Each year, vast areas of the Amazon rainforest are cleared for cattle ranching, soybean farming, and illegal logging. Brazil, home to 60% of the Amazon, has lost millions of acres in recent decades. When trees are cut, carbon stored in the biomass is released, accelerating climate change. Moreover, deforestation disrupts the rainforest's ability to generate its own rainfall, threatening to push parts of the Amazon toward a “tipping point”—where rainforest turns to dry savannah, collapsing entire ecosystems.
Many forest fires in the Amazon are intentionally set to clear land. Combined with rising global temperatures and longer dry seasons, fires are growing more intense and frequent. This releases vast amounts of carbon dioxide, weakening one of the Earth’s largest carbon sinks. As the Amazon shifts from a carbon sink to a carbon source, it fuels global warming and weakens planetary climate regulation.
The Amazon is the most biodiverse region on Earth, home to over 3 million species, including countless plants, animals, fungi, and microbes not found anywhere else. When forests are destroyed, so are these lifeforms—some extinct before ever being discovered. Fragmented habitats make it harder for species to survive, reproduce, or adapt to changes, leading to cascading ecological collapse.
Roughly 30 million people live in the Amazon, including hundreds of Indigenous groups—some uncontacted. Many are under constant threat from illegal miners, loggers, and land grabbers, often with government indifference or hostility. These communities depend on the forest for food, water, medicine, and cultural survival. When their land is destroyed, their way of life—and in many cases, their lives—are endangered.
The Amazon’s destruction is a global emergency. It endangers Earth’s climate, erodes irreplaceable biodiversity, and violates the rights and futures of Indigenous peoples.
How to Save the Amazon: A Journalist’s Fatal Quest for Answers by Dom Phillips is a poignant and powerful posthumous exploration of one of the world’s most critical ecosystems. Southeast of global attention, Phillips ventures into the heart of the Amazon during the Bolsonaro era, uncovering deforestation, illegal fishing, mining, and violence against Indigenous communities, while simultaneously crafting hopeful visions for preservation.
Phillips sets out on a deeply personal mission: traveling with Indigenous specialist Bruno Pereira, he investigates the root causes of the deforestation of the Amazon and discovered corrupt land laws, opportunistic ranching, lawlessness exploited by criminal networks and a global financial network that incentivizes the destruction of the Amazon.
Tragically, Phillips' journalism ends in violence. Phillips and Pereira were ambushed and murdered mid-research.
Phillips' friends and colleagues refused to allow his journalism to be silenced. They completed his book and made sure it was published. The book splits at this harrowing moment: the first half is Phillips’ own writing; the second is completed by a team of his colleagues, friends, and Indigenous contributors striving to honor his vision.
Guest:
Andrew Fishman is the President & Co-Founder of The Intercept Brasil.
Jonathan Watts is the Global Environment Editor for The Guardian. He is also the founder of the Rainforest Journalism Fund and Sumaúma.com. Watts is based in the Amazon rainforest and has extensive experience as a foreign correspondent, previously reporting from East Asia and other locations.
"The Source" is a live call-in program airing Mondays through Thursdays from 12-1 p.m. Leave a message before the program at (210) 615-8982. During the live show, call 833-877-8255, email thesource@tpr.org.
This discussion will be recorded on Wednesday, June 25, 2025.
