English references

Four key parts of the Earth’s climate system are destabilising, according to a new study with contributions from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Researchers analysed the interconnections of four major tipping elements: the Greenland ice sheet, the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), the Amazon rainforest and the South American monsoon system. All four show signs of diminished resilience, raising the risk of abrupt and potentially irreversible changes.

Suspension of Soy moratorium could open up area of rainforest the size of Portugal to destruction

For more than three decades, Brazilian climate scientist Carlos Nobre has warned that deforestation of the Amazon could push this globally important ecosystem past the point of no return. Working first at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research and more recently at the University of São Paulo, he is a global authority on tropical forests and how they could be restored.

Brazil records 62% jump in area burned by forest fires: monitor

Researchers found that between 2002 and 2015, a 3.2% reduction in Brazilian forest cover led to a 5.4% reduction in precipitation levels.

The signs of weakening resilience raise concerns that the world’s greatest tropical forest – and biggest terrestrial carbon sink – is degrading towards a point of no return. It follows four supposedly “one-in-a-century” dry spells in less than 20 years, highlighting how a human-disrupted climate is putting unusually intense strains on trees and other plants, many of which are dying of dehydration.

SAO PAULO, Aug 1 (Reuters) - The number of fires in Brazil's Amazon rainforest region surged to a record high for the month of July in almost two decades, government data showed on Thursday, amid a drought in the region fanned by climate change. The Amazon, the world's largest rainforest, plays a vital role in curbing global warming because of the vast amounts of greenhouse gas it absorbs.

La destruction de l'Amazonie est un phénomène qui s’étend au-delà de la déforestation mais les neuf pays qui partagent cette ressource naturelle sont engagés à la protéger.

New research suggests 75% of the rainforest has become less resilient to stress since the early 2000s.

The Amazon rainforest is facing a barrage of pressures that might tip it into large-scale ecosystem collapse as soon as 2050, according to new research Wednesday warning of dire consequences for the region and the world. The Amazon, which holds more than 10 percent of the world's biodiversity, helps stabilize the global climate by storing the equivalent of around two decades of emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide.

This year's heat and drought in the Amazon intensify worries that it is approaching a tipping point.

Amazon rainforest and other ecosystems could collapse ‘very soon’, researchers warn

Past governments blamed the growing of coca – the base component of cocaine – for clearcutting, but a recent study shows otherwise

A community of Indigenous peoples worried that mercury used by gold miners was contaminating the fish they eat. So they created a DIY team to find out more.

Fossil fuels, fisheries and farming: the world’s most destructive industries are protected – and subsidised – by governments

For every three trees dying from drought in the Amazon rainforest, a fourth tree – even though not directly affected – will die, too. In simplified terms, that’s what researchers have now found using network analysis to understand the complex workings of one of Earth’s most valuable and biodiverse carbon sinks. The regions most at risk of turning into savannah are located on the forest’s Southern fringes, where continuous clearing for pasture or soy has already been weakening the forest’s resilience for years.

Climate tipping points in the Antarctica, the Arctic and the Amazon are at risk of being reached before or at the current level of global warming of 1.2 degrees Celsius, requiring a “major rethink” of global climate goals and the action necessary to achieve them, according to a recent report.

Climate analysts are astounded by such a high reading during the rainy season, and is the third monthly record this year

More than three-quarters of the world's largest rainforest has become less resilient to drought since the early 2000s, with areas near humans and with lower rainfall being the worst hit

The most widely publicized threat to the Amazonian rainforest is deforestation. Less well understood is that public lands are being converted to private holdings in a land grab we’ve been studying for the past decade... Much of this land is cleared for cattle ranches and soybean farms, threatening biodiversity and the Earth’s climate.