Giving Compass' Take:

• Global Citizen examines a National Geographic report that details how water shortages across the world may get even worse if the Amazon is subject to deforestation.

 • The Amazon rainforest has mitigated some effects of climate change, but those protections would be lost if human development continues to degrade it. What can environmental funders do to address this issue?

• Here's why indigenous tribes may be the last and best hope for the Amazon rainforest. 

The Amazon rainforest is home to 10% of the world’s species, generates 20% of global oxygen, and creates half of its own rain through an intricate water cycle dynamic.

It’s a natural system that’s a world unto itself — and it faces potentially catastrophic levels of deforestation under the new administration of Brazil’s president-elect Jair Bolsonaro, who has vowed to allow industrial interests to have more access to the forest.

If that happens, the effects would be felt far beyond Brazil. In particular, countries around the world could face droughts and water shortages, according to National Geographic.

Read the full article about water supplies threatened if the Amazon rainforest is destroyed by Joe McCarthy and Erica Sanchez at Global Citizen.