63 The Amazon Rainforest · Brazil

We have selected 100 unique places on Earth that are projected to
undergo profound changes within the next few generations.


We based our selection of the 100 places on the 4th Assessment
Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Simply by drawing attention to the beauty of these places, 100 Places to
Remember Before they Disappear creates an argument to preserve
them.

The 100 Places we have chosen to highlight, and the people who
live in them, are in serious danger because of rising sea levels, rising
temperatures and extreme weather events triggered by climate change.

Among ambassadors are Joss Stone, Desmond Tutu for more info visit http://www.100places.com -

The Amazon Rainforest · Brazil

The Lungs
of the Earth

Known as the lungs of the Earth, the Amazon is the largest rainforest on the planet. It covers 5.5 million square kilometres spread over nine South American nations, 60% of it in Brazil, and accounts for more than half of the worlds remaining rainforest.

Home to 20% of all plant and animal species in the world, the biodiversity of the Amazon rainforest is unparalleled anywhere on Earth, and includes some 2.5 million species of insect, and tens of thousands of species of tree and plant. Its biosphere also has an incalculable impact on the climate and living conditions of the whole planet.

Over the past 30 years, almost 600,000 square kilometres of the rainforest have been felled in Brazil alone. If this trend continues, more than 30% of the forest will be gone by 2050, contributing to global warming through emissions of CO2 on a very large scale.

Even without deforestation, the rainforests are under serious threat. Many tropical plant species are highly sensitive to even the slightest climate variation. A temperature rise of 3°C could reduce the forest in parts of the Amazon by more than 40%, adding further to global warming, wiping out thousands of endemic species and transforming the landscape into savannah.

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