoregion that is one of Brazil’s most threatened biomes, has become a fast-developing new agricultural powerhouse, producing soy, maize and cotton.  From: www.climatechangenews.com

GR:  Toxic wastes, global warming, livestock grazing, and farming are eliminating forests, shrublands, grasslands, and soils.  The losses are heartbreaking.  The realization that instead of slowing or stopping the losses are accelerating is dumbfounding.