Fires
tearing through the Amazon could contribute to a doomsday ‘dieback’ scenario in
which the rainforest releases carbon into the atmosphere and speeds up climate
change even more.
Smoke has
been billowing from the Amazon in the last few weeks as the landscape has
burned, with an impact so huge it even blocked out the sun and plunged Brazil’s
Sao Paulo into darkness.
Officials
say the rainforest, which covers northwestern Brazil and extends into Colombia,
Peru and other South American countries, is burning at a record rate.
Earlier this
month, Brazil declared a state of emergency over the rising number of fires in
the region, with over 73,000 fires having been detected by Brazil’s space
research centre, INPE, in 2019 alone. The figure marks an 83 per cent increase
from 2018.
The Amazon rainforest
provides 20 per cent of the world’s oxygen, however if it continues to be
destroyed not only would it stop producing this oxygen and supporting wildlife
but it could create a series of ‘feedback loops’, known as a dieback, which
worsens climate change, Business Insider report.
Approximately
20 per cent of the Amazon has been cut down in the past 50 years and losing
another 20 per cent could trigger a ‘doomsday “dieback” scenario’.
According to
The Conversation, the dieback would result in dry leaves which are unable to
absorb as much carbon, as well as being much more flammable and likely to
spread fires.
The tipping
point would lead the Amazon to turn into a savannah-like environment which not
only fails to produce oxygen but could cause the release of the 140 billion
tonnes of carbon stored in the rainforest into the atmosphere, the Rainforest
Trust writes.
As a result,
global temperatures could rise further.
The
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) explain there are some
who argue the dieback scenario is improbable, however, it would be premature to
rule out.
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