Worried about the Amazon burning?
Surely yes.
But what do you know of the S American Atlantic forest?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Forest
After hearing of the scorching heat over Paraguay, Brazil & Argentina, I called my dear friend Prof. Gustavo Zurita, former visitor @UFZ_de & @idiv.
I visited him twice in Puerto Iguazu, directly next to the amazing Iguazu waterfalls. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iguazu_Falls). These are set amindst 1 of 2 largest remnants of rainforest, 1 million ha of a forest that spanned 5000 km length & 1000 width. 87% of it is cut, the rest fragmented.
Yet the region has now just seen the worst drought ever, followed this year by already 3 months without rain and now 45C in SPRING. This is just the start! I asked if the forest has any chance to survive.
His reply was cristal clear: NO, the forest is doomed.
Prof. Zurita observes a sharp tipping point, with changes too rapid and drastic to be attributable to (global) climate change alone. Rather, we think it's related also to the Amazon & other regions being destroyed and burnt.
Why I am sharing this? Imagine that Earth's atmosphere has two main engines interacting: the hot and humid tropics at the centre, the Arctics at the ends. Global warming hits one engine, the slash-and-burn of rainforests switches off the second.
My interpretation is: jointly, through the consumption of the global north and the politics of Brazil, Indonesia etc., we are not only eradicating most habitats and organisms on Earth but also switching off the engines that drive Earth.
@sciforfuture @Fridays4future
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