Amazonia

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Amazonia: What’s Happening to the World’s Biggest Rain Forest?

By BRYAN WALSH | @bryanrwalsh | January 18, 2012 | 

Deforestation in the Brazilian rain forest is slowing, but it's still happening—with major consequences for the global environment.

I’d say you have to see the Amazon for yourself to understand how vast it is, but I’ve been there—and even I can’t imagine it. The rain forest is more than 2 million sq. miles—two-thirds the size of the continental United States—and the river system of the gigantic basin produces 20% of the world’s freshwater discharge. The forest holds 100 billion metric tons of carbon—equivalent to more than 10 years’ worth of global fossil-fuel emissions. And the Amazon is the global capital of wildlife biodiversity, with more species calling the forest and rivers home than scientists could ever hope to name. It’s safe to say that as the Amazon goes, so goes the planet’s environment./.../