PERUVIAN AMAZON PART II: DON'T LOSE THE FOREST THROUGH THE TREES

Serpentine

Carbon Score: 8.4

Still in the Amazon, the team is rolling from one encounter to the next. Each find lights their eyes up like fireworks and keeps everyone pushing forward. With only a week left to experience pure bliss, it's all hands on deck for the better part of 24 hours a day. The final find though- no one imagined it would be so sweet. While a quick dip into the largest rainforest on Earth may render one to conjure thoughts of their surroundings being immortal and indestructible- the truth is a sobering one. Roughly 1,100 square miles of Peru's forests are cut down every year—around 80% of them illegally. Fires burn where they shouldn't, uncontacted indigenous are pushed out of their homes, the sun gazes hotter, the rains hit harder. The main culprits of deforestation are small-scale agriculture, commercial mining and related road construction, and forest degradation is caused primarily by illegal logging. The scars across Peru are visible from space, and if we can't sustainably progress while keeping love at the forefront of our decisions- the necessary prescription for biodiversity is annihilation.

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