Reply #7: Related - "20-Year Alert Over Falling Rainforests" [View All]

[hatrack]

"The special ability of rainforests to hold back global warming is failing and could end in 20 years scientists warn today.

That would raise temperatures by up to eight degrees in the next century, causing huge climate change and threatening humans, the report from the Royal Society reveals."

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The report says temperatures have risen half a degree in the Amazon region in the past 20 years. Over the same period the rate at which forests are growing and dying has doubled. Dr Oliver Philip of Leeds Universitywho co-authored one three Royal Society papers on the rainforests, said: "Computer simulations show the carbon sink cannot be taken for granted. The process could be reversed in two decades by the combined effects of deforestation and global warming."

Two further papers show some Amazonian rainforests are already starting to break up. Experts believe recent forest fires have significantly damaged some forests and their monkey and bird populations."

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