AMAZON RAINFOREST DEFORESTATIO: OVER 8700Sq Km OF FOREST COVER DESTROYED BETWEEN AUGUST-2020 TILL JULY 2021
CONTEXT
- According to a recent study, Amazon Forests have started emitting Carbon dioxide (CO2) instead of absorbing it.
- Growing trees and plants have taken up about a quarter of all fossil fuel emissions since 1960, with the Amazon playing a major role as the largest tropical forest.
- Findings:
- A significant amount of deforestation (over the course of 40 years) in eastern and southeastern Brazil has turned the forest into a source of CO2 that has the ability to warm the planet.
- It might have also affected a long-term decrease in rainfall and increase in temperatures during the dry season.
Reasons for Deforestation
- State policies that encourage economic development, such as railway and road expansion projects have led to “unintentional deforestation” in the Amazon and Central America.
- Deforestation started in the 1970s and 1980s when large-scale forest conversion for cattle ranching and soy cultivation began.
Amazon Rainforests:
- These are large tropical rainforests occupying the drainage basin of the Amazon River and its tributaries in northern South America.
- Tropical forests are closed-canopy forests growing within 28 degrees north or south of the equator.
- They are very wet places, receiving more than 200 cm rainfall per year, either seasonally or throughout the year.
- Temperatures are uniformly high – between 20°C and 35°C.