Wildlife advocates have responded with grave concern to reports of rampant fires throughout the Amazon rainforest . Tens of thousands of blazes this month are tearing through the pristine wilderness, the largest tropical rainforest on the planet that covers an area roughly the size of the contiguous United States.

Many of those fires have been linked to farmers clearing vegetation to make room for crops and cattle, spurred by the policies of Brazils far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro and his pledge to open the Brazilian Amazon to development. But deforestation isnt an Amazon-only problem, and many of the worlds forests face rampant threats.

So, whats going on, and are the lungs of the planet really in such dire straits?