Amazon fires: the world's lungs are filling with smoke

The fate of the Amazon is intertwined with the fate of the world. If 20 to 25 per cent of its tree cover is cut down, scientists estimate, the basin’s capacity to absorb carbon dioxide would be severely compromised, taking out of operation one of the world’s largest carbon sinks.

A bushfire burns near Brasilia, Brazil. A state of
emergency was declared for the federal district
due to the number of fires in it and in surrounding states. 

Accelerating rates of deforestation to make way for cattle, soy farming, and gold mining means this tipping point could be reached within a decade.

The Amazon basin plays a critical role in stabilising the global climate. It is vast, spanning almost 7.8 million square kilometres and incorporating 40 per cent of the world’s tropical forests, 20 per cent of its fresh water supply, and producing 20 per cent of the air we breathe. Through a process called evapotranspiration, it also influences the planet’s cloud cover and circulation of ocean currents.

But the Amazon basin is in trouble, particularly the nearly five million square kilometres of it located in Brazil. Deforestation rates there were almost 50 per cent higher between August 2018 and July 2019 compared with the same period a year before. The country’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has made the opening up of the Amazon to massive resource extraction a central pillar of his government’s economic agenda.

Read the story from The Age by Robert Muggah - “Amazon fires: the world's lungs are filling with smoke.”