THIS year has been brutal for the Amazon rainforest, with rampant wildfires and extreme drought ravaging large parts of a biome that is a critical counterweight to climate change, the Associated Press agency reports.

A warming climate fed drought that in turn fed the worst year for fires since 2005. And those fires contributed to deforestation, with authorities suspecting some fires were set to more easily clear land to run cattle.

The Amazon is twice the size of India and sprawls across eight countries and one territory, storing vast amounts of carbon dioxide that would otherwise warm the planet.