The United States of America is not the only country making questionable climate policies. Among other problematic, derogatory statements made by Brazil's current President, Jair Bolsonaro has promised to begin converting precious Amazon rainforest land into farm and pasture land when he takes office on January 1st, 2019.

You can see the many, many problems here, right?

Many species of animals live in the rainforest and continuing to deforest the area would destroy their habitats and effectively ruin multiple ecosystems that reside there. There are also tribes of indigenous people who make their traditional home in the rainforest and would also be forced to either survive or wither away from their traditional way of life in a colonized world. Considering there are not many culture's lefts who have been relatively untouched by Western ways of thinking and colonization, and considering that is there home, it would be inhumane to destroy it with the knowledge that there are people living in the forest.

Even considering the horrific consequences with just that, there is one more thing to consider that makes the situation even direr. It is a travesty that it has not been reported more on mass media channels.

The Amazon rainforest, and other rainforests like it, are considered to be the lungs and sweat glands of the Earth. Without those ecosystems, the planet would not only lose an incredibly important cooling system, but the planet would also lose a significant source of oxygen.

Considering that the UN reported we only have 12 years to begin to rectify the global climate change crisis that may be sitting on our doorstep, we should all be paying more attention to Bolsonaro's rhetoric as he begins to take office.

The threat to destroy the rainforest for more agricultural space is not a threat that the world can sit by and idly view as if it is a passing car accident through our window. This is not a situation that we can ignore because "It's Brazil's land". The rainforest is an incredibly important ecosystem for the entire globe, and with his rhetoric, we sit at a fork in the road. Will the UN and other countries allow him to do something so horrific?

We can't sit in silence while we could potentially lose one of the planet's most important oxygen production systems.