Brazil’s Great Amazon Rainforest Burns as Parched Megacities Fall Under Existential Threat

“One need only look at today’s satellite image of Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest to notice something’s terribly wrong. A vast 1,000 mile swath of what should be some of the wettest lands on the globe running south of the world’s largest river is covered by a dense pall of smoke. Scores of plumes boil up out of the burning and sweltering forest. Pumping dark clouds into the sky, the fires’ tell-tale streaks out over a drought-parched Brazil, across the Atlantic, and over to Africa where the plume is again thickened by yet more wildfires.”  From: robertscribbler.com

GR:  AFTER THE FIRES:  Lightning-caused or human-caused forest fires destroy natural ecosystems when these occur:

1. Soil-damaging land use (farming, grazing, recreation) begins immediately after the fire
2. New fires occur before the original vegetation has time to recover
3. Invasive plants are introduced
4. OR, climate has changed to a regime more suited to a different vegetation (grassland or shrubland)

Any of these might lead to more or less permanent decline in biodiversity, productivity, and stability.  Combinations of two or more are highly likely to cause permanent decline.  (#desertification, #fire, #vegetation-change, and see:  http://garryrogers.com/?s=Fire&submit=Search).

See on Scoop.it – GarryRogers Biosphere News