There are some things that cannot be expressed adequately in words: the sound of a home reduced to ashes, the sight of families fleeing in a rush, or the scent of a habitat of beautiful forest animals turned into blackened wasteland. That is the horror of witnessing the Amazon being consumed by wildfires.

Yet I cannot imagine ever turning my back on it and letting it burn. I am a volunteer forest firefighter, in the Brigada de Alter do Chão, in operation for six years now in the state of Pará, Borari territory. My experience with climate change is intense, both in suffering its consequences and in fighting its causes. We are on the front lines of combating forest fires in our community and help other communities establish groups like ours to provide the first response for when wildfires occur.

To defend this rainforest – the soul of our country and a key to our planet’s survival – we volunteer to fight wildfires that put our lives at risk. We are joining the “polluters pay pact” to demand governments find the courage to impose significant taxes on the oil and gas corporations that literally fan the flames. 

The era of climate crisis is overlapping an era of inflation, budget cuts and chronic underfunding of public services. Although fires are getting worse, we are seeing cuts in pay and in the size of firefighting forces even in rich countries in the EU, the UK, and in the US. There many firefighters accumulate more than a thousand hours of overtime a year (a situation made even worse with the current administration). This puts remaining frontline workers at a higher risk of accidents and deaths. 

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Fossil Fuels Are Fueling the Flames

Oil and gas companies should pay more for climate change because they are the primary cause of greenhouse gas emissions that heat the planet and trigger chain reactions such as polar ice melting, ocean acidification, and forest destruction.

Last year there were over half a million fire outbreaks across South American countries, on a scale and at a rate that the forest cannot simply regrow. This number – which comes despite the celebrated efforts in Brazil to decrease deforestation by 30% – is the result of persistent and abnormal drought in 2024, fuelled by emissions of the fossil fuel industry and agribusiness that uses illegal fire to renew pastures. 

As tragic as it is, it should not come as a shock. Already three years ago, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) warned that the number of wildfires will rise by 50% by the end of the century. 

Destruction Driven by Agribusiness and Mining

There are local drivers, like soy and cattle agribusiness in which the federal government of Brazil invested R$ 508.59 billion last year, alongside illegal mining and plans for oil exploration at the seashore of the Amazon.

Added to these tremendous challenges is the global fossil fuel industry. The world’s largest oil and gas corporations are making money off the main products that are heating the planet. Ordinary people, as well as innocent wildlife, are paying the price: in air pollution, killer drought, floods, and fires. According to Gavi, the vaccine alliance, over half of infectious diseases are made worse by climate change.

We all pay for the climate crisis with public funds and private donations that serve to support the work of underpaid and volunteer firefighter groups like mine. Such resources could have been invested in other social needs had oil and gas companies not have denied and derailed actions on climate change for decades.

The UN calls for international safety and health standards of firefighters, recognising the vulnerabilities of the network of first responders. Indeed, firefighters are subject to physical, chemical, ergonomic, biologic, radiologic and mental health hazards. That includes heart disease from exposure to a range of toxic chemicals, particulate matter, and extreme heat and a 300% elevated chance of getting cancer. Those who have battled the flames in LA’s fires are just found to have elevated levels of lead and mercury in their blood.

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What We Need: Protection, Not Just Equipment

Volunteer brigades like ours need extinguishers, blowers, boots and protective masks. Even more importantly, we need planet heating emissions to end, so fires don’t become even worse. Words may fail to convey the horror of feeling the Amazon burn, but they should clearly deliver our call for justice.

As a firefighter, I’m proud to support people when they need it the most. It is time for governments to do the same and hold the oil and gas corporations who are fuelling the burning of our forests accountable. They must be made to pay.

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This story was originally posted by Context.

Daniel Gutierrez Govino is a photographer and volunteer firefighter with the Brigada de Alter, based in the state of Pará, Brazil.

Find his work here. Follow him on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Guest authors work with Greenpeace International to share their personal experiences and perspectives and are responsible for their own content.

