one of the largest carbon absorbing natural entities in the world -
Brazil's Amazon: Deforestation 'surges to 12-year high'
30 November 2020
Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil has surged to its highest level since 2008, the country's space agency (Inpe) reports. A total of 11,088 sq km (4,281 sq miles) of rainforest were destroyed from August 2019 to July 2020. This is a 9.5% increase from the previous year. The Amazon is a vital carbon store that slows down the pace of global warming.
Scientists say it has suffered losses at an accelerated rate since Jair Bolsonaro took office in January 2019. The Brazilian president has encouraged agriculture and mining activities in the world's largest rainforest. The Amazon is home to about three million species of plants and animals, and one million indigenous people.
The latest data marked a major increase from the 7,536 sq km announced by Inpe in 2018 - the year before Mr Bolsonaro took office.The new figures are preliminary, with the official statistics set to be released early next year. Brazil had set a goal of slowing the pace of deforestation to 3,900 sq km annually by 2020.
In addition to encouraging development in the rainforest, President Bolsonaro has also cut funding to federal agencies that have the power to fine and arrest farmers and loggers breaking environmental law.Mr Bolsonaro has previously clashed with Inpe over its deforestation data. Last year, he accused the agency of smearing Brazil's reputation.
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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-55130304
The Amazon rainforest is the world’s carbon sink. Parts of it now release more carbon than can be absorbed.
By Rachel Pannett
July 16, 2021 at 4:27 a.m. EDT
The Amazon is emitting more carbon than it can absorb, in what scientists say is a disturbing new signal that the Earth may be reaching a tipping point on climate change. A study recently published in the journal Nature suggests that fire and deforestation, along with warmer temperatures and markedly drier conditions, mean the world’s largest rainforest is gradually losing its ability to be a carbon sink. The impact of changes to the Amazon reach far beyond South America. For generations, the rainforest has stored an immense amount of carbon in its soil and enormous trees, playing an important role in keeping the global environment stable.
“When this study shows that the carbon budget from a believed carbon sinking area is actually a source of 0.3 billion tons of carbon per year, it sounds the alarm bells,” said Lucas Domingues, an environmental scientist and one of the paper’s co-authors. (The Southeast Asian kingdom of Thailand emitted roughly 0.3 billion tons of carbon in 2018, according to Our World in Data.) “We need to rethink global strategies to combat climate change, speeding up actions in effective ways,” added the researcher, now based at New Zealand’s GNS Science institute. Over the course of nearly a decade, the researchers used small planes to collect hundreds of air samples at up to 14,800 feet above sea level.
They found that not only were carbon emissions greater in eastern parts of the Amazon than in the west, but that the southeastern area — a hot spot of deforestation — is now acting as a source of carbon emissions into the atmosphere rather than a carbon sink. Areas with higher levels of deforestation were responsible for carbon emission 10 times greater than preserved areas, Domingues said. In recent years, the combination of rising temperatures, crippling wildfires and ongoing land clearing for cattle ranching and crops has extended dry seasons, killed off water-sensitive vegetation and created conditions for more fire. The number of fires in the Amazon in 2020 exceeded the total from the previous year, when the smoldering rainforest dominated news for weeks and inspired global calls for emergency action.
Between August 2019 and July 2020, the Amazon lost the equivalent of two Delawares’ worth of forest, The Washington Post previously reported. Academics and environmental activists have warned that if Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing populist with close ties to agribusiness, remains president of Brazil, the Amazon rainforest will collapse. “The worst nightmare of climatologists seems to be already confirming itself,” the Brazilian Climate Observatory activist network tweeted in response to the latest study.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/16/amazon-rainforest-climate-carbon/
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