Have you ever heard of a pink river dolphin?
How about a black spider monkey?
Or a peanut-head bug?
Well, I bet you HAVE heard of a jaguar,
a piranha and an anaconda.
Am I right?
They're just a few of the millions of incredible
and sometimes creepy creatures that call the Amazon home.
As you probably already know, the Amazon is a big old rainforest,
and I mean big.
It's the world's largest rainforest and river system,
stretching across 5.5 million square kilometres
of South America, mainly Brazil.
It's the most biologically diverse place on Earth.
It's also home to about 1 million indigenous people.
But right now, the Amazon is facing a huge crisis.
WOMAN: The Amazon is burning.
Fires could have planetary-wide implications.
Those fires swallowing the Amazon rainforest.
Tens of thousands of fires have been raging here for weeks now.
Reports show that about three soccer fields-worth of forest
is burning every minute...
..and the smoke can be seen all the way from space.
At one point, the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo
was blanketed by so much of it, its skies went dark like night-time.
This NASA satellite picture shows a cloud of carbon monoxide -
a harmful gas that's being produced by the fires.
Experts say most of these fires have been deliberately lit
by farmers trying to clear land for their animals and crops.
Land clearing with fires or machinery
has been going on in the Amazon for years,
and some say that's a big problem.
Rainforests play an important and complex role
in the health of our atmosphere.
They suck up carbon dioxide
and turn it into oxygen
through a process called photosynthesis.
And while the plants and soil
also take in oxygen and produce CO2
in a process called respiration,
overall, the Amazon acts
as a carbon sponge
helping to clear the air.
It also has a big effect on rainfall in the region.
Over the past decade or so,
deforestation in the Amazon has gone down dramatically
thanks to changes to Brazilian laws
and national and international programs and agreements
to try to protect the Amazon.
But this year, Brazil got a new president,
Jair Bolsonaro.
He says he wants more development in the Amazon
and to weaken environmental laws,
and that's made many people angry.
(PROTESTERS CHANT)
Some conservationists and celebrities,
like Leonardo DiCaprio and Ariana Grande,
have called for action to put out the fires and protect the Amazon.
Many world leaders have also spoken out about it.
And we've seen, in the Amazon rainforest,
a tragic increase in fires,
which are made more likely by...by deforestation.
Last week, some of those leaders offered Brazil
nearly $30 million to help tackle the fires
and suggested replanting some of the trees.
But President Bolsonaro has so far turned down the money,
saying his country will handle it.
The Brazilian government says
it's put billions of dollars towards fighting the fires
and it's sent in tens of thousands of soldiers to help out.
It's a huge task, and one the world will be watching closely
in the hope that they'll be able to protect
this amazing natural wonder
and all of the creatures that rely on it.