Brazilian Scientists Count Carbon in Amazon Rainforest January 14, 2021 Forestry student Mateus Sanquetta observes as day laborer Ilandio Pereira da Silva cuts down a tree in the Amazon to measure its carbon levels in Itapua do Oeste, Rondonia state, Brazil November 4, 2020. (REUTERS/Jake Spring) Share share The URL has been copied to your clipboard 0:00 0:08:08 0:00 A small group of scientists carried machetes through the Amazon Rainforest. They cut through dense plant life as the mid-morning temperature rose above 38 Celsius. The group of men and women cut into trees. They dug into the soil and painted words across tree parts. “It’s destructive, but we only do it for a few trees,” said Carlos Roberto Sanquetta. He is a forestry engineering professor at the Federal University of Paraná in Brazil.