What happens when the world’s biggest meat company starts branding itself as a climate saviour? The feeder of the world? You get JBS, a methane cooker mega-corporation that’s making billions and rubbing shoulders with Wall Street while its supply chain sets the Amazon on fire.

If corporate green public relations had a face, it would look a lot like JBS, the Brazilian meat giant with a climate change driving methane footprint that rivals Big Oil, and a public image carefully wrapped in sustainability spin. You may not recognise the name, but its impact is unmistakable: in the smoke that rises over the Amazon, in the stillness of razed forests, and in the rising emissions pushing our planet closer to collapse.

This is the world’s biggest meat company. We’ve said the name for years, and still, the destruction continues.

JBS isn’t just big – it’s planetary

The people making decisions behind the scenes of JBS want you to think that they are “feeding the world with the best” and saving the climate, even while they turn the Amazon into a methane hotbox. We’re talking around 76,000 cows, 14 million chickens, and 147,000 pigs per day. This is industrial meat pushed beyond the limits of nature, and it’s being driven by the Batista brothers, billionaires with a long trail of environmental harm and corruption behind them. Their company, JBS, is the face of a system turning forests into profit margins and climate stability into shareholder dividends. 

From bribery to fraud and good old-fashioned nature destruction, the Batista Brothers have been linked to many a charge. In 2020, the company pled guilty to U.S. foreign bribery charges and shelled out $USD 256 million in fines. As of the beginning of 2025, it was still staring down $USD 6.4B in legal liabilities. However, their core business model depends on a vast supply chain, one that’s driving deforestation in Amazon and other biomes in Brazil at a scale that makes the term ‘eco-crime’ feel like an understatement. All for profit. 

Between 2009 and 2023, JBS slaughterhouses were reportedly linked to nearly 470,000 hectares of deforestation in the Amazon and Cerrado, seven times the size of London. And beyond their direct operations lies something even more insidious: an indirect supply chain potentially linked to another more than 1.5 million hectares of forest loss. This devastation is driven by criminal activities like cattle laundering, illegal land grabbing, and repeated violations of Indigenous territories. Their profit might be mighty, but we are the ones who will pay for their methane footprint that rivals even Shell’s and ExxonMobil’s combined.

Why are we beefing with JBS? 

JBS claims to uphold a zero-deforestation policy. Yet, 14 years after it first promised to eradicate deforestation from its supply chain, it is still heavily linked to suppliers operating in illegally deforested areas. Shocking, isn’t it? Its so-called “sustainability plan” reads more like a polished press release than a pathway to accountability. They even released a “net-zero by 2040” pledge that their own Chief Sustainability Officer later called an aspiration, not a promise. And now, JBS is seeking to list on the New York Stock Exchange, via a Dutch shell company. The move raises serious questions about transparency and accountability. If approved, the restructuring would grant the Batista family over 85% of voting rights. This isn’t climate leadership. It’s corporate consolidation at the expense of people, planet, and public trust.

Enough is Enough

It’s time to start recognising JBS for what it is: a nature and climate supervillain with a business model rooted in exploitation, devastation and oppression. We are standing at a climate tipping point. Methane is a fast-acting, planet-heating gas, and JBS is emitting it at staggering levels. If their listing on the NYSE is approved, investors won’t just be buying shares. They’ll be underwriting the continued destruction of the Amazon, other vital ecosystems and the acceleration of climate collapse.

It’s no longer about awareness; we’ve had more than enough. If you believe the Amazon deserves a future, the real question is: what will you do now?

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Alessandro Saccoccio is the Respect the Amazon Project Lead at Greenpeace International.

From a powerful projection in California to one in downtown Toronto, here are a few of our favourite images from Greenpeace’s work around the world this week.

