(ANSA) - ROME, JULY 14 - The lung of the planet is no longer breathing as it should: among the upheavals that climate changes are causing, a study reveals that the Amazon rainforest now emits more CO2 than it can absorb, one and a half billion tons per year to be exact, against the half billion tons that the breath of the vegetation is trying to steal. The balance, one billion tons, is equal to Japan's total annual emissions. A fact - the scientists underline - that raises the need to reduce the impact of carbon dioxide on the Earth as quickly as possible.
The study confirmed for the first time what was already suspected. Most of the emissions are caused by fires, many of them deliberately set to clear the land and encourage the production of beef and soy. But even without fires - specifies the study published in Nature to which the Guardian reports -, the increase in temperatures and drought, however favored by deforestation, would have been enough to transform the south-eastern Amazon, a seemingly inexhaustible well of oxygen that has so far absorbed about a quarter of all fossil fuel emissions since 1960, into a Co2 source.
First accused, and not from today, is the president of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro, criticized for encouraging a wild forest, the worst in 12 years, while the fires in June caused the worst damage since 2007. (ANSA ).
