Fires raged across the Amazon rainforest, annihilating more than 4.6 million hectares of primary tropical forest—the most biodiverse and carbon-dense type of forest on Earth. …It was the highest loss for the biome since annual records began in 2002. Sixty percent of that destruction was caused by fire—a record high. In Brazil, deforestation has plunged under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who moved swiftly to reassert environmental governance. But nature had other plans. Blistering temperatures and the worst drought in 70 years—fueled by climate change and compounded by El Niño—turned routine agricultural burns into runaway infernos. Lula’s reforms proved no match for an accelerating climate crisis or the long tail of past mismanagement. …What burns today is not only forest—it is also the hope that nature alone will heal. Without a concerted global response, the Amazon may soon pass the point of no return.