The Amazon is burning at an extreme rate. There have already been 74,000 fires this year, nearly double last year's total of 40,000.

Brazil's environment minister, Ricardo Salles, told the Financial Times that the solution was to "monetize" the rain forest.

"The fact is that laws and regulations that were enacted and used for the past 10 or 20 years were too restrictive to the development of Amazon areas," he said.

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The Amazon is in flames.

São Paulo, Brazil's financial capital and the largest city in the Western Hemisphere, went dark midday Monday because of fires from the rainforest, some 2,000 miles away.

Meanwhile, when the Financial Times spoke with the country's environment minister, Ricardo Salles, he said the solution was to "monetize" the rainforest.