Latest satellite photos show Amazon rainforest depleting
The bad news: In April, the Amazon rainforest shrunk by 430 square miles, in addition to the 2,300 square miles that were destroyed since last August.The even worse news: What we're doing to try to stop it may not be working.
What's causing such destruction, you ask? Sadly, it's pretty simple: illegal logging, soybean farming, and cattle production are contributing to the mass destruction of forests, at rates that are hard to keep up with. According to the World Resources Institute, Brazil is the world's fourth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, largely because of deforestation.
The new deforestation data is from a system called DETER, which monitors the rainforest in real-time. For awhile, the outlook was more positive, as a long-term monitoring system reported data that suggested that the rate of deforestation had dropped more than 50%. But researchers believe that the new DETER data will change these stats.
It's Energy Independence Day! 
Green Your 4th of July Celebration
The Importance of Pollination - It's Not Just Bee Sex
