In industrialised countries we cleared our forests thousands of years ago so that we could use the land for economic gain. This was firstly with farms and then following the industrial revolution with heavy industry which has been emitting large volumes of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) along with other Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) such as Methane (CH4) and Nitrous Oxide (N20). Because we cleared our forests so many centuries ago, we believe this gives us the right to lecture the tropical countries on deforestation because they are now looking to boost their economies by clearing their forests in exactly the same way that we did. We believe a more effective approach than pointing the finger would be to say thank you by rewarding them for maintaining their rainforests and financially incentivise them to reforest their countries.