The Amazon rainforest, distributed between Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Brazil, is home to immense biodiversity. The benefits of the Amazon are countless, for example: a tree with a crown measuring 10 meters in diameter, according to the National Institute for Amazonian Research, has the capacity to pump more than 300 liters of water into the atmosphere.
The Amazon forest is essential to prevent the advancement of climate change. Its rivers account for almost a fifth of the fresh water that flows into the oceans, and humidity from part of the Amazon Basin reaches and regulates the climate of countries such as Argentina and Uruguay.
Scientists point out that the effects of deforestation in the region are alarming and have reached record levels since the beginning of 2019. “If we go from 20 to 25% of deforestation, the Amazon is at risk of becoming a degraded savannah,” Carlos Nobre told EBC – researcher at the Institute of Advanced Studies at USP.
Physicist Paulo Artaxo, from USP, comments on the role of the Amazon in the water and carbon cycles in Brazil and the world:
