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Does the Amazon provide 20% of our oxygen?

yadvindermalhi.org

21–30 of 227 posts

Re: Does the Amazon provide 20% of our oxygen?

#21
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no active sequestration for a static forest. Only if the forest is expanding in size will sequestration occur. Obviously reducing the size via burning has the opposite effect

But doesn't it regrow from the hashes?

Eventually. See my other comment

Re: Does the Amazon provide 20% of our oxygen?

#22
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no active sequestration for a static forest. Only if the forest is expanding in size will sequestration occur. Obviously reducing the size via burning has the opposite effect

But doesn't it regrow from the hashes?

From the ashes? Not if it's turned into a ranch!

And I'm not qualified to answer what happens when you burn down an entire millenia-old ecosystem. Seems plausible that it might not go straight back to its old self in a human-relevant timeframe.

Re: Does the Amazon provide 20% of our oxygen?

#23
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just another political play to oust Bolsonaro, the Brazil's president, from power. There have already been EU voices pushing for sanctions against Brazil and the Amazon fires are on the G7 agenda which brings a lot of negative press against the political body in Brazil. All the while central Africa is also ravaged by fires but you don't hear that in the news. Like most of what you hear in the big press, it co…

You’re being downvoted, but it clearly is a political move. The fires aren’t even outside of the average and already countries are applying political pressure on the president. When the facts are detached from the narrative, it’s usually a political story.

I heard the fires were up by 87% from last year, no matter the base rate, nearly double seems to qualify as "outside the average"

Re: Does the Amazon provide 20% of our oxygen?

#24
post #9
post #3

The basic gist of the article is found about 1/2 way in: "First, the phytoplankton in the oceans also photosynthesise [...] Therefore in terms of TOTAL global photosynthesis, photosynthesis in the Amazon contributes around 9%. [...] Second, a bigger point that is often missed is that the Amazon consumes about as much oxygen as it produces." This reminds me, as we should all be reminded on a regular basis, the bulk of…

I mean.. I get your point.. but 9% is still a lot, and even if it's net-zero, the carbon sequestration going into that process can't be negligible. It may be a click-bait factoid, but it's not like that factoid isn't an important one.

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Re: Does the Amazon provide 20% of our oxygen?

#27
post #8
post #3

The basic gist of the article is found about 1/2 way in: "First, the phytoplankton in the oceans also photosynthesise [...] Therefore in terms of TOTAL global photosynthesis, photosynthesis in the Amazon contributes around 9%. [...] Second, a bigger point that is often missed is that the Amazon consumes about as much oxygen as it produces." This reminds me, as we should all be reminded on a regular basis, the bulk of…

This is just another political play to oust Bolsonaro, the Brazil's president, from power. There have already been EU voices pushing for sanctions against Brazil and the Amazon fires are on the G7 agenda which brings a lot of negative press against the political body in Brazil. All the while central Africa is also ravaged by fires but you don't hear that in the news. Like most of what you hear in the big press, it co…

[deleted]

Re: Does the Amazon provide 20% of our oxygen?

#28
post #3

The basic gist of the article is found about 1/2 way in: "First, the phytoplankton in the oceans also photosynthesise [...] Therefore in terms of TOTAL global photosynthesis, photosynthesis in the Amazon contributes around 9%. [...] Second, a bigger point that is often missed is that the Amazon consumes about as much oxygen as it produces." This reminds me, as we should all be reminded on a regular basis, the bulk of…

Netflix has a pretty cool series called "One Strange Rock". You should watch it, they explain the Amazon's role well in one episode.

First of all oxygen is constant. Oxygen is currently not the problem. And it's a good thing that it's constant because we don't want more of it either.

The problem with Amazon is that on Earth it's all interconnected and while there's plenty of room for failure, there is a tipping point, scientists have only disagreed on where that tipping point is. Once we are there however we will no longer be able to stop the chain reaction.

Re: Does the Amazon provide 20% of our oxygen?

#29
post #14
post #6

This subject has been treated so irresponsibly these past few days that not only people are making inaccurate statements such as "the Amazon provides 20% of our oxygen", but also high profile people such as Emmanuel Macron (France's President) and Cristiano Ronaldo (World famous soccer player) are sharing false information and photos[1] [1] http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=&sl=pt&tl=en&u=http...

All of US presidential candidates, democratic and republican alike, routinely and knowingly push blatant lies as a part of their platform and nobody blinks an eye. If you went through what they say with a fine toothed comb and removed all the lies, there'd be hardly anything left. People don't care about facts. They care about how a narrative makes them feel. Sad but true.

Agree. There's purposefully lying to achieve targets, and ignorantly spreading lies that help someone in addition to lending them credibility and exposure. The latter hurts more than the former: For instance, Cristiano Ronaldo is a much bigger influencer than most Senators or even Hollywood personalities can ever hope to be. I think, people like them need to exercise great caution, if they intend to mean well and not cause harm.

Re: Does the Amazon provide 20% of our oxygen?

#30
post #19

More importantly as the planet's "lungs" the Amazon filters a great quantity of carbon dioxide from the air.

I googled some and it looks like Amazon rainforest alone removes about a quarter of fossil fuel CO2 from the atmosphere. That's more than I thought it'd be. And it looks like it could sequester much more if there was more phosphorus in the soil.

Where did you see that figure?
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