Politics of the Amazon

Latin America’s Amazon region is in trouble. Sometimes described as the ‘lungs of the world’ it plays a key role as a powerful cleanser of the global atmosphere, by absorbing global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Something like half a billion tonnes of CO2 are sequestered in the rainforest every year. With nearly 400bn trees, the forest releases and re-absorbs water vapour creating a system of rainclouds known as ‘flying rivers’ which recycle moisture and create nearly half the region’s rainfall. The issue is that this complex and critically important eco-system is fragile and vulnerable to the damage caused by humans: deforestation, large scale commercial farming and cattle ranching, illegal mining, and the exploitation and trafficking of rare flora and fauna. As new roads open up previously isolated areas, deforestation is accelerating, causing the Amazon to shrink and begin to dry out, thereby contributing to global warming and water scarcity.