Amazon under threat: Will factories and farms replace Earth's lungs?
Environmentalists have long raised alarms about deforestation in the Amazon, a region often referred to as the "lungs of the planet." The rainforest has been subjected to ongoing deforestation, with researchers estimating that over the past 40 years, an area nearly three times the size of Poland has been cleared of trees.
The Amazon rainforest, covering 5.5 million square kilometres, is a haven for wildlife and a vital global resource, producing between 6 and 9% of the worldâs oxygen. Home to many exotic plant species, the forest spans parts of Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, French Guiana, and Suriname. Environmentalists and activists have been campaigning for decades to preserve the Amazon, emphasising the need to protect its rich biodiversity. However, despite their efforts, landownersâdriven by commercial interests such as farming, industry, and developmentâcontinue to push deforestation to acquire land for profit.
The scale of Amazon deforestation
In response to the growing crisis, researchers from the Amazon Network of Georeferenced Socio-Environmental Information (RAISG) have conducted a comprehensive study to examine the scale of deforestation in the region. While scientists have long sounded the alarm on the issue through numerous reports, RAISG's recent investigation sought to quantify the extent of deforestation over the past 40 years, utilising satellite imagery to assess the damage inflicted on the rainforest.
Researchers sound the alarm
Researchers estimate that between 1985 and 2023, 88 million hectaresâ12.5% of the Amazon, the worldâs largest rainforestâwere destroyed due to deforestation. To illustrate the scale of this devastation, activists note that the deforested area is nearly three times the size of Poland.
In their report, scientists stated: "A large number of ecosystems have disappeared to give way to immense expanses of pastures, soybean fields or other monocultures, or have been transformed into craters for gold mining."
They further warned: "Increasingly extreme and frequent climatic events, stimulated by deforestation, continue to affect the already weakened Amazon, both in terms of its capacity to regenerate and its role in regulating the planet's climate."
Sandra Rio Caceres, from Peruâs Institute of the Common Good, highlighted the broader environmental impact in an interview with AFP: "With the loss of the forest, we emit more carbon into the atmosphere, and this disrupts an entire ecosystem that regulates the climate and the hydrological cycle, clearly affecting temperatures."
She also pointed to droughts and fires, which frequently ravage South America, as contributing factors to the destruction of the Amazonâs vegetation.
Source: RMF24.pl
