Fires drive tropical forest loss to 'red alert' record high

The world lost over 67,000 square kilometers of tropical rainforest last year, double the size of Belgium or Taiwan, primarily due to climate-driven fires that destroyed nearly half of all forest area. These fires caused more CO2 pollution than India’s fossil fuel emissions in 2024 alone. Tropical forests, crucial for biodiversity, face severe threats from both climate change and human activities like soybean cultivation, though some progress has been made elsewhere.