Biodiversity: The Amazon Is Not Eternal

Lovejoy, head of the committee responsible for this major scientific investigation, said the Amazon has already lost 17 to 18 percent of its forests. Furthermore, "it has a remarkable hydrogeological system where the forest generates at least half of its own rainfall."

Photo courtesy of Lalo de Almeida/NY Times

Growing Demand for Soybeans Threatens Amazon Rainforest

Today the soybean occupies more U.S. cropland than wheat. And in Brazil, where it spread even more rapidly, the soybean is invading the Amazon rainforest.

[Photograph by: Dan Gunderson/MPR]