Year-ender: Top climate-related stories of 2019

Amazon deforestation rate hits highest level in over a decade

The rate of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest has risen to its highest level in 11 years, according to Brazilian government data.

About 9,762 square kilometers of rainforest were lost for the 12 months through July 2019, according to the release from The National Institute for Space Research (INPE). That's a 29.5 percent increase over the previous 12 months and is the highest rate of loss since 2008, INPE said.

Brazilian Environment Minister Ricardo Sales said the increasing levels of deforestation were caused by illegal activities such as cattle grazing, agriculture, wood extraction and trade and illegal mining. The number of fires detected by satellites in the region is the highest it's been since 2008.

According to the Federation of American Scientists, global warming is both a cause and effect of deforestation. As temperatures rise and rain patterns change, rain forest ecosystems have trouble adapting. In some areas, rainfall has decreased and triggered a phenomenon scientists call "desertification," whereby forest area slowly turns into grassland.

This process actually triggers a feedback loop, because forests work to suck carbon out of the atmosphere. Reductions in forest land lead to more carbon in the atmosphere, causing more reductions in forest land.