3️⃣ *Eighteen football pitches every minute* of *every hour of every day:* that is the *record extent of tropical rainforest destroyed last year* due in large measure to *fires fuelled by climate change,* researchers reported. 🐒 🌳 🔥 Tally it up and the *world lost 67,000 square kilometres* of *precious primary tropical forest,* an area *double the size of Belgium or Taiwan.* The *loss was 80% higher than in 2023,* the *Global Forest Watch think tank said* on Wednesday. _*"This level of forest destruction is completely unprecedented* in more than 20 years of data,"_ its *co-director Elizabeth Goldman said. _"This is a global red alert."_* *Fires are responsible for nearly half of these losses,* surpassing for the first time agriculture as the *main driver of destruction.* *Loss of tree cover in 2024* generated *more than three billion tonnes of CO2 pollution,* exceeding *India's emissions from fossil fuel use* in the same period.