Tracking change in the Amazon Rainforest

Andrew Lee
4 August 2023

Those concerned about forests had become alarmed at how the Brazilian government had decided that the Amazon Rainforest, often called the 'lungs of the planet,' was a resource that would allow the country to reduce poverty and to lift its GDP. The environmental cost of this was enormous.

A recent change of government led to the new leader President Lula da Silva, set as one of its priorities to reverse this programme. The BBC and other news agencies have reported this month that 500 square kilometres of rainforest had been cleared; which whilst still an alarming amount is a decline of 66% compared with last year.

Rainforests not only contain (retain/sequester) carbon, but release oxygen into the atmosphere and the scale of this rainforest therefore has global implications for the 'health,' of the atmosphere. In addition to providing oxygen and sequestering carbon, rainforests contain wide biodiversity and compounds in the organisms in the forests, that are still largely untapped for the development of medicines.

The rainforest is definitely a key variable in looking after the planet.