TOPSHOT-BRAZIL-ENVIRONMENT-DEFORESTATION-EROSION

TOPSHOT - Aerial view of erosions in Buriticupu, Maranhao state, Brazil, taken on April 21, 2023. - An unusual phenomenon caused by a lack of urban planning and aggressive deforestation is driving Buriticupu, a small town in Brazil's impoverished northeastern state of Maranhao, towards gradual collapse, experts say. The city of 70,000 is suffering from the advance of "vocorocas" - "torn earth" in the indigenous Tupi-Guarani language - erosions that begin as small cracks in the ground and grow into large craters that, seen from the air, look like advancing canyons swallowing up chunks of the town. (Photo by NELSON ALMEIDA / AFP) (Photo by NELSON ALMEIDA/AFP via Getty Images)