Cooling the Climate Initiative Launches to Restore the Amazon and Stabilize Global Temperatures
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 26, 2025
Cooling the Climate Initiative Launches to Restore the
Amazon and Stabilize Global Temperatures
Salvador, Bahia, Brazil – Cooling the Climate today announced the launch of Cooling the Climate, a large-scale initiative to restore and protect the Amazon Rainforest, the planet’s most critical land-based cooling system. This science-driven effort aims to prevent the Amazon from reaching an irreversible tipping point, leveraging financial innovation and community-led restoration to safeguard global climate stability.
---
The Time to Act is Now!
We are at a tipping point. The Amazon Rainforest is in crisis. Scientists warn that if deforestation surpasses 20-25%, the Amazon will reach the tipping point of irreversible dieback, leading to desertification, destabilized water cycles, and soaring global temperatures. In the language of the living Earth paradigm, the Amazon—our planet’s most vital cooling and rehydrating organ—is on the brink of an exponential dieback.
The record-breaking global heat records of 2023 and 2024 are a warning sign; the Amazon’s extreme droughts are already contributing to climate instability, and without immediate intervention, the already devastating consequences will become irreversible and will threaten the Earth’s livability. Our research shows that a complete dieback of the Amazon will lead to up to 2.5°C extra global warming, beyond IPCC trajectories.
Introducing Cooling the Climate
Cooling the Climate is a bold, science-driven initiative to reverse this crisis. Through large-scale restoration, innovative financial solutions, and direct support for Indigenous and forest communities, we are empowering and mobilizing forest-dwelling people to restore the Amazon’s ability to cool the planet.
Our approach combines:
Ecosystem protection at scale to stabilize climate patterns
Direct payments for ecosystem services, ensuring communities are empowered to protect the rainforest, aligned with their development goals.
The sequestration of billions of tons of CO₂.
A digital financial model that links conservation with economic opportunity
A thriving bioeconomy that makes restoration scalable and sustainable
This is more than a conservation effort—it’s a global call to action for our own survival and the well-being of generations to come. By restoring the Amazon, we are creating a model for reversing climate change worldwide. Restoring forests and transitioning to forest-like food production like agroforestry on an area of 2.5 – 3 million km² in the tropical zone, the total impact will be 1°C of global cooling and a substantial reduction of extreme weather events.
Join Us. Take Action. Share the Message.
#CoolingTheClimate #AmazonRainforest #ProtectTheAmazon #CallToAction #ClimateActionNow #ClimateCrisis #RegenerativeFuture #WaterCycles #GlobalCooling #TippingPoint #RegenerativeFinance #GreenUpToCooldown
--
About Cooling the Climate
Cooling the Climate is a science-driven initiative dedicated to restoring and protecting the Amazon Rainforest to stabilize atmospheric water cycles, regulate global temperatures, and reverse climate change. Based on the book of the same name by Peter Bunyard and Rob de Laet, the initiative translates its insights into large-scale action. By leveraging financial innovation, community-led restoration, and large-scale ecosystem protection, the initiative provides direct economic incentives for conservation, ensuring the Amazon’s essential climate functions remain intact.
The Buckminster Fuller Institute is a fiscal sponsor of Cooling the Climate. A growing list of organizations supports the project, including the EcoRestoration Alliance, Global Evergreening Alliance Fellowship, the Stable Planet Alliance, Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, and many others.
The initiative is supported by an esteemed Advisory Council, including Atossa Soltani, Carlos Nobre, Rob de Laet, Peter Bunyard, Dr. Stuart Cowan, Anita Sanchez, Benjamín Sánchez Adam, David Hodgson, Edivan and Ronilson Flay Guajajara, Ali Bin Shahid, Jakub Molski, Bru Pearce, and Jon Schull, leading experts in climate science, environmental policy, and regenerative finance.
To learn more, visit Cooling the Climate