The Amazon is disappearing—and it’s not an accident.

The Brazilian beef industry, emboldened by President Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right regime, is setting fire to the Amazon to clear land for cattle ranches. And that beef is being bought up in huge quantities by McDonald's. 

The rainforests shouldn't be burned down for cheaper Big Macs.

But as such a huge buyer of Brazilian beef, McDonald’s has the power to pressure the Brazilian government to take the threat to the Amazon seriously. And that could stop the fires in the Amazon.

Over 76,000 fires have been recorded in Brazil this year—mostly caused by agricultural activity. That’s thanks to Jair Bolsonaro, who has lived up to his campaign promises to weaken environmental protections and increase agricultural production. 

That’s bad news for the planet: the Amazon’s biodiversity is literally millions of years in the making, and its size and density has earned it the nickname “the planet’s lungs.” The aggressive deforestation is also claiming the lands and livelihoods of indigenous peoples that call the Amazon home. 

To save the Amazon, we’ll all have to make changes. After all, U.S. consumers eat one billion pounds of beef at McDonald’s every single year. That alone is helping drive massive global demand for beef that is setting the Amazon ablaze. But McDonald’s has a chance to help protect the world’s largest rainforest—and we have the power to push them to act before it’s too late.