The Amazon rainforest is burning and you can help. Actually help. Sharing pictures on Instagram and sad-reacting on Facebook isn’t going to get us anywhere. Do these five simple things instead.

We still call it a rainforest although the Brazilian part of the Amazon is beginning to look like a desert. Why?

The Amazon has experienced a record number of fires this year, with 72,843 reported so far. That’s an 84% increase compared to the same period in 2018.

In fact, more than one-and-a-half soccer fields worth of the rainforest is being destroyed every minute to make space for ranching and farming.

Yes, that’s right. Almost all of these fires were ignited on purpose.

Meanwhile, the Brazilian populist president Jair Bolsonaro is doing absolutely nothing, blaming the catastrophe on NGOs. He says they want him to look bad.

Is that enough to make you angry? Good. Here are five things you can do today if you’re as angry about the Amazon wildfires as I am.

1. Reconsider your consumption of soy, palm oil and meat

The main reason for the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest is agriculture. Every day, local farmers burn parts of the rainforest and use the ashes to fertilize the soil. Once the flora is gone, they can start growing crops for cattle to graze on, or they grow soy (hello vegans!). The beef that comes from these farms is typically found in fast-food hamburgers or processed beef products.

Even if you live in Europe, Asia, Canada or Australia — and you buy these products — you can be sure your money is funding the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.

But wait! I don’t want to guilt trip you into turning vegetarian, even though it would be better both for the rainforest and the environment. Just make sure you are getting your meat from a local farmer who feeds the cattle with grass — not soy or corn.

You can find sustainable palm oil and soy products on Greenpalm and Roundtable for Responsible Soy respectively. You can also support rainforest certified products here.