A sad story about the Amazon river basin from the BBC written by someone who visited it 30 years ago and who recently returned.
Appetite for Amazon destruction
Earlier this month, the Brazilian government announced that almost one-fifth of the entire Amazon has now been cleared by deforestation.
It is a strange sensation returning to a place you have not visited for 30 years.
And it is even stranger if everything has changed out of all recognition.
I first went to the Amazon basin in 1974.
At that time it was a real Wild West.
The generals then ruling Brazil had decided, in what later proved to be a dangerous simplification, that the Amazon basin was empty.
It was time, they said, to occupy it. So they set about building a network of roads and encouraging loggers and cattle companies to move in.
The article continues with her description of a small hamlet which is now a city of 80,000. Brazil is using these lands to grow soybeans and to produce beef for export. 20% of one of the most unique ecosystems on this planet has been carved up and cleared.