Amazon Could Reach Tipping Point By Midcentury
Thanks to droughts, climate change, and deforestation, the Amazon rainforest may reach a climate tipping point as soon as 2050, new research finds. A study published Wednesday in the journal Nature looked at five major factors impacting water stress in different regions of the Amazon, analyzing them with factors that could push a region towards a tipping point where it could become grasslands or forest with degraded canopies or cover. The study found that 10% of the Amazon is at high risk of reaching that tipping point, while up to 47% could also transform by 2050. The study also finds that 13% of the Amazon’s original forest has already been completely cleared, while another 38% of its old-growth forest has been disturbed by human use of land and repeated droughts. “We have to expect things happening earlier than we thought,” Bernardo Flores, lead author of the study, told the Guardian. “We need to address this with a very precautionary approach. We must reach net zero emissions and net zero deforestation as quickly as possible. It needs to be done now. If we lose the Amazon, it would be problematic for humanity.” (New York Times $, The Guardian, CNN, NBC)
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