Amazon Rainforest Could Soon Turn Into A Dry Savannah, Scientists Warn
Image ID 179525885 © via Mariusz Prusaczyk | Dreamstime.com
As climate change continues to wreck havoc on the planet, a group of scientists have a new warning: the Amazon Rainforest could transform into a dry savannah in just five years.
“We are about to collapse. We are in an emergency, we need action now,” Luciana Gatti, a senior climate change researcher at the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research, told New Scientist.
“It’s a nightmare,” she said.
According to Futurism, Gatti was one of 200 climate researchers who lent their expertise to the Science Panel for the Amazon’s (SPA) assessment report, which was published just last month. Unfortunately, it didn’t come with good news.
The report pointed out several factors that indicated the rainforest could be headed for a major collapse, including rising temperatures and the devastating deforestation happening in Brazil.
One scientist even posited that just 20% to 25% of deforestation could cause the forest to experience “savannization”—which occurs when a forest dries up due to less rainfall, and turns into a dry savannah grassland instead of a dense, lush green escapade.
If the Amazon Rainforest is on track to turn into an arid desert-like landscape in just five years, we’ll have to act fast. This would entail halting all deforestation activities immediately, following which authorities would have to lead a huge reforestation campaign to restore it to its former glory.
“There is a narrow window of opportunity to change this trajectory. But action must be exponential,” said Mercedes Bustamante, a biologist at the University of Brasilia.
[via Futurism, cover image via Mariusz Prusaczyk | Dreamstime.com]
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