- Man Utd, Spurs eye respite from domestic woes in Europa League
- Guatemala picks Supreme Court judges with focus on anti-graft fight
- Jill Biden announces $500 million for women's health research
- Injured All Blacks centre Jordie Barrett out of Australia Test
- 'Lead the future': youth challenge world leaders at UN
- Goosebumps and stars as Paris Fashion Week kicks off
- Boeing boosts pay offer in effort to end strike
- Global markets inch higher on hopes of further rate cuts
- Amazon forest loses area the size of Germany and France, fueling fires
- 'Curious' Dupont eyes position change after claiming Top 14 award
- Man Utd stadium regeneration could add £7.3bn to British economy
- At COP16, Colombia seeks to lead by example on biodiversity
- Dupont caps off Olympic gold season with Top 14 player award
- Leeds to expand Elland Road to 53,000 capacity
- Mysterious 18th century diamond necklace set for auction
- World's oceans near critical acidification level: report
- California sues oil giant Exxon over plastic recycling 'myth'
- As wars rage, UN's critics say global body is failing its mission
- Amazon forest has lost an area the size of Germany and France
- Nadal, Alcaraz and Sinner in Davis Cup finals teams
- Telegram's Durov announces new crackdown on illegal content
- African players in Europe: Ice-cool Jackson strikes twice
- Man City's Rodri 'out for season' after ACL injury: reports
- Venezuelan court issues arrest warrant for Argentina's Milei
- Arsenal not yet a match for Man City-Liverpool rivalry, says Silva
- Iran's new president calls Israel warmonger as he seeks talks with West
- Berlin warns UniCredit against Commerzbank takeover attempt
- Black Eyed Peas star harnesses AI for novel radio product
- England cricket captain Knight reprimanded over 'blackface' photo
- Barca goalkeeper Ter Stegen set to miss season after knee operation
- 'I lived a lie', tearful witness tells French mass rape trial
- 274 dead in Israeli strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon
- Gunman revealed Trump plot months before golf course arrest: DOJ
- Trial opens in Italy student murder case that opened eyes to femicide
- Iran president accuses Israel of seeking conflict, says opposes war
- Swedish battery maker Northvolt to slash 1,600 jobs, quarter of staff
- Joshua says boxing career 'far from over' after Dubois defeat
- Stock markets inch higher on rate hopes
- 182 dead in Israeli strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon
- Friedkin Group reach deal to buy Everton
- UniCredit ups stake in Commerzbank to 21 percent
- Big rate cut was 'appropriate' first step: Fed official
- Stock markets diverge as eurozone economy struggles
- Lebanon says 100 dead in Israeli strikes on Hezbollah strongholds
- Man City's Akanji sends defiant title message after Arsenal battle
- Madrid's 'many styles' key to unbeaten streak: Ancelotti
- UK's Labour pledges economic rebuild amid free gifts row
- Barca goalkeeper Ter Stegen to undergo knee operation
- French mass rape trial moves on to new defendants
- Israel warns Lebanese as intense strikes target Hezbollah
Amazon forest loses area the size of Germany and France, fueling fires
The Amazon rainforest has lost an area about the size of Germany and France combined to deforestation in four decades, fueling drought and record wildfires across South America, experts said Monday.
The world's biggest jungle, spanning nine countries, is crucial to the fight against climate change due to its ability to absorb planet-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
However, researchers say a record spate of wildfires this year has instead released massive amounts of carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.
Various scientific reports have laid out the grim links between forest loss and a changing climate and the devastation that can follow for humans and wildlife.
Deforestation, mainly for mining and agricultural purposes, has led to the loss of 12.5 percent of the Amazon's plant cover from 1985 to 2023, according to RAISG, a collective of researchers and NGOs.
This amounts to 88 million hectares (880,000 square kilometers, 339,773 square miles) of forest cover lost across Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.
"A large number of ecosystems have disappeared to give way to immense expanses of pastures, soybean fields or other monocultures, or have been transformed into craters for gold mining," said RAISG experts.
"With the loss of the forest, we emit more carbon into the atmosphere and this disrupts an entire ecosystem that regulates the climate and the hydrological cycle, clearly affecting temperatures," Sandra Rio Caceres, from the Institute of the Common Good -- a Peruvian association that contributed to the study -- told AFP.
She believes the loss of vegetation in the Amazon is directly linked to severe drought and wildfires affecting several South American countries.
The Copernicus atmosphere monitoring service said Monday the fires in the Amazon and Pantanal wetlands were the worst in almost two decades.
- 'Highly flammable tinderboxes' -
The World Weather Attribution network of scientists said Sunday that climate change was increasing the risk and severity of fires in the Amazon and Pantanal, which are releasing "massive amounts" of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
"Never-ending heat has combined with low rainfall to turn these precious ecosystems into highly flammable tinderboxes," said Clair Barnes, a researcher from Imperial College London.
"As long as the world burns fossil fuels, the risk of devastating wildfires will continue to increase in the Amazon and Pantanal," she added.
The drought has placed some Amazon rivers at their lowest level in decades, threatening the lifestyle of some 47 million people who live on their banks.
The dry spell has sent fires burning out of control in Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay, and Peru.
Ecuador, which depends on hydroelectric power, is facing severe energy shortages from its worst drought in six decades, and has implemented rolling blackouts and put 20 of its 24 provinces on red alert.
In Brazil, thick plumes of smoke have clouded major cities such as Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, with fumes at times wafting across the border to Argentina and Uruguay.
"South American leaders must, more than ever, take urgent action to prevent climate catastrophe that could have irreversible consequences for humanity and for the planet," Amnesty International said Monday.
In an open letter to seven Latin American nations, the NGO urged authorities to do more to abandon fossil fuels and transform the industrial agriculture model, as well as protect the territories of Indigenous peoples and environmental defenders.
Amnesty pointed out that while some countries like Brazil -- where deforestation has slowed -- have taken action to tackle the burning of forests, many others were falling short.
Under Argentina's budget-slashing President Javier Milei, there has been a "drastic cut" to the environmental budget. The country's mass staff cuts have also hobbled the National Parks' service.
L.Mason--AMWN