BOGOTA, Colombia — 2024 was a brutal year for the Amazon rainforest, with rampant wildfires and extreme drought ravaging large parts of a biome that’s a critical counterweight to climate change.

Amazon rainforest, plagued by severe wildfires and extreme drought. These conditions intensified deforestation, largely driven by illegal activity and agribusiness expansion. Despite some environmental gains,

The fires and drought experienced in 2024 across the Amazon rainforest could be ominous indicators that we are reaching the long-feared ecological tipping point,” said Andrew Miller,

The Amazon is twice the size of India and sprawls across eight countries and one territory, storing vast amounts of carbon dioxide that would otherwise warm the planet. It has about 20% of the world's fresh water and astounding biodiversity,