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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Tom Phillips in the Amazon

‘Last-chance saloon’: race to wreck the Amazon as prospect of Bolsonaro defeat looms

A recently deforested stretch of forest near the Amazon town of Itaituba seen during a monitoring flight on 26 August
A recently deforested stretch of forest near the Amazon town of Itaituba seen during a monitoring flight on 26 August. Photograph: Christian Braga/ClimaInfo

As his turboprop plane powered through the skies over the Brazilian Amazon, Roni Lira stared down at scenes of villainous devastation.

Once mighty trees littered the scorched earth like spent matches. Smoke billowed up from recently torched tracts of land. Immense brown gashes scarred areas where mining pits and illegal airstrips had been carved out of supposedly protected Indigenous lands.

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