Brazil Clears 8 Miles of Amazon Rainforest to Make Space for UN Climate Conference

This November, the United Nations will descend on the city of Belém, Brazil in an attempt to solve climate change. The 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP30, will bring 50,000 people to the city. Brazil cut down portions of the Amazon rainforest to build a four-lane highway and make it just a little easier for those 50,000 people to arrive. As reported by the BBC, the state government of Pará cleared out eight miles of Amazon rainforest to build the highway. The BBC’s article has pictures of the clear-cut forest floor where logs have been piled up along a stretch of road that will soon hold concrete and passing cars. Forests, in general, and the Amazon Rainforest, in particular, are instrumental in fighting rising global temperatures. André Aranha Corrêa Do Lago, a career Brazilian diplomat who is heading up the COP30, eloquently made the case for forests in a letter he published earlier this week that laid out his vision for the conference, the climate, and the wor ... Read full article.