Leonardo DiCaprio has pledged $5 million to the emergency Amazon Forest Fund created by Earth Alliance, an organization he formed with Laurene Powell Jobs and Brian Sheth last month.
That financial commitment will be used towards providing "critical resources for indigenous communities and other local partners working to protect the life-sustaining biodiversity of the Amazon against the surge of fires currently burning across the region." Those local groups fighting to protect the Amazon include the Coordination of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon, Instituto Associacao Floresta Protegida, Instituto Kabu, Instituto Raoni, and Instituto Socioambiental.
It is believed that the fires from Brazil's Amazon Rainforest are the result of slash-and-burn deforestation method deployed by farmers and cattle ranchers where fire is used to clear land. With the Amazon up in flames, the benefits once presented by the land, which the WWF refers to as a "sink" for carbon dioxide, could reverse course, and become a source of CO2 instead of oxygen.
The Amazon could begin to emit larger amounts of carbon dioxide, speeding up the pace of global warming. While politicians stateside continue to deny the imminent threat of global warming, the impact of the Amazon fires is being seen and felt by its neighboring locations.
