The fires that devastated the Amazon in the summer of 2019 were no accident. Most were deliberately set to clear land in the rainforest for agricultural purposes. But while Americans were outraged by images of the fires in the news and on social media, there's evidence that development in the Amazon is fueled, in part, by their own consumer dollars.

A new report shows for the first time how firms that fuel the destruction of the Brazilian Amazon openly trade with and receive financing from a range of companies and major investors in the U.S. Although these producers of soy, cattle, and timber for export have documented links to illegal deforestation, corruption, slave labor, and other crimes, they nonetheless do business with investors and companies based in America.

This means U.S. companies are not only financing rainforest destruction, they also financed the disastrous Amazon fire.

We cannot continue to support the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

American based companies like Cargill, JPMorgan Chase, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street, among others, are in dealings with or bankroll the bad-acting Brazilian companies.

The Amazon rainforest, or “the lungs of the world”, is in serious danger, and American companies are supporting that destruction. We must take urgent action to preserve our rainforests or cause irreversible damage to our planet.

We must demand U.S. based companies divest and/or stop bankrolling Brazilian companies that are the source of the destruction.