The crisis is not over, but we also need to prevent the next emergency now

As the Amazon's dry season draws on, uncontained fires continue to rage across vast landscapes. It is estimated that in Brazil alone, nearly 3 million hectares – 11,500 square miles, or an area nearly as large as Belgium – have burned. Another 2 million hectares of Bolivia's forests have been lost.

The Amazon fires have drawn worldwide concern and condemnation for good reason: they are a man-made disaster enabled by a brutal and backward president, Jair Bolsonaro, whose regime has slashed environmental protections, human rights standards, and the rule of law to benefit the very actors destroying the rainforest.

We are collectively facing a climate emergency of unprecedented proportions of which today's Amazon fires are a burning symbol. In response, we need to exercise our collective power to extinguish these flames and build a future where this can never happen again.