Explained: why the Amazon rainforest is emitting more CO2 than it can absorb

<p>The Amazon rainforest, which covers&nbsp;most&nbsp;of north-western Brazil and extends&nbsp;into&nbsp;other South American countries, is the world&rsquo;s largest tropical rainforest. While we&rsquo;ve all grown up hearing about how forests help clean the air and oxygenate the Earth,&nbsp;human actions seem to have flipped the script.</p> <p><strong>WATCH MORE <a href=https://www.editorji.com/story/us-wildfires-over-300k-acres-burned-across-6-states-worst-on-record-1626229901339>US wildfires: Over 300K acres burned across 6 states, worst on record</a></strong></p> <p>The&nbsp;Amazon&nbsp;jungle&nbsp;may no longer&nbsp;be&nbsp;the&nbsp;carbon sink of the world,&nbsp;finds an&nbsp;alarming&nbsp;new study.&nbsp;Published&nbsp;in the <a href=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03629-6>journal <em>Nature</em></a>,&nbsp;the&nbsp;research says that parts of the rainforest are now emitting more carbon dioxide&nbsp;and greenhouse gases&nbsp;than they&nbsp;can&nbsp;absorb. This is&nbsp;mostly&nbsp;due to&nbsp;large fires,&nbsp;often set&nbsp;off&nbsp;by humans.</p> <p><strong>ALSO WATCH&nbsp;<a href=https://www.editorji.com/story/global-warming-tropical-regions-pushed-towards-limits-of-human-livability-1615271305161>Global warming: tropical regions pushed towards limits of human livability</a></strong></p> <p>The study adds&nbsp;to&nbsp;growing&nbsp;fears of the potentially&nbsp;catastrophic impact of deforestation,&nbsp;land burning and droughts on the Amazon&rsquo;s fragile ecosystem which is home to nearly a fifth of the world&rsquo;s land species.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />The research team found that&nbsp;eastern Amazonia, which has been subjected to most&nbsp;deforestation, warming and moisture stress&nbsp;now&nbsp;emits 410 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year but is able to only absorb&nbsp;about 120 million metric tons. This leaves out a whopping&nbsp;290 million metric tons in net emissions.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>WATCH MORE <a href=https://www.editorji.com/story/8-of-amazon-rainforest-lost-due-to-deforestation-in-18-yrs-study-1607488575196>8% of Amazon rainforest lost due to deforestation in 18 yrs: study</a></strong></p> <p>The study&rsquo;s lead author explained that&nbsp;in places where deforestation is 30% or more, the carbon emissions were&nbsp;10 times&nbsp;compared to&nbsp;places with less than 20% deforestation.&nbsp;</p> <p>What&rsquo;s more, a similar study&nbsp;published in&nbsp;Nature Climate Change earlier this year used a different assessment method but came to a very similar conclusion.&nbsp;In more damning evidence, a 2020 study had said that&nbsp;the entire Amazon, which is about twice the size of India, could soon flip to become a net carbon source by as early as 2050.&nbsp;</p> <p>But&nbsp;the battle may not be over yet. Offering some hope, the team&nbsp;underscored&nbsp;two possible solutions to&nbsp;help&nbsp;reverse the damage. They suggest curbing&nbsp;illegal logging and other large-scale human disturbances of forests as well as investigations into&nbsp;fire-fighting&nbsp;solutions for the Amazon.</p> <p><strong>WATCH MORE&nbsp;<a href=https://www.editorji.com/story/new-warning-ongoing-climate-crisis-could-wipe-out-167-million-homes-1624880250009>Ongoing climate crisis could wipe out 167 million homes!</a></strong></p>