Clearing of tropical forest in Peru

Often called Earth’s green lungs, tropical forests pull down massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, release oxygen and help regulate the global climate. While the threat of large-scale deforestation is well known, new findings reveal a surprising culprit – the clearance of small areas of forest accounts for more than half of all carbon losses across the Tropics.

The satellite image here, acquired by the NASA’s Landsat-5 on 10 July 1995, shows clearings in tropical forests in Peru’s Loreto region.