The Amazon rainforest is the lung of the Earth’s respiratory system. The region holds roughly half of the tropics undisturbed forests. Its plants absorb 1.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, equivalent to 4% of emissions from fossil fuels.
This area is being deforested at tremendous speed. An area nearly the size of Kuwait is cut down or burned every year. This eliminates CO2 absorbing trees and releases their stored carbon back into the air.
The Brazilian Amazon is enormous – 5.37 million square kilometers in 2005. During the early 2000s cattle ranchers and soya farmers hungry for land cleared 20,500 square km a year. Late in the decade, CO2 output decreased as the central bank cut off credit to firms facing fines for deforestation, and more forest areas gained legal protection. region returned to being a net carbon sink.
But then in 2012 the government granted amnesty for past deforestation, and in 2014 a recession began, which may have pushed farmers to find new land. In 2016, emissions surged: 32,600 square km were cut down in that year alone, and the destruction has continued at that pace ever since. Over the past 20 years, the Brazilian Amazon has lost 350,000 square km and released 13% more CO2 than it absorbed.
The worst case scenarios involve a tipping point of tree loss, beyond which the forest could no longer produce enough moisture to sustain its ecosystem. But even if this disaster can be averted, great harm has already been done. Every year of persistent logging reduces the forest’s ability to retain carbon: since 2001 the Brazilian Amazon’s absorption rate has fallen by 1.2% a year.