Fires in the Amazon rainforest have captured attention worldwide in recent days. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who took office in 2019, pledged in his campaign to reduce environmental protection and increase agricultural development in the Amazon, and he appears to have followed through on that promise.
The resurgence of forest clearing in the Amazon, which had decreased more than 80% following a peak in 2004, is alarming for many reasons. Tropical forests harbor many species of plants and animals found nowhere else. They are important refuges for indigenous people, and contain enormous stores of carbon as wood and other organic matter that would otherwise contribute to the climate crisis.
Some media accounts have suggested that fires in the Amazon also threaten the atmospheric oxygen that we breathe. French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted on Aug. 22 that “the Amazon rain forest – the lungs which produces 20% of our planet’s oxygen – is on fire.”
The oft-repeated claim that the Amazon rainforest produces 20% of our planet’s oxygen is based on a misunderstanding. In fact nearly all of Earth’s breathable oxygen originated in the oceans, and there is enough of it to last for millions of years. There are many reasons to be appalled by this year’s Amazon fires, but depleting Earth’s oxygen supply is not one of them.
More at PBS
The left only believes in the science of lying.
The fires are affecting air quality, and freeing enormous quantities of carbon into the atmosphere. The most serious damage might be to biodiversity. Species are likely being lost before even being discovered. Remember the Petri dish question posed in another thread? It’s relevant. If you value Scott Denning’s opinion, you might want to find out what he has to say about climate change. Look him up.
From FOX News, August 27, 2019 – Satellite imagery of Amazon rainforest fire shows massive carbon monoxide pollution plume
@Greg: Carbon monoxide from a fire? What’ll they think of next?
Still doesn’t make anthropomorphic global warming a reality.
Yet the other world wide fires are ignored….Russian tundra and others. http://www.siberiantimes.com/ecology/casestudy/news/n0682-siberias-wildfires-seen-from-1...
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/nasa-sees-intense-fires-around-the-world
There is a bright side as young forests capture more CO2 than old growth if allowed to regenerate
https://psmag.com/environment/young-trees-suck-up-more-carbon-than-old-ones
@Deplorable Me, #3:
Scott Denning, the writer of the article at the top of this thread, certainly believes it’s real enough.
MAN-MADE GLOBAL WARMING – SOUNDING THE ALARM
@Greg: What he believes and reality are two totally different things. I was watching a documentary on Glacier Park and I wonder, what happened to all those glaciers that formed the geological formations of the park? They disappeared long before SUV’s and fossil fuels. Could it possibly be that the same natural influences that melted those glaciers cause fluctuations in global temperatures today?
I guess not, since there isn’t nearly as much money to be made or governmental control to be exploited from such a reality.
How can those who believe everything Trump says be relied upon to know anything about reality?
@Greg:
Perhaps he should get his lazy ass out of first-class CO2 spewing plane seat while jetting from climate conference to conference and plant a frigging tree. They are nuts Greg they could do these conferences by SKYPE or other less polluting ways if they realllly GAD. I guess they couldnt suck up the world wide sourced banquets and wines live like bigshots.
A lot of these fires in Brazil are on farms that are where the Amazon forest used to be.
Some of these fires are set on purpose to clear the land cheaply.
The real question the EU and other liberal/progs must ask themselves is: why are you so wound up by Brazil developing?
Is it that you wish Brazil would stay poor and underdeveloped so you could buy “carbon credits” from them?
Or, do you wish Brazil would stay under developed so you can sell that country stuff you make in the industrial EU?
Africa and Russia’s Siberian tundra are both burning up more that Brazil.
Funny (Ironic) that progs/liberals don’t care about those places.
But then, they’ve got no trading partnership with your EU.
@Greg: I guess because we CITE reality instead of left wing propaganda. That should be a giveaway.
@Nan G:
Maybe the Nazis don’t want more focus on their lives. It would stand to reason that Democrats would oppose this; their friends I’m sure appreciate it.
@Deplorable Me, #10:
“Reality” as found in the context of Hot Air, Breitbart, The Daily Caller, Laura Ingram, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, etc…with all other information sources being mainstream media and institutional purveyors of false news and socialist propaganda.
@Greg: Some of it, but as you know, that is not where even most of my citations come from. But, it makes you feel better to pretend that is where the proof of the climate scam comes from because you prefer to blindly follow the propaganda that supports your own prejudices.
As I have stated, I was a believer until the East Anglia scandal revealed the lies. That is open-mindedness. Intelligence. Logic. Reason. You should get yourself some.