TOPSHOT-BRAZIL-UN-COP26-CLIMATE-AMAZON-PHOTO ESSAY

TOPSHOT - Aerial view show a deforested area of Amazonia rainforest in Labrea, Amazonas state, Brazil, on September 15, 2021. The Amazon basin has, until recently, absorbed large amounts of humankind's ballooning carbon emissions, helping stave off the nightmare of unchecked climate change. But studies indicate the rainforest is hurtling toward a "tipping point," at which it will dry up and turn to savannah, its 390 billion trees dying off en masse. Already, the destruction is quickening, especially since far-right President Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019 in Brazil -- home to 60 percent of the Amazon -- with a push to open protected lands to agribusiness and mining. (Photo by MAURO PIMENTEL / AFP) (Photo by MAURO PIMENTEL/AFP via Getty Images)