What Are the Risks of Fires in the Amazon

[00:03.90] The fires in many parts of Brazil's Amazon area

[00:04.35] have brought an international outcry

[00:07.34] to save the world's largest rainforest.

[00:11.34] Wealthy nations have offered Brazil

[00:14.60] at least $22 million to fight the fires.

[00:19.92] Actor Leonardo DiCaprio also offered $5 million

[00:24.84] for efforts to save the forest.

[00:28.74] During the recent G-7 meeting in Biarritz, France,

[00:34.10] French President Emmanuel Macron commented on the fires.

[00:39.26] He told leaders meeting there that the world cannot permit Brazil

[00:44.85] to destroy what he called the "lungs of the planet."

[00:50.60] The World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) says the world's largest rainforest

[00:54.60] contains millions of species of plants and animals.

[01:05.47] Many of them are still unknown.

[01:06.36] Among the best known animals are jaguars, eagles,

[01:11.60] pink river dolphins, parrots, large snakes and many butterflies.

[01:19.49] The WWF says the forests contain over 40,000 kinds of plants

[01:26.85] and the 6,500 kilometers of rivers contain 3,000 kinds of freshwater fish.

[01:35.38] The area drained by the Amazon River covers 40 percent of South America.

[01:42.30] The forest extends over seven other countries and a French territory.

[01:49.65] More than 30 million people,

[01:52.09] including 350 indigenous and ethnic groups,

[01:57.35] live in the Amazon area and depend on the forests for food and shelter.

[02:05.03] The rainforest is often called the "lungs of the planet."

[02:09.95] But that might not be the best way to describe

[02:13.35] the area's importance to the world's ecosystem.

[02:18.04] Carlos Nobre is a University of Sao Paulo climate scientist.

[02:24.28] He said a better way to think about the Amazon's role is as a sink,

[02:30.10] taking heat-trapping carbon dioxide, or CO2, from the atmosphere.

[02:36.95] Currently, the world is releasing around 36 billion

[02:41.59] metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year.

[02:47.87] And the Amazon absorbs about five percent of the CO2

[02:53.10] making it important in preventing climate change.

[02:59.52] While it is often said that the Amazon produces 20 percent

[03:04.35] of the world's oxygen, climate scientists say that is not the case.

[03:11.27] They say forests, including the Amazon,

[03:14.09] absorb about the same amount of oxygen as they produce.

[03:20.18] Plants produce oxygen through a process called photosynthesis,

[03:27.59] but they also absorb it to grow, as do animals and microbes.

[03:32.78] Scientists say the world's oxygen supply

[03:36.85] is not directly at risk from the fires.

[03:40.72] However, that does not mean the fires are not a problem.

[03:46.70] The Amazon forest also absorbs other heat-trapping gases

[03:51.85] produced by burning fossil fuels, like oil and coal.

[03:58.47] The fires not only destroy parts of the carbon-absorbing forests,

[04:03.34] but they release millions of metric tons of carbon into the air.

[04:09.91] The Amazon rainforest also is important to rainfall in the area.

[04:16.53] Deforestation makes rains less frequent, extending the dry season.

[04:24.38] Carlos Nobre estimates that if 20 to 25 percent

[04:29.09] of the forest were destroyed, the dry season would expand.

[04:34.52] That would mean the area would no longer be a rainforest,

[04:39.10] but a tropical savannah, or an area with grasslands and few trees.

[04:46.54] Nobre added, "Unfortunately,

[04:49.34] we are already seeing signs of the Amazon turning into a savannah."

[04:55.93] The current fires in the Amazon are not wildfires.

[05:01.84] They are mostly set illegally by people

[05:06.85] who are clearing the forest to raise cattle and crops.

[05:10.21] People clear the land by cutting down the trees during the rainy season,

[05:15.84] letting the trees dry out and burning them during the dry season.

[05:23.97] Fully clearing the thick forest for agricultural use

[05:27.85] can take several years of cutting and burning.

[05:33.87] NASA researcher Doug Morton said researchers

[05:37.84] could see piles of trees months ago in satellite images.

[05:44.75] He said, "They're burning an enormous bonfire of Amazon logs

[05:50.59] that have been piled, drying in the sun for several months."

[05:55.80] Nobre says Brazil's policy has changed under President Jair Bolsonaro.

[06:03.63] The new president has limited the power of forest protection agencies

[06:09.84] saying they get in the way of developing land.

[06:14.32] Nobre added, "The number of fires increasing

[06:18.10] is because people think law enforcement won't punish them."

[06:23.53] I'm Jonathan Evans.