Why the Amazon rainforest emits more carbon dioxide than it absorbs

Why the Amazon rainforest emits more carbon dioxide than it absorbs

According to a study, the Amazon rainforest has been in the past decade Almost 20 percent of the carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere Which can be absorbed by the so-called green lung of the planet. Figures show for the first time that the Brazilian Amazon has turned over and is now one Net source he is.

This is what co-author Jean-Pierre Winner of the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (Inra) said in the journal Nature Climate Change, where the study was published. This compared the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the forest with the carbon dioxide released by cutting, burning and destroying. “We don’t know at what point this change will become irreversible,” Wignon was quoted as saying.

According to the study, the Amazon Basin absorbed about 13.9 billion tons of carbon dioxide between 2010 and 2019, but emitted 16.6 billion tons of it. The study also shows the increasing destruction of the forest due to fires and lumberjacks. Deforestation increased nearly four-fold in 2019 compared to previous years, from around 1 million hectares to 3.9 million – an area the size of the Netherlands.

Researchers also see a reason for this in politics. After far-right President Jair Bolsonaro took office in January 2019, environmental protection measures have been significantly weakened, according to a statement by Inra.

Healthy ecosystems play a critical role in combating climate change and increasing carbon dioxide emissions, which reached more than 40 billion tons in 2019. Over the past 50 years, plants and soil have absorbed about 30 percent of these emissions, and the oceans more than 20 percent . Tropical rain forests absorb an especially large amount of carbon dioxide, and about half of these forests are located in the Amazon Basin. (sda / afp)