Amazon tree species threatened
2008-10-30 14:52
Brasilia - Global warming could kill off half of the tree species in Brazil's vast Amazon jungle by 2050, a leading international climate change expert said on Wednesday.
A worst-case rise of 4 degrees Celsius would wipe out half of the region's tree species by making the Amazon much drier and causing increased humidity in Brazil's non-Amazon southern region, said Martin Parry of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
A lower rise of 2 degrees Celsius by 2050 would eliminate a quarter of the tree species in the Amazon, the world's largest remaining tropical rain forest, he told reporters.
In its pivotal 2007 reports on global warming, the IPCC projected that average global temperatures, which rose 0.7 degrees Celsius in the past century, would rise between 1.1 and 6.4 degrees Celsius in this century, depending on many variable factors including population growth, fuel use and government actions to rein in emissions.
Rain forest burning
Perry said the situation would get much worse if the world doesn't sharply reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other industrial, transportation and agricultural gases blamed for global warming.
"The margin for global action on climate change is extremely tight; the temperature is going up and the sea levels are rising," he said.
"We need strong international leadership to make the necessary changes, and Brazil could contribute to this leadership."
While Brazil managed to reduce deforestation by 60% between 2005 and 2007, rain forest burning is responsible for 55% of Brazilian emissions that contribute to global warming, said Carlos Nobre of Brazil's Economic Research Institute.
The rest comes from agriculture, energy generation and vehicles.
Deforestation - both the burning and rotting of wood in the Amazon - releases an estimated 400 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year, boosting Brazil to sixth place or higher among emitter nations.
By contrast, keeping the remaining rain forest takes carbon out of the atmosphere through the process of photosynthesis.
- AP