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Staggering new research by a group of more than 30 scientists suggests that the Amazon Basin could become a net contributor to global warming, not cooling, in the next few years, if it hasn’t already.
The Amazon Basin’s profound influence on the global climate had already earned it the illustrious title of “ Lungs of the Earth ”, but decades of forest fires, drought and land clearing, under the umbrella term of “ “ deforestation ” have wreaked havoc in the region. .
According to a recent study, the Amazon basin of about 7,000,000 km2 (2,700,000 square miles) now releases more heat-trapping greenhouse gases than it stores in its plants and soils, which means that it may have become a net contributor to the warming, not the cooling, of the planet.
In other words, humanity can no longer rely on the so-called “Lungs of the Earth” to purify the air and offset emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels.
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“Chopped off [down] the forest interferes with its carbon absorption; it is a problem,” said environmentalist and senior author Kristofer Covey at Skidmore College in New York.
“But when you start looking at these other factors besides CO2, it becomes really hard to see how the net effect isn’t that the Amazon as a whole is really warming the global climate.”
In total, the vast area that covers a territory belonging to nine South American countries could go from a carbon sink to an atmospheric carbon source as early as 2035, according to some estimates.
The Amazon basin currently emits more gas than it naturally absorbs, and not only carbon dioxide (CO2) but also nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4), which degrade more rapidly in atmosphere but trap up to 300 times more heat per molecule as they float in the air.
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Recurrent and prolonged droughts in the region reduce the basin’s ability to absorb and sequester CO2 while increasing the likelihood and eventual spread of forest fires as they occur, further exacerbating the problem in a loop negative feedback.
The research team freely admits that there is a high degree of uncertainty in their results due to the lack of information from certain sections of the Amazon basin that have their own microclimates but are nearly impossible to reach and analyze. to the same extent as the sections covered by the study.
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