Streams of sunlight pierce the limbs of a rainforest canopy.
1 square km (.62 square miles) of a rainforest can be host to many kinds of tree, and thousands of species of plant, animal, bird, and insect life. This area is around 30m (98 feet) for each side of a square. The oldest living organisms here can live over three thousand years, with up to 125 mammal species, 400 bird species, 100 reptile species, 60 amphibian species, and 150 different butterfly species.
12 square km (40 square miles) of this place will be lost to deforestation in the next twenty four hours. Today. This day.
I walk as quickly as I can, continuously and without a break, it will take me over six hours to cover the outer boundary of this daily destruction.
After one week 450 square km (280 square miles) is gone. Within 6 months the equivalent area of a major city has been levelled.
The catastrophic scale of life that is ruined because of human deforestation is impossible for a single human to comprehend. When humans fail to comprehend, they often fail to feel and look the other way.
Individual humans feel powerless to affect positive meaningful change. Those who govern pretend their efforts are not needed or enough.
Each and every human has a disproportionate affect on the world. Each has the opportunity and choice when deciding on their daily actions about what and how they consume, what they waste, and their care of living things beyond their immediate line of sight.
. . .
I stand tall as the sound of chain and choke draws near
I have lived
I live with teaming life
With rain and sun on earth with cloud
Thick smoke and crack of falling tree draws near
Be with me now
My countless lives that feed and share this home of stem that reaches high
Be with me safe
And there below
One man with saw looks up and breathes
And with that breath he stops
His choice to save this world is made
Your choice to make
. . .
ORIGINATOR · Mike de Sousa
ART FORM · Environmental Art
COMPLETED · 2026
Free to enjoy. Copyright maintained. Not to be used for ai or commercial gain.