As UN climate talks loom, Brazil's Amazon forest loses in May an area larger than NYC
MANAUS, Brazil (AP) — Brazil's environmental goals suffered a major setback in May as deforestation in the Amazon surged 92% compared to the same month last year, according to official monitoring data released Friday.
Forest loss reached 960 square kilometers (371 square miles) during the period, an area slightly larger than New York City. It was the second-highest total for May since the current monitoring system was implemented in 2016.
The increase risks reversing the year-over-year decline in forest clearance since 2023, when Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva began his third term. During his campaign, the leftist leader had pledged to end deforestation by 2030.
Brazil's monitoring system tracks deforestation from Aug. 1 to July 30. Over the past 10 months, deforestation has risen 9.7% compared to the same period a year earlier.
The 2025 deforestation rate, tracked by the National Institute for Space Research, is expected to be announced just before the U.N. climate talks, scheduled for November in the Amazonian city of Belém.
Brazil is one of the world's top 10 emitters of greenhouse gases, contributing about 3% of global emissions, according to the nonprofit Climate Watch. Almost half of those emissions come from deforestation, making efforts to halt it critical to meeting Brazil's commitments under the 2015 Paris Agreement.
The Amazon, an area almost twice the size of India, contains the world's largest rainforest, about two-thirds of it within Brazil. It stores vast amounts of carbon dioxide, holds about 20% of the world's freshwater and is home to hundreds of Indigenous tribes, some living in isolation, and 16,000 known tree species.
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The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
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Forbes
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Per a 2018 UC Berkeley study based on Forbes data, families in the top 0.1% of Americans by net worth were estimated to owe just 3.2% of their wealth in taxes in 2019, while the bottom 99% were estimated to have owed 7.2%; since then, America's richest have only gotten richer, and Bezos' estimated tax bill for 2024 amounts to around 1% of his estimated net worth. If some of the plans to tax billionaires more that have been proposed recently were in effect, his tax bill for last year would have likely more than tripled but would still be a small fraction of his net worth. B ezos founded Amazon in 1994 and took it public in 1997. (Had he never parted with any of his stock, Bezos would still own a 22% stake worth more than $500 billion today.) Since then, Amazon hasn't awarded Bezos additional stock and has paid him a modest salary—$81,840 in 2020, the year before he stepped down as CEO. He's not just being humble. 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The $13.6 billion from Bezos' 2024 Amazon share sales was likely subject to the top 23.8% rate for federal taxes on long-term capital gains, resulting in an estimated $3.2 billion federal tax liability before deductions. Had he still lived in Washington, he likely would have paid nearly 31%, or another $1 billion in taxes. Like Washington, Florida has no state income tax. As Bezos, 61, nears the average American's retirement age, the Sunshine State offers one other advantage: no state estate tax (and as for the federal estate tax, most billionaires are able to avoid that anyway). Amazon share sales aside, Bezos pays a smattering of other taxes. For example, property taxes: Over the last five years, Bezos spent more than $500 million to add several splashy homes to his real estate portfolio, including three (or possibly four) properties on Miami-Dade County's 'billionaire bunker,' Beverly Hills' nine-acre Warner Estate and a secluded estate on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Bezos' properties in Florida, Washington, California, D.C., New York and Hawaii cost him around $7 million in 2024 property taxes, per local government websites. (He also sold one of his Washington state properties for $63 million last year, which resulted in around $10 million in estimated taxes.) Bezos could pay annual taxes on other investments. Since he made a reported $250,000 bet on Google in 1998, Bezos has invested in at least 108 startups—and now holds stakes in several high-profile AI companies, including humanoid robotics firm Figure AI and AI-powered search engine Perplexity. (Dow Jones & Co. sued the company in 2023 alleging large-scale illegal copying of copyrighted work; Forbes sent Perplexity a cease-and-desist letter accusing the company of using its reporting without permission in June 2024.) If any of the companies he bet on are acquired, conduct private share sales, pay dividends or go public, Bezos would need to pay capital gains taxes on that income. Additionally, if Bezos has other income-generating investments, like dividend- or interest-paying stocks or bonds, that would add to his tax bill as well, according to Matthew Lee, director of wealth strategies at investment manager Wilmington Trust. Then there are the tax deductions, mostly due to charitable contributions. Bezos is one of America's top givers by dollar amount, per Forbes' calculations, having given away more than $4 billion during his lifetime to climate, housing and education causes, as well as the Smithsonian and the Obama Foundation. Donors can immediately deduct up to 20% or 30% of their adjusted gross income via stock gifts to charitable organizations, regardless of whether those charities actually use the funds that year (and potentially more via charitable trusts, although Bezos isn't known to use them). Donors can also carry forward unused deductions from the past five years. 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