Breaking News English

Environmental scientists have shocking news that parts of the Amazon rainforest are more carbon dioxide than they are . The scientists said the forest is now over a billion tons of CO2 a year. They say the Amazon used to be a carbon "sink". This is where CO2 was sucked up and into oxygen. However, it has now a source of carbon dioxide. The forest is at risk of losing its moniker of the lungs of the world. Researchers are the rainforest will more CO2 at an accelerating rate in the future. The biggest culprits for the Amazon's flipping from sink to source logging, deforestation and a growing number of forest fires.

The research on the Amazon's CO2 emissions has been in the journal "Nature". Researchers 600 profiles of CO2 and carbon monoxide emissions by fires at various sites in Brazil's Amazon between 2010 and 2018. They that the fires about 1.5 billion tons of CO2 a year, while forest growth just 0.5 billion tons. The researchers said the difference of one billion tons in the atmosphere is equivalent to the annual emissions of Japan, which the world's fifth-largest polluter. Professor Simon Lewis, from University College London, said: "The south-east Amazon sink-to-source story yet another stark warning that climate impacts are ."