No, the Amazon Rainforest Doesn’t Produce 20% of Our Oxygen, Here’s Why
Contrary to popular belief, the Amazon forest doesn’t provide Earth with 20% of its oxygen supply. So how exactly do the fires currently destroying Earth’s largest remaining rainforest affect us?
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The Amazon is the world’s largest remaining rainforest, covering between 6 to 8 million square km of land, home to millions of species including plants, insects, birds, and mammals, many of which are yet to be discovered by researchers.
However, the Amazon rainforest is also a compromised ecosystem.
More than 74,000 fires have been recorded in Brazil, just this year, most of which occurred in the Amazon region.
And so, many are wondering if the deforestation taking place in the Amazon will have a negative impact on our global oxygen supply, which in turn, has led to the claim that the Amazon produces 20% of the world’s oxygen. People even dubbed the rainforest the “world’s lungs.”
The biggest contributor to Earth’s oxygen supply is actually the oceans, specifically the plants that live in the ocean. Around half of Earth’s oxygen is generated from marine organisms, like plankton, through photosynthesis.
But the Amazon rainforest, one of the most unique and biodiverse ecosystems on the planet, does not provide Earth with 20% of its oxygen supply, so where does this figure come from?
Find out on this episode of Elements.
#Amazon #Fire #Oxygen #Seeker #Elements #Science
Read More:
Why the Amazon doesn’t really produce 20% of the world’s oxygen
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/en…
“…the figure—which has earned the forest the title “lungs of the Earth”—is a gross overestimate. As several scientists have pointed out in recent days, the Amazon’s net contribution to the oxygen we breathe likely hovers around zero.”
It’s Really Close’: How the Amazon Rainforest Could Self-Destruct
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/30/wo…
“The Amazon’s plant life stores an estimated 100 billion tons of carbon. By comparison, every coal plant worldwide combined emitted 15 billion tons of carbon in 2017. So even if only a small proportion of the trees destroyed by large-scale deforestation burn, this longtime buffer against climate change could instead become a driver of it.”
Why it’s been so lucrative to destroy the Amazon rainforest
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-enviro…
“The vast majority of the fires burning in the Amazon right now were started by humans in service of mining, logging, and agriculture. After clearing an area of forest, fires are ignited by farmers using slash-and-burn techniques to help put nutrients in the soil for crops. Others use fires to clear low-level vegetation to more easily access trees and the soil. Fires are also used by illegal loggers and miners to drive indigenous people off their lands.”
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- 1.Amazon rainforest fires could devastate the fight against climate change
- 2.Drone footage reveals aftermath of Amazon fires
- 3.Amazon fires: the tribes fighting to save their dying rainforest
- 4.Amazon rainforest indigenous people in fight for survival- BBC News
- 5.Brazil’s indigenous population fights back | DW Documentary (Environment documentary)
- 6.Amazon rainforest on fire: ‘Lungs of the world’ in flames l Nightline
- 7.Amazon fires create respiratory issues for people of Brazil l ABC News
- 8.Amazon forest fire: What it tells us about deforestation
- 9.What If We Lost The Amazon Rainforest?
- 10.Should you compare Brazil’s Amazon fires to those in Central Africa? | #TheCube
- 11.Hotspots: Surge in deforestation in Amazon rainforest
- 12.Deforestation creating climate issues for the Amazon rainforest
- 13.Bolsonaro blames Amazon rainforest wildfires on green groups | DW News
- 14.Special report: The Amazon rainforest ablaze
- 15.How One Rich American Is Helping to Burn the Amazon for Profit | Opinions | NowThis
- 16.Why Is the Amazon Burning, and What’s Next? | The New Yorker
- 17.No, the Amazon Rainforest Doesn’t Produce 20% of Our Oxygen, Here’s Why
- 18.Amazon fire ban – BBC News
- 19.Amazon fires: burning continues despite ban
- 20.Amazon rainforest fires could have global implications | 7.30
- 21.Amazon wildfires an international crisis | The Drum
- 22.Meet the Ranchers Who Claim the Brazilian Amazon is Theirs to Burn | The Dispatch
- 23.The Amazon rainforest in Brazil is burning. Who started the fires? | The Fact Checker
- 24.Fires rage across Amazon rainforest at record pace
- 25.Why is the Amazon burning? | CNBC Explains
- 26.The other Amazon forest fire – that no one is talking about
- 27.Armadillos and tapirs among wildlife caught in Bolivia’s fires – video
- 28.It’s not just Brazil’s Amazon that is on fire, Bolivia is facing its own disaster
- 29.Amazon Fires: Bolivia experiences worst wildfires in living memory
- 30.Bolivia volunteers brave wildfires to save animals
- 31.Bolivia: Armadillos, parrots and other animals treated at shelter after Amazon fires
- 32.Firefighter Rescues Baby Bird From Bolivian Wildfires
- 33.Bolivia, like neighbour Brazil, battles intense wildfires that have so far burnt 500,000 hectares