USA – At nightfall in California, Greenpeace USA projected a powerful message of purpose and defiance onto the Marin Headlands, facing the Golden Gate Bridge. The action marked 100 days into the administration’s second term and launched the global #TimeToResist campaign — a call to push back against attacks on democracy, dissent, and environmental justice from billionaire oligarchs and corporate bullies.

Brazil – Greenpeace Brazil’s activists have taken action against JBS, the world’s biggest meat company, disrupting their annual shareholder meeting at the company’s headquarters in São Paulo. They are protesting the company’s role in environmental destruction and climate breakdown, including deforestation in the Amazon.

Canada – Ahead of the federal election, Greenpeace Canada’s activists projected powerful messages in downtown Toronto near the CN Tower.
Messages included: “Don’t Trump Canada”, “Solar Panels not Pipelines”, “Land Back not Land Grabs”, “Healthcare not Transphobia”, “Peace not War”, “RESIST” and “TimetoResist” among others.

Greenpeace Canada is calling out politicians like Trump and Poilievre, and billionaires like Musk, Zuckerberg and Bezos for spreading fear and division. At the same time that polluting industries like oil & gas seek to take advantage of the crisis they helped create.

Greenpeace Canada is asking Poilievre and all political parties to protect people and the environment, not polluters and billionaires. This projection was also a solidarity statement in support of Greenpeace US, who has been found liable for more than US$660 million in the Energy Transfer SLAPP trial.

Germany – Greenpeace will be represented at the Evening of Encounter at the Kirchentag 2025 in Hannover with a stand on the topic of the billionaires’ tax. Visitors can vote hypothetically on symbolic 1 billion euro bills on how they would like to use the revenue from a billionaire’s tax for climate protection. The filled-in banknotes will be attached to a 2-metre heart, which picks up on the Kirchentag motto “courageous, strong, courageous”. Engagement-led activity addressing the political power and influence of a small super-rich elite at a mass event in Hannover (the biggest church convention in Germany). #timetoresist

Greenpeace Netherlands activists staged a protest at the Council of Ministers with a banner reading ‘See you in court’ to warn about the consequences of failing to meet climate commitments. In October, the Bonaire Climate Case will go to court, in which Greenpeace and residents of Bonaire are suing the Dutch government to demand protection against climate change. According to Greenpeace, the cabinet is stalling—just like it did with the nitrogen crisis—while delay is not an option for Bonaire. Among other demands, Greenpeace insists that the Netherlands must finally meet its own climate target of a 55% reduction in CO₂ emissions by 2030.

France – Greenpeace France volunteers in Paris support the INC5 warriors
“Bring our activists home” – activists from Greenpeace France protest in front of the Consulate of the Republic of Korea and the Eiffel Tower in solidarity with Greenpeace International activists who were forced to stay in South Korea.
The action is part of a worldwide campaign in support of the five Greenpeace activists who are on trial for their non-violent campaign against environmental injustice. Five activists from Germany, the UK, Mexico, Taiwan and the Netherlands were prevented from travelling home after a peaceful protest action in November 2024.

Norway – Time to Resist the Billionaire Takeover – Protest in Svalbard
Stop the billionaire takeover protest in Svalbard in front of Mark Zuckerberg’s luxury yacht, Launchpad. During his first 100 days in office, Donald Trump has set about dismantling environmental and climate protections and democratic principles, and attacking those who speak up against the corporate profits of and overreach of his billionaire friends. Billionaires and corporations are taking control of our rights and freedoms. Using their vast fortunes, they lobby to weaken regulations meant to protect people and the planet, fund candidates who serve their interests, and gain control of the media to shape the stories we hear.

Greenpeace has been a pioneer of photo activism for more than 50 years, and remains committed to bearing witness and exposing environmental injustice through the images we capture.

To see more Greenpeace Photo and Video, please visit our Media Library.

Amsterdam, Netherlands – Marking the first 100 days of US President Donald Trump’s second term, Greenpeace organisations around the world staged protests against the billionaire and corporate takeover of people’s rights and freedom – from Trump’s golf course in Scotland and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s yacht in the Arctic, to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and the home of the US Constitution in Washington DC.

