From: Cool Earth
Biologist Andrew Mitchell has likened seeing a rainforest burning down to "an opera where people are lying around bleeding" while speaking at the launch of the World Travel Market's World Responsible Tourism Day, it has been reported.
According to E Turbo News, Mr Mitchell made the comments after the screening of a video showing deforestation in the rainforest, which he said "brought a lump" to his throat.
He went on to note that to developers and other businesses, "rainforests are worth more dead than alive" but that this needed to be changed.
According to the biologist, 13 million hectares of rainforest are burned down every year, which results in 20 per cent of the total amount of greenhouse gas seen in the atmosphere.
This area is equivalent in size to England, the source noted.
Figures from Monga Bay suggested that since 1970, more than 600,000 square kilometres of the Amazon rainforest have been cleared.