Amazon Rainforest as a Significant but Highly Vulnerable Global Climate Tipping Element // Aug 27, 2019

The Amazon Rainforest is one of the very significant yet vulnerable tipping elements in the overall climate system. Willful human destruction of the rainforest by slash-and-burn techniques (trees are toppled by chainsaw or tractors with chains, allowed to dry out, and are then torched) is behind 99% of the present fires, according to some accounts. In this first of a series of 5 videos, I wade through the science and attempt to determine the most accurate numbers on the Amazon Rainforest impact as a carbon sink and oxygen producer, in the overall global context.
———- ———-

Vital Significance of Amazon Rainforest as Carbon Sink // Aug 27, 2019

How significant, on a global scale, is the Amazon Rainforest? Best I can tell, correct annual numbers are: Tropical rainforests account for 34% of land-based global photosynthesis; Amazon Rainforest is almost half that, namely 16%. Total oxygen produced by land-based photosynthesis is 330 Pg, thus Amazon is 54 Pg. Ocean phytoplankton oxygen production is 240 Pg. Total global photosynthesis is 330 + 240 = 570 Pg of oxygen (58% land, 42% ocean). Amazon produces 54/570=9.5% of total global oxygen; with carbon sink being 9.5% of global plant total sink.
———- ———-

Amazon Rainforest: Crunching the Numbers // Aug 27, 2019

As far as I can tell in my analysis, the most accurate numbers on carbon sink and oxygen production sizes for the Amazon Rainforest in a global photosynthesis context are in a blog by ecologist Yadvinder Malhi, which I discuss in detail within this series of 5 videos (this one is 3/5). If the entire Amazon Rainforest was to collapse (burn) then about 90 Pg of carbon would be released to the atmosphere (adding about 40 ppm, an increase of almost 10% of our present 415 ppm), using up 240 Pg of oxygen (a very small 0.02% of the oxygen level in the atmosphere).
———- ———-

We Need to Plant Many New Amazon Equivalents, Not Destroy Our Existing One // Aug 27, 2019

If the entire Amazon burned down, a release of 90 Pg of carbon to the atmosphere, equivalent to a 40 ppm rise in atmospheric CO2, was mentioned in the previous video description based on Yadvinder Malhi blog. By the same token, if people on Earth got their act together and planted a new Amazon (about 390 billion trees, estimated from Amazon Wikipedia) this would drawdown about 40 ppm (90 Pg) or 10% of atmospheric concentration. At present, atmospheric CO2 rises 2-3 ppm/year, so 40 ppm is only between13-20 years worth of global emissions.
———- ———-

Playing with Amazon Fire will get us all Burned // Aug 27, 2019

According to the Wiki on Amazon Rainforest: “In 2018 about 17% of the Amazon Rainforest was already destroyed. Research suggests that upon reaching about 20-25% (hence 3-8% more), the tipping point to flip it into non-forest ecosystems – degraded savannah – (in eastern, southern and central Amazonia) will be reached.” Given 3 recent century scale droughts in the Amazon Rainforest in 2005, 2010, and 2015-2016, and slash-and-burn human practices accelerating again, we are quite literally playing with fire in a game we cannot win.
———- ———-

———- ———-

Please consider donating to support my work.  I put a lot of time and effort into researching, studying and producing my videos so that you can learn how quickly our world is changing.  Donating does not need a PayPal account, but simply a credit card. Please click here.
———- ———-

———- ———-