Will Amazon survive?

KAZI ABUL MONSUR, JOURNALIST#
Around 2019, scientists from the UK’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Stockholm University researched plants and found that about 571 species of plants have been lost or completely extinct from the world in the last 250 years. And in the same period, the number of extinct animal species including animals, birds and reptiles is about 217. Their research revealed that most of these mass extinctions of flora and fauna occurred in islands and tropical regions (tropical rain forests). Both of these regions contain essentially the largest number of plant habitats and shelters in the world.

Meanwhile, the extinction of flora and fauna of the ‘Amazon’ rain forest, known as the lungs of the world, is happening at an alarming rate. According to the data provided by the National Space and Research Institute of Brazil, from 2019 to 2022, about 45,586 square kilometers of the Amazon Rain Forest have been destroyed in just 4 years. Which would be an area larger than many countries. Along with that, many rare species of plants and animals have already disappeared from this forest.
If this situation continues, environmental scientists fear that up to 70 percent of the Amazon may disappear by the end of the 21st century. However, the hope is that the countries of Latin America are becoming aware of the protection of the world’s great ‘Amazon’ rain forest. Basically, a few months ago in Brazil, 8 South American countries Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela and Guyana decided to work together to protect the Amazon rainforest. They want to take realistic measures now, especially before the Amazon rainforest is completely destroyed. For this reason, they called on the developed countries to come forward by allocating sufficient funds.
Environmental scientists have researched that the ‘Amazon’ rain forest of South America was formed about 56 million to 40 million years ago. As such, this huge ‘Amazon’ still survives with almost half of the world’s rain forest as a very ancient rain forest. Although today it is slowly moving towards extinction due to destructive human activities.
Moreover, according to the data provided by Global Forest Watch (GFW), in the year 2022, around 41,000 square kilometers of natural forests were destroyed around the world. Which in 2021 was 37,500 square kilometers. And in the last year 2022 alone, 10% more forest area has been destroyed all over the world than the previous year. However, in the last two decades, people have indiscriminately destroyed more than 60,000 square kilometers of forest in 2016.
Meanwhile, the main problem that has arisen due to the indiscriminate destruction of forests is the increase in the global average temperature at an alarming rate. Especially in the last year 2022 alone, approximately 2.7 gigatons of carbon dioxide stored here have gone directly into the atmosphere as a result of deforestation. In this way, the climate and natural environment as we know it is changing due to the adverse effects of large amount of harmful carbon dioxide (green house gas) going into the atmosphere in the long term.
Currently, the average temperature of the Earth has increased by an average of 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial era. Added to that is the terrible disaster of the melting of trillions of tons of ice stored in the continent of Antarctica. Which may increase the normal height of the sea level in the next few decades and flood many low-lying areas and countries of the world. And this is directly responsible for the destruction of forests in tropical regions and the development of new industrialization and agriculture-based farms. Which must be done by all the countries of the world to prevent the destruction of this forest area at any cost.##