What We Never Knew About The Amazon Rainforest - Earth’s Lungs

The Amazon rainforest, known as The Planet’s Lungs is primarily embodied within Brazil with 60% of rainforest. It comprises the largest rainforest in the world with 16,000 species of individual trees. The Amazon Rainforest produces 20% of the Oxygen.

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At the beginning of this month, Brazil declared a state of emergency due to the high rate of wildfire at the Amazon which is dangerous for health of all species, especially the human health. This year, almost 73,000 fires have been discovered by Brazil’s space research center (INPE) which makes 83% increase from 2018 and the highest number of fire recorded since 2013, according to Reuters.  

The Amazon Rainforest (Earth's Lungs) Battling Deforestation -  (Skitek Media)

The Amazon Rainforest is wet and humid, the forest experiences fire during the dry season from July to October which maybe caused naturally or by human, such as Lighting strikes, deforestation and burning. This fire expels large quantity of smoke and carbon which spread across the Amazon region and beyond and can be seen from the space. The smoke moves far as the Atlantic coast and caused darken skies in Sao Paulo.

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This disaster kept on occurring due to deforestation which is used as the human settlement and Grazing by the Farmers, Ranchers and loggers. Christian Poirier a program director of the nonprofit Amazon Watch spoke with CNN, “Fire is often used to clear out the land for farming or Ranching. For that reason, a vast majority of the fires can be attributed to human.” The fire has been releasing a great amount of Carbon dioxide which would lead to Carbon dioxide intoxication or Carbon dioxide poisoning to the human breathing air. The Fire also emit carbon Monoxide, a gas released when wood is burned which replaces the oxygen in the red blood cells of the human body, leading to serious tissue damage or even death.

The Amazon Rainforest on Fire - Earth's Lungs on Fire (Battling Deforestation) - Skitekmedia

The carbon stored is released into the atmosphere and the rainforest’s capacity to absorb carbon emission is reduced, due to deforestation or burning. Wikipedia stated that in 2018, about 17% of the Amazon Rainforest was already destroyed. 

According to the World Wide Fund For Nature, Climate change and deforestation increases the drying effect of dead trees that fuels forest fires.

The effects of damage to the Amazon is not a threat to Brazil and its neighbors but to Planet Earth. The rainforest generates more than 20% of the world’s Oxygen and 10% of the world’s Biodiversity. The climate is regulated by the Amazon and if the rainforest should disappear, the world would suffer a change drastically.

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Credit: Miriam Oluwatosin - Contributor