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The Amazon Rainforest
CC22 Summit
11 March 2022
Is the Amazon, ama-gone?!
Puns aside, let's start with some background information. The amazon is the world's biggest rainforest, the size of 48 united states. With 16,000 tree species and houses to over 1000 habitats, the amazon makes up a large part of the world and its oxygen pool.
But like the situation with the rest of the world, Amazon is losing life.
From ranching and agriculture, commercial fishing, smuggling, damming, logging, and to our focus, global warming. Amazon has been facing numerous problems, most of which are still not being combated. With rising temperatures coupled with deforestation, the natural process of the rainforest is coming to a scathing halt.
For over five decades Brazil has encouraged its people to colonize the Amazon, and with Brazil's new president, Jair Bolsonaro, who is all for the exploitation of the Amazon, the rate of deforestation has gone up by 92%. But the issue lies in the fact that a large amount of trees present is what allows for the rain, and thus it being a rainforest. As deforestation increases the forest fires and global temperature rise, there is no balance anymore.
What's more detrimental is that the rate at which amazon rejuvenates itself is also declining, and soon it won't be able to. Breaking the water cycle and even with the chance of fixing climate change, at a deforestation rate of 25%, the Amazon will most definitely become a savanna. Adding onto this it is also farming that is causing extreme and drastic deforestation. Keeping in mind that Brazil owns half of the forest, it is where most of the agriculture is taking place. Accounting for approximately 80% of the deforestation.
If we cannot stop the deforestation of the Amazon, stopping global warming will turn into an impossible task.
The Amazon is a major aspect of climate change. It stores greenhouse gasses, transpires water, helping build up moisture around the world. But the Amazon has left behind its days of being a carbon sink. According to studies, the rainforest is now emitting more than 1.1 billion tons of CO2, a year. Officially releasing more carbon than it is removing. Wildfires have contributed to this the most, specifically the ones set to clear land. These fires create a feedback loop of warming. Accelerating climate change.
So in conclusion, Amazon needs help, and even with awareness raised we sit still and watch the change of a whole ecosystem. The fight isn't just about global warming or climate change, it is about the loss of life and our earth as a whole.
Citations:
“The Amazon Rain Forest Is Nearly Gone. We Went to the Front Lines to See If It Could Be Saved.” Time, 2019, time.com/amazon-rainforest-disappearing/. Accessed 22 Mar. 2022.
Dodd, Carly. “What Is the Biggest Threat to the Amazon Rainforest?” WorldAtlas, WorldAtlas, Sept. 2020, www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-is-the-biggest-threat-to-the-amazon-rainforest.html. Accessed 22 Mar. 2022.
Butler, Rhett A. “Facts about the Amazon Rainforest.” Mongabay, Mongabay, 6 June 2001, rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/amazon-rainforest-facts.html. Accessed 22 Mar. 2022.