The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
February 16, 2024

"Red Alert": Half of Amazon Rainforest Could Reach Climate Tipping Point by Mid-Century
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scientists warn worsening wildfires, deforestation and warmer
temperatures could permanently destroy the water cycle sustaining large
portions of the Amazon rainforest in the coming decades. In a study
published this week by the journal Nature, researchers say that between
10% to nearly half of the Amazon's ecosystem is at risk of transitioning
from rainforest to savannah by the year 2050 unless deforestation is
dramatically reduced and urgent action is taken to curb the worst
impacts of global warming. This is one of the study's lead authors,
Bernardo Flores, a researcher at the University of Santa Catarina in
Brazil.

Bernardo Flores: "Once we cross this tipping point, maybe we cannot do
anything anymore, and then it's useless to stop deforestation, to try to
stop. We may not even be able to, because the forest will die by itself.
So, I mean, it's time to - red alert."



.