This year has been filled with many difficult events striking areas all around the world, such as the war in Gaza, the Iran-Iraq War, and global tensions with tariffs and border closures. These, along with political conflicts, are just the frosting on the cake of disaster.
It started in 2024, when Pará, a state in Brazil, gave the green light to being construction for the new Avenida Liberdade highway on June 15, 2024, a project that would create a 4-lane highway that stretched 8 miles through the Amazon rainforest. This project, however, was delayed due to environmental concerns. But now they have started back up the construction, because of the COP 30 Summit happening this November in Belém, the capital of Pará.
Let’s first realize what good the Amazon Rainforest does for the planet. It plays a crucial role in global climate regulation by absorbing huge amounts of carbon dioxide, influencing global weather patterns through its water cycle, and harboring incredible biodiversity, including potential new medicines. It is also the home to millions of people, including indigenous communities who depend on it for their livelihood and cultural cycle.
There have been many issues with this project. This road will cut a line through a huge chunk of the rainforest, chopping down an enormous amount of trees, different species of plants, and disrupting the species of animals that live in that area. According to BBC News, Prof Silvia Sardinha, a wildlife vet and researcher, said, “We are going to lose an area to release these animals back into the wild, the natural environment of these species…Land animals will no longer be able to cross to the other side, too, reducing the areas where they can live and breed.” (BBC, 2025). This highway is detrimental to the species living in the rainforest, along with the plants, and not to mention the people living there!
Claudio Verequete and his family live in the rainforest, and their main income is from selling acai berries. Now, their source of income has been chopped down, and they have been forgotten. “We were born and raised here in the community. Where are we going to go?” says Verequete.
Government officials say that the highway is sustainable, and it will open up a way to increase tourism into the cities and bring more income to those who live in the area. But in truth, will this bring people who have no respect for their surroundings, more pollution, disrespect to the animals, plants, and humans that live there, and people coming in with no real understanding of how damaging this new development is for the environment?
Fast Company is against the construction, and they say, “Road building in the Amazon, which historically has often led to deforestation and development of surrounding areas, also stands in stark contrast to a central aim of climate conferences, and in particular this one: conservation of biodiversity.” (Press, 2025). Fast Company, along with so many others, sees this road as a step in the opposite direction of their goal: more strict climate commitments. The tearing down 8 miles (13 km) of rainforest, one of the largest standing tropical forests in the world, is quite the opposite.
This is something very dear to me. The Amazon Rainforest is an amazing place in this world, one that is admired and revered for its age and strength, and demeaning it by tearing it down to “free up traffic” just doesn’t seem right to me, am I wrong? There could be many benefits from this endeavor, and more people might travel to see the Amazon and realize its beauty, and gain an understanding on why we need to protect it to save what we have in this world, but so far this seems like the wrong step to make.
