24 Stunning Places That Climate Change Is Destroying For Future Generations

Amazon Rainforest

Image: ThingLink

The Amazon Rainforest covers 1.4 billion acres, making it the largest tropical rainforest in the world by a huge margin. More than half of the Amazon is in Brazil, while the rest lies in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela. The world’s rarest species of animals, reptiles, birds and fish are found in the forest in large quantities. In fact, the Amazon rainforest is home to 20% of the world’s bird species.

The Amazon also contains 20% of the world’s oxygen.

Despite it’s enormous size, the Amazon rainforest could disappear in just fifty years. Deforestation is the number one cause for this likely fate. More than 20% of the forest has already been cleared for farming and mining. Loggers ship the Amazon’s precious wood to various countries or turn it into charcoal. Deforestation accounts for 11% of all global greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans. This is comparable to emissions from all cars and trucks on Earth combined. It is important that we make our efforts by recycling and driving an eco-friendly car, but to really make a difference we must look at the numbers. We do not talk about deforestation and its consequences on the earth as much as we should.

Ecuador has just recently sold three million of its 8.1 million hectares to Chinese oil companies, putting the Amazon in the hands of people who do not care to protect it.

The more obvious effect of climate change on the rainforest is that the Amazon’s dry season has increased by a week each decade, putting the Amazon at greater risk to forest fires in the southern portion.