Be Kind Magazine

10 October 2019

Hello, If you’d asked me earlier this year what images the Amazon rainforest conjured up in my mind, it would be densely packed, lush green trees, brightly coloured macaws and chatty toucans living alongside speedy squirrel monkeys and majestic jaguars. Perhaps naively, I assumed that the world’s largest rainforest was a constant – a protected part of our natural landscape, somewhere we can all close our eyes and see images of, like the Alps or the river Nile. But, over the last few months, this idyllic picture of the Amazon has been destroyed, replaced with haunting and horrifying images of blazing fires and ominous plumes of smoke. Often described as the lungs of the planet, the Amazon now looks like it’s starting to choke. The anthropogenic impact we have had on some of the most vital natural resources on the planet is really starting to show. The notion of constants is changing, too – our glaciers are melting, our rainforests are being destroyed, our rivers are polluted and our coastlines eroded – the landscape of our planet as we know it looks set to continue to transform and degrade. As bleak a future as I’m describing, it’s not all doom and gloom and there are many things we can do to help. We want the future generations to close their eyes and picture the toucans, not the burning embers of what was once the greatest rainforest on Earth. We need to act, and we need to do it now. Check out our special feature on p32. Have a great month, Phillipa Editor