(ORDO NEWS) — An international team of climate scientists has found evidence that deforestation in the Amazon rainforest is affecting the weather in Tibet, more than 15,000 kilometers away.
Earth‘s climate is a tightly coupled system, and it’s even as if local ecosystem changes, such as Amazonian deforestation, affect very distant regions, such as Antarctica and Tibet.
An international team of climate scientists has shown that deforestation in the Amazon rainforest is affecting the weather in Tibet, more than 15,000 kilometers away.
In their paper, the researchers described the possible long-term effects of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.
The Amazon rainforest is considered one of those key ecosystems where gradual local changes can eventually lead to sudden global climate changes.
As deforestation increases, it is getting closer and closer to this critical point.
After that, according to scientists, the rainforest can no longer be restored, even if all cuttings are stopped and the trees are planted again.
In the new work, the researchers collected deforestation data for the period 1979-2019 and climate data for the same period.
They wondered what impact the slowly shrinking rainforest might have on the outlying regions of the world.
Scientists have discovered that due to the cutting down of trees, temperatures are rising in the Amazon region.
Temperature rises correlate with rising temperatures in Tibet and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Scientists have shown that when more rain falls in the Amazon, rainfall decreases in the other two regions.
Key points of the Earth’s climate
The numbered symbols show potential climate tipping points on Earth.
Dashed yellow lines show possible connections between these points, and solid red lines show distant connections found in the new work. The arrows show the direction of influence.
The researchers were able to trace the pathways of climate change as the size of the rainforest got smaller.
They saw that a rough route of influence could be traced first to southern Africa, then to the Arabian Peninsula, and finally to Tibet.
The discovery, the researchers note, suggests that if a tipping point is reached in the Amazon, it could create a tipping point in Tibet as well, changing temperatures and precipitation.
Scientists note that previous studies have already shown that warming in Tibet is happening faster than the global average.
Tibet is called the water tower of Asia. This is where the rivers that feed 2 billion people begin their journey.
We wrote that Tibet is melting and this could have dire consequences for the whole of Asia. As scientists have shown in their work, deforestation of the Amazon also affects the melting of Tibet.
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