The Amazon rainforest can no longer absorb CO2 and has started releasing it into the atmosphere, contributing to the climate crisis
Forests have so far represented the green lung of our planet, absorbing man-made carbon dioxide and providing oxygen, vital for plants and animals. Unfortunately, something in this mechanism has broken and now forests have started releasing CO2 into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming.
The Amazon rainforest has long contributed, with its unique ecosystem in the world, to reducing the presence of CO2 in the planet's atmosphere, but a new study suggests that the climate crisis is also affecting the functionality of our 'green lung': in fact, the Amazon rainforest is not only no longer able to retain carbon dioxide, but has even begun to release it into the atmosphere, also becoming a source of air pollution.
According to researchers from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) in Brazil, the Amazon rainforest releases 0,3 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year - an alarming figure. It is in particular the southeast Amazon region that in a few years has gone from being a CO2 absorber to a producer: already in 2010 (a particularly dry year for the area) there were high carbon dioxide emissions, but the experts hoped that after the drought the values could return. A vain hope, because the forest continued to emit anhydride due to the numerous fires it suffered.
(Read also: In 20 years, forests may no longer be able to absorb our carbon emissions. The study)
In the Amazon, forest trees are often cut down during the rainy season and burned in the dry season to make way for crops or grazing for livestock. According to the study, emissions from fires are three times higher than the CO2 absorption capacity of the forest itself: if there were no fires, therefore, the Amazon could become a repository for CO2.
Fires and deforestation have been the guiding thread of the Brazilian prime minister's policy Jair Bolsonaro, who more than any other president of the past has shown himself insensitive to the environmental question and deaf to the prayers of environmentalists and indigenous people against such wicked exploitation of resources. Under his presidency, Brazil lost an average of 158 hectares of forest per hour (according to satellite data collected by MapBiomas) - an area half the size of Central Park in New York. But the fault is not just the last few years. Deforestation in the Amazon has been going on for decades, as have fires (aggravated now by the climate crisis that cause an extension of dry seasons and increasingly frequent periods of extreme drought).
In recent years, more and more studies have shown that the Amazon region's ability to absorb and retain carbon dioxide from the air has been decreasing: an observation that lasted 30 years and ended in 2015 has highlighted how the capacity of the Amazon rainforest to absorb carbon dioxide is showing a long-term decreasing trend, both due to changes in the climate and the deforestation of the area. Another study, on the other hand, was aimed at activating an alarm bell in the face of the tragic situation in the Amazon - devastated by deforestation, climate crisis and fires that are progressively transforming the green lung of the planet into a savannah.
Source: Nature
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