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Over the last several years researchers have said that the Amazon is on the verge of transforming from a crucial storehouse for heat-trapping gasses to a source of them, a dangerous shift that could destabilize the atmosphere of the planet.
Now, after years of painstaking and inventive research, they have definitively measured that shift.
In a study published Wednesday in Nature, a team of researchers led by scientists from the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research, reported results from measuring carbon concentrations in columns of air above the Amazon. They found that the massive continental-size swath of tropical forest is releasing more carbon dioxide than it accumulates or stores, thanks to deforestation and fires.
“There is no doubt that the Amazon is a source,” said Luciana Gatti, the lead author of the study.
Journal Reference:
Luciana V. Gatti, Luana S. Basso, John B. Miller, et al. Amazonia as a carbon source linked to deforestation and climate change, Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03629-6)
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 18 2021, @05:47PM (7 children)
More and more of the Amazon is burnt down, to make room for farming and ranching. The Amazon is also mined, perhaps less heavily than America, Asia, and Africa, but it is mined. https://www.thedialogue.org/analysis/energy-and-mining-in-the-amazon/ [thedialogue.org] Then, you have the hydroelectric dams, which are known to increase carbon emissions, and at the same time, reduce carbon storage capacity.
Let's not blame the Amazon forest for carbon emissions. Let's instead blame man for all the things he does to disrupt carbon storage.
The most preposterous conclusion we could make, is to assume the rain forest is a major source of carbon emissions, so we must finish chopping down the forest. How 'bout we just help the forest to heal from the damage we have already caused?
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by HammeredGlass on Sunday July 18 2021, @06:58PM (6 children)
Those South American countries that contain the entirety of the Amazon rainforest are the only ones who have a right to say what happens to it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 18 2021, @08:24PM
We haz the nukez, fool. We haz the rightz!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 18 2021, @08:28PM (4 children)
Yeah, we'll give 'em that "right" when they can contain all the CO2 and other contaminates inside their borders. Otherwise we have the power and the obligation to invade and put a stop to it. The planet is more important than Brazil
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Sunday July 18 2021, @10:17PM (1 child)
I hope you don't think that the US would do a better job - that's laughable.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 18 2021, @10:25PM
If the Amazon had been in the US, it would probably already be gone by now. That still doesn't mean we should just allow Brazil and other countries to destroy the remainder of the Amazon.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 18 2021, @11:34PM (1 child)
You DO realise that the Amazon that is being cut down is revealing deserted cities, roads, earthworks, megalithic sites, remnants of large-scale farming etc, and was home to an estimated 100 million people?
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27945-myth-of-pristine-amazon-rainforest-busted-as-old-cities-reappear/ [newscientist.com]
https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/uncovering-the-amazons-real-lost-cities-2/ [sciencefriday.com]
https://rainforests.mongabay.com/external/amazon_cities_before_columbus.html [mongabay.com]
I assume you DO know that much of the forest was domesticated (ie. farmed) for thousands of years:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2015.0813 [royalsocietypublishing.org]
http://www2.nau.edu/~alcoze/for398/class/pristinemyth.html [nau.edu]
https://phys.org/pdf426784123.pdf [phys.org]
...including the soil underneath, which is man made (fertiliser for crops):
https://jwafs.mit.edu/news/2019/digging-deep-investigating-manmade-black-soil-amazon [mit.edu]
https://returntonow.net/2018/08/01/the-amazon-is-a-man-made-food-forest-researchers-discover/ [returntonow.net]
https://www.academia.edu/39224727/Lifetimes_of_human_occupations_in_Amazonia_Rapp_Py_Daniel_and_Moraes [academia.edu]
In fact, the area was highly urbanised until the last time you northerners invaded us:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lost-amazon-cities/ [scientificamerican.com]
https://www.academia.edu/36760667/Lost_cities_of_the_Amazon [academia.edu]
Curiously, exactly the opposite of the east coast of the US, Chicago/Toronto, London, Paris, Moscow, Berlin, Beijing, Sydney, Melbourne, Tokyo, Bangkok, Dehli...which were forest, and are now concrete.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 19 2021, @02:16PM
i beg to differ. bangkok is a swamp and some still consider it one, with big human looking lizard people behind the scenes (btw, they are not naturally green, but the money hoard they sleep in rubs off). :)