Cattle ranching is a leading driver of deforestation in the Amazon, accounting for around 80 percent of the destruction there, and the release of 340 million tons of carbon per year.

The destruction of the Amazon River ecosystem is a complex crisis driven by a combination of industrial exploitation, illegal activity, and climate change. One of the most direct threats is mercury pollution from illegal gold mining; miners use mercury to separate gold from sediment, which then leaks into the river, poisoning the fish and the indigenous communities that rely on them for food. Another major factor is agricultural runoff, where massive amounts of pesticides and fertilizers from soy and cattle farms wash into the water, leading to "dead zones" where oxygen levels are too low to support life. Deforestation along the riverbanks also plays a critical role, as the removal of trees leads to massive soil erosion and siltation, which clogs the waterways and destroys the breeding grounds for aquatic species. Furthermore, the construction of hydroelectric dams has disrupted the natural flow of the river, blocking fish migration routes and flooding vast areas of forest, which then rot and release methane. As the "lungs of the planet" are cut down, the regional rainfall cycle is broken, leading to unprecedented droughts that have caused the river to reach record-low levels in 2024 and 2025, threatening the very survival of the world's most biodiverse river system.