Greenpeace USA, one of three Greenpeace entities targeted in the abusive $660million lawsuit by the fossil fuel pipeline company Energy Transfer, has unfurled a banner reading “We the People: Preserve, Protect, Defend” in front of the US Constitution display at the National Archives.

Dr. Folabi Olagbaju, Democracy Campaign Director, Greenpeace USA, said: “Greenpeace’s mission has always been to preserve, protect, and defend our just green world and today, that means defending the very document that makes this critical advocacy work possible. ‘We the People’ is a phrase that belongs to all of us… it is not owned by corporations, or billionaires, or politicians. As the constitutional rights to free speech and due process come under attack on university campuses, in major law firms, and even inside legacy journalism institutions, Greenpeace USA is making clear that our fight is not just about defending the environment and safeguarding climate: it’s about defending democracy itself.

“We are here to remind this administration, and the nation, that constitutional rights belong to the people. Free speech, protest, and dissent are not negotiable. They are the foundation of any livable future, and we will resist any effort to erase them.”

In the 100 Days, the president has not only left the Paris Climate agreement and offered Alaskan wilderness to oil drilling, he has also opened up pristine marine ecosystems in the Pacific to industrial fishing and wants to launch deep sea mining in US and International waters. Moreover, he has ended investments in clean energy and instead boosted coal, oil and fossil gas by weakening regulations and removing obstacles for the fossil fuel industry.[1][2][3][4] 

Greenpeace UK revealed a 55m by 40m artwork on the beach next to Trump’s golf course in Scotland, ‘Trump Turnberry’, showing a giant portrait of the U.S. President raked into the sand with the message: “Time to resist – fight the billionaire takeover”.

Areeba Hamid, Co-Executive Director, Greenpeace UK said: “During his first 100 days President Trump has been actively working to dismantle and weaken environmental protections and attack those who fight to protect nature and our shared climate, putting the corporate profits of his billionaire friends ahead of people and the planet. It’s time to resist the billionaire takeover of our rights and freedoms.”

Greenpeace Nordic joined a protest in the harbour of the world’s most northern town, Longyearbyen in Svalbard, as Zuckerberg’s US$ 300 million dollar yacht arrived.

Halvard Raavand, Deputy Program Manager, Greenpeace Norway said: “Trump’s biggest allies are a group of unelected billionaires, including the tech billionaires. This is not just about one luxury yacht. It’s about how powerful billionaires like Zuckerberg bend to and support Trump and undermine the climate fight – both through extreme consumption and by facilitating the spread of disinformation about climate.

Volunteers from Greenpeace Mexico gathered in Mexico City at the Plaza of the Three Cultures — a symbol of Mexico’s pre-Hispanic, colonial, and modern history, as well as an emblem of resistance and social memory — to project the faces of those truly responsible for the climate crisis: the billionaires.

Activists have also been subvertising bus stops around the US embassies around the world, including in England, the Netherlands, and Denmark, with posters carrying the same messaging: Time to resist: Fight the billionaire takeover.

ENDS

Photos and videos can be found in the Greenpeace Media Library

Notes:

1. Trump’s under-the-radar Alaska order has environmentalists on edge https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/03/business/trump-alaska-executive-order-environment/index.html
2. Trump opens massive marine protected area to commercial fishing https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/trump-opens-massive-marine-protected-area-to-commercial-fishing
3. US government confirms their support for deep sea mining plans that bypass United Nations https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/us-government-confirms-their-support-for-deep-sea-mining-plans-that-bypass-united-nations-greenpeace-response
4. Green energy supporters pushed for faster permitting. Trump is doing it, but not for solar or wind https://apnews.com/article/trump-energy-fossil-fuels-wind-solar-oil-gas-interior-37adf6b10ed88c293844c6c8673058d8

Contact:

Greenpeace International Press Desk, +31 (0)20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org