Global warming accelerates destruction of the Amazon. Deforestation and climate change could damage or destroy as much as 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest by 2030, according to a new report from environmental group WWF.
Overall, 20% of the Amazon rainforest has been "transformed" (deforested) and another 6% has been "highly degraded", causing Amazon Watch to warn that the Amazonia is in the midst of a tipping point crisis.
And there are other very serious long-term consequences to destroying Earth's most biodiverse region. Burning away the Amazon would condemn millions of living species to extinction and destroy their habitats. Many of these plants, animals, and other forms of life haven't even been identified by science yet.
2024 Marks the Worst Year for Amazon Fires since 2005
Between January and October, an area larger than the state of Iowa—37.42 million acres of Brazil's Amazon—burned. The area lost to fire in the Amazon grew by at least 114% compared to 2023.
By 2050, up to 47 percent of the Amazon could hit critical ecological tipping points, researchers say, transitioning into savanna grasslands or other degraded ecosystems because of deforestation and human-driven global warming.
In 1965, Brazil created and passed its first Forest Code, a law requiring landowners in the Amazon to maintain 35 to 80 percent of their property under native vegetation. So, rural farmers of all kinds can buy land in the Amazon, but they can only farm 20 percent of it.
The Amazon is so large that as the trees photosynthesize, they release enough moisture to create rain clouds. Removing the entire rainforest would drastically impact local climatic conditions. Less rain would worsen droughts, creating water shortages and failed crop harvests in the surrounding area.
Left alone, Amazon plants will typically return to this land. Seeds and roots in the soil can sprout from the ash. But where fires are very severe, the buried seeds and roots of some species may die, too. Now lacking these species, the forest that grows back often will have fewer species than before.
Storing carbon, distributing water
The Amazon rainforest is estimated to harbour about 76 billion tonnes of carbon. If all trees were cut down and burned, the forest's carbon storage capacity would be lost to the atmosphere.
#1 Amazon. The undisputed number 1 is probably the most famous forest on earth, the South American Amazon. The forest of all forests, with its fabulous 5,500,000 km2 , not only has the largest area, but is also home to one in ten species existing on earth.
But there's good news: after years of record-breaking deforestation, the world's largest tropical rainforest is finally enjoying some respite. In 2023, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell 50 percent year on year, while neighboring Colombia, Peru and Bolivia also saw major declines in forest loss.
Preliminary data from national space agency Inpe showed 5,153 sq km (1,989.6 sq miles) of the Amazon were cleared in 2023, down from 10,278 sq km in 2022. President Lula promised to restore the Amazon rainforest and chase down climate criminals during his speech at climate summit COP27 in 2022.
Summary. Amazon's future growth potential is often underestimated due to its size, but its unique position in leading growth industries sets it apart. Amazon's online store, 3P sales, advertising, subscriptions, and AWS segments all contribute to its potential $4 trillion valuation by 2030.
The Challenge: More than half of the Amazon may be destroyed by 2030. The forest is now reaching its tipping point.
Unbelievably, over 200,000 acres of rainforest are burned every day. That is over 150 acres lost every minute of every day, and 78 million acres are lost every year! The latest statistics in the Brazilian Amazon show a 34 percent increase in deforestation since 1992.
While deforestation rates have plunged, up to 80 million hectares (198 million acres) of the Brazilian Amazon have already been destroyed, most of it on private and undesignated public lands. Reforestation pledges have promised to replant more than 12 million hectares (30 million acres) in the coming decade.
The Amazon has proven resilient to natural changes in the climate for 65 million years, but deforestation and the human-caused climate crisis have brought new levels of stress and could cause a large-scale collapse of the forest system within the next three decades, the study said.
In terms of the global carbon cycle, tropical forests have a carbon sink roughly equal to half of what is in the atmosphere. About half of that is in the Amazon. This means to lose the Amazon would dramatically increase climate change. And there are some extraordinary local connections as well.
The Amazon region itself—the seven million square kilometer basin stretching over nine Brazilian states and eight other sovereign countries—would become virtually uninhabitable, according to the model. Rainfall would be 25 percent lower and temperatures up to 4.5°C hotter.
If Earth were to slow down and stop more gradually, life would still change drastically. For instance, the length of our days and nights would become longer until each lasted six months. It would also change our weather, Layden said, since air and ocean currents are strongly influenced by Earth's rotation.
The dams and levees that people have built on the rivers and streams of the world would erode. Farms would fall back to nature. The plants we eat would begin to disappear. Not much corn or potatoes or tomatoes anymore.
In the presence of their families, Lula announced Brazil's new Amazon Security and Sovereignty Plan – which will combat land grabbing, illegal mining, and logging, as well as hunting and fishing within indigenous territories, environmental protection areas, and the entire Amazon biome.
Yes, you can sell any of your property for any dollar amount that you wish. However, the owner should be wise and consider the tax implications associated with the property transfer.
A 2022 Land Report named Bezos the country's 24th-largest landowner, with 420,000 acres to his name. Over the years, he's picked up several New York City apartments, a ranch in Texas, and homes in Washington state, California, and Washington, DC.