Bali (Indonesia)
A vicious cycle of climate change and deforestation could wipe out
or severely damage nearly 60 percent of the Amazon forest by 2030,
the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said Thursday.
Deforestation in the Amazon could release 55.5 to 96.9 billion
tonnes of CO2 up to 2030, which is equivalent to more than two years
of global greenhouse gas emissions, said Dan Nepstad, a senior
scientist at the Woods Hole Research Centre in Massachusetts, at the
press conference.
In addition, the destruction of the Amazon would also destroy one of
the key stabilizers of the global climate system, he said.
"The importance of the Amazon forest for the world's climate cannot
be underplayed," said Dan Nepstad, who is also the author of a new
WWF report titled the Amazon's Vicious Cycles: Drought and Fire in
the Greenhouse, which reveals the dramatic consequences for the
local and global climate as well as the impacts on people's
livelihoods in South America.
"It's not only essential for cooling the world's temperature but is
also such a large source of freshwater that it may be enough to
influence some of the great ocean currents, and on top of that it's
a massive store of carbon," he said.
He added that current trends in agriculture and livestock expansion,
fire, drought and logging could clear or severely damage 55 percent
of the Amazon rainforest by 2030. If, as anticipated by scientists,
rainfall declines 10 percent in the future, then an additional four
percent of the forests will be damaged by drought.
Global warming is, in fact, likely to reduce rainfall in the Amazon
by more than 20 percent, especially in the eastern Amazon, and local
temperatures will increase by more than two degrees centigrade, and
perhaps by as much as eight degrees centigrade, during the second
half of the century, according to the report.
With further destruction of the Amazon forests, less rainfall in
India and Central America is anticipated, as would rainfall during
the growing season in the grain belts of the US and Brazil, the
scientist said.
He called for strategies to halt deforestation in the Amazon,
include minimizing the negative impacts from cattle ranching and
infrastructure projects to rapidly expanding the existing network of
protected areas.
"We can still stop the destruction of the Amazon, but we need the
support of the rich countries," said Karen Suassuna, a climate
change analyst at WWF-Brazil, at the press conference. "Our success
in protecting the Amazon depends on how fast rich countries reduce
their climate damaging emissions to slow down global warming."
Climate change is initiating and speeding up the vicious circle.
Today, carbon from forest conversion to cattle pastures and
agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon is seeping into the atmosphere
at a rate of 0.2 to 0.3 billion tonnes per year. This number can
double when severe drought increases forest fires. Emissions from
all Amazon countries are doubling the figures for Brazil.
"The Kyoto Plus climate agreement must include measures to reduce
emissions from forests," said Hans Verolme, director of the WWF's
Global Climate Change Program.
"A failure to protect the Amazon forest will not only be a disaster
for millions of people who live in the Amazon region, but also for
the stability of the world climate," he warned.
Established in 1961, the WWF operates in more than 100 countries
working for a future in which humans live in harmony with nature.
Boloji.com is owned and managed by Boloji Media Inc Privacy Policy |
Disclaimer
No part of this Internet site may
be reproduced without prior written permission of the copyright holder.
