Amazon rainforest 'close to irreversible tipping point'

Source: The Guardian

Amazon rainforest 'close to irreversible tipping point'

Forecast suggests rainforest could stop producing enough rain to sustain itself by 2021

Dom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
Wed 23 Oct 2019 17.13 BST
Last modified on Wed 23 Oct 2019 18.02 BST

Soaring deforestation coupled with the destructive policies of Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, could push the Amazon rainforest dangerously to an irreversible “tipping point” within two years, a prominent economist has said.

After this point the rainforest would stop producing enough rain to sustain itself and start slowly degrading into a drier savannah, releasing billions of tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere, which would exacerbate global heating and disrupt weather across South America.

The warning came in a policy brief published this week by Monica de Bolle, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington DC.

The report sparked controversy among climate scientists. Some believe the tipping point is still 15 to 20 years away, while others say the warning accurately reflects the danger that Bolsonaro and global heating pose to the Amazon’s survival.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/23/amazon-rainforest-close-to-irreversible-tipping-point