10 minutes agoWhat does the burning of the Amazon tropical forest mean for the environment?
Periskopi(7 years ago)
(7 years ago)The species of the planet, the Amazon tropical forest, is burning with a huge increase. According to authorities, more than 9,500 satellite fires have been discovered since last Thursday. Government and environmental organisations are blaming each other for the situation. To understand what harm this [...] means for the environment.
To find out what this forest's environmental damage means.
The Amazon tropical forest is an ecological marvel. It is the largest forest area left in the world, and it is twice the size of India.
It's home to at least 10% of our biodiversity, it produces 20% of the world's oxygen and it helps regulate the temperature of the entire planet.
Without climate change, it can become irreversible.
Satellite data published by the National Institute for Space Research has shown an increase in fire figures by 84 percent this year compared to a year ago.
A carbon pit
The Amazon is a large carbon pit, if all carbon is burned, it will go into the atmosphere.
The Amazon contains between 90 and 140 billion tons of carbon metrics, according to W WF, the World Wildlife Fund. Too much carbon in the atmosphere is one of the main reasons for climate change.
Imagine that all this carbon is released into the atmosphere. It would be devastating, says the WWF.
What we learned at school is: Trees absorb carbon and release oxygen. The Amazon is important because it produces so much oxygen, but if these trees and vegetation are destroyed it will no longer be possible to absorb so much carbon and produce just as much oxygen, the Ora News reports.
Before fires fell, deforestation and land conversion led the Amazon to release up to 0.5 billion tons of carbon metrics per year, according to WWF. Depending on the damage caused by fires, this may increase by accelerating climate change even further.
The Amazon is essentially a large hydrologic engine
Water is released from trees in the atmosphere and ocean through the Amazon rivers.
Ocean currents help regulate weather, transport hot water, and rainfall from the equator to the poles, and cold water from poles to tropical areas. Without these currents, regional temperatures would be much more extreme.
Because of its large surface, it releases much water through evaporation. If we lose part of it means less evaporation, which means it contributes to less stabilisation of our climate.
In exchange, we will have weather with extreme temperatures along with severe droughts and changes in seasonality in the region, says W WF (World Wildlife Fund, World Wildlife Fund)
