Cooked

Remember when the Amazon was a carbon sink? Good times.

Historically, the Amazon rainforest has been one of the planet’s most important sources of carbon sequestration, caching billions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere every year. For decades, scientists have cautioned us not to take this crucial service for granted, warning that in just 15 years, the Amazon could meet the fate of other large forests and become a source of greenhouse gases. Devastating new research shows that bleak scenario has likely already begun.

Oops.

groundbreaking study published in the journal Frontiers in Forests and Global Change on Thursday suggests that the Amazon rainforest is exhaling at least as many greenhouse gases as it breathes in. The analysis, conducted by more than 30 researchers from North and South America, is the first to ever assess the cumulative cycle of all the planet-warming gases the jungle emits compared to what it sucks up and stores in plants and soil.

Deforestation is weakening the forest’s ability to suck up carbon, and is also making the soil even more unhealthy, causing it to produce more nitrous oxide. When the forests are left bare, they also absorb more heat from the sun, which can further dry the soil and trees and cause both to emit even more warming gases. And the climate crisis—itself driven by many of the industries behind deforestation—is increasing warming in the region, amplifying that effect. All this could leave the Amazon cleaved in two, and leave the planet’s greenhouse gas balance increasingly out of sorts.

But that’s just trivia. The really important thing is how Eddie Izzard is identifying today.

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