We have five years to save the Amazon

The Amazon is in danger of turning into a savanna – and it may be too late in five years to save the rainforest.

And warns Brazilian climate researcher Luciana Fani Gatti.

– We’re in an emergency situation. She says the forest is collapsing.

The largest rainforest in the world today acts as a huge carbon sink. The Amazon rainforest absorbs more carbon dioxide than any other land on Earth and is a buffer against the worst effects of climate change.

But with every tree that is cut down, the ecosystem is pushed closer to the breaking point.

Renowned climate researcher Carlos Nobre at the University of São Paulo has long warned that devastation and climate change are on the way. Amazon Across the border – a point of no return – where the forest begins to transform itself into forests and savannas.

An invaluable ecosystem will be lost – at the same time that public amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will disappear and lead to global climate change.

Aftonbladet reported earlier this year from the frontline of the savannahs of the southern Amazon and in a well-publicized report that the women and girls fight the devastation.

fighting to survive

We are fighting for our survival . Betania Guajara, 15, said in the report

Carlos Nobre told Aftonbladet last year that an irreversible tipping point could be coming in fifteen years, at the same time stressing that nothing was certain.

During the first 10 months of this year, deforestation increased 33 percent compared to the same period the previous year, according to the Brazilian. amazon research institute Analytics.

And in September, an expert group of more than two hundred Amazon researchers issued a statement: We are balancing on the brink of disaster, according to British reports. New Scientist Magazine.

“nightmare”

– It’s a nightmare. We are in an emergency situation. The forest is collapsing, says climate scientist Luciana Fani Gatti at the Brazilian Space Research Institute Enppi, one of the participants.

Luciana Gatti for many years observed the Amazon rainforest from the air in airplanes. She fears the tipping point is in fact close to five years in the future.

– I notice the changes that are happening now. In the Amazon, there are many feedback effects in nature that were not included in the models developed. It’s as if the forest is storing less and less carbon as a result of the destruction or the remaining forest is more flammable, she says in an email interview with Aftonbladet.

yellow sea

I’ve been studying the Amazon from the air for a long time. What is the clearest change you have seen?

Deforestation completely changes the landscape. The green sea of ​​the rainforests has been replaced by the yellow sea of ​​soybean fields.

Luciana Gatti believes that all countries that consume soybeans from the Amazon bear a responsibility for how the rainforests are destroyed. Now it wants to hold the end consumers in the rich part of the world to account.

– There’s a lot of money in ruins. Who Really Buys Cut Trees in the Amazon? Who buys meat from cattle? Who buys soybeans? It’s time to talk about it.

“Very afraid”

What do you think of the future of the Amazon?

– I’m afraid there are already regions that cannot recover, such as the southeast of the Amazon. We need a complete cessation of cutting immediately. By 2028, it may be too late. We must put an end to the fires in the fall.

– Then we have to start replanting the forest and restoring it. And we must stop the mining of minerals that are poisoning rivers. And stop using poisons in agriculture.

Is it still possible to save the Amazon rainforest?

– Yes, if the whole world helps. Everyone has a responsibility for what happens.