Soc Stud 7

Amazon rain forest, Brazil Deforestation continues to be the major environmental issue in the Amazon, the world's largest tropical rain forest. But as locals and corporations chop down the Amazon's rich forests to create farmland and to harvest biofuels, climate change may make things worse. "The fear is that there will be kind of a feedback where trees are cut down, and it gets warmer and drier" in the forest until it can't grow back, Henson said. The best way to visit the forest is by boat, Henson said. That way, you'll leave less of a mark on the struggling ecosystem. Of course, getting to a boat on the Amazon is not simple, and the long trip can create a lot of heat-trapping pollution. Henson said the destination might be one of those better left alone by tourists.

Ms Silva had blamed the increasing deforestation of the Amazon on Brazilian cattle ranchers and farmers.