| Clean air could kill the Amazon, researchers say |
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| Sunday, 29 June 2008 | |
 The study in the journal Nature identified a link between reduced sulphur dioxide emissions from coal burning and increased sea surface temperatures in the tropical North Atlantic that boosts the drought risk in the Amazon rainforest.
With the rainforest already threatened by development, higher global temperatures could tip the balance, they said. In the pre-industrial age, the Amazon was less vulnerable. But higher temperatures and destruction of the forest make droughts far more likely than in the past, the researchers said. "The Amazon is said to be the lungs of the planet," Cox said in a telephone interview. "You don't want to damage it." The researchers believe that efforts to clean up sulphate aerosol particles from coal burning at power stations in the 1970s and 1980s helps to explain the threat. The pollution predominately in the northern hemisphere had limited warming in the tropical north Atlantic, keeping the Amazon wetter than it normally would have been. But with that protection evaporating due to cleaner air and as greenhouse gases fuel global warming, the rainforest now faces a deadly drought risk, the researchers said. "Reduced sulphur emissions in North America and Europe will see tropical rain bands move northwards as the north Atlantic warms, resulting in a sharp increase in the risk of Amazonian drought," Chris Huntingford, a researcher at Britain's Centre for Hydrology and Ecology said. The findings highlight the need to deal not only with greenhouse gas emissions but also with the direct destruction of the rainforests as well, the researchers said. They said 20 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions stem from burning of trees to build new homes and roads as development pushes farther into the delicate region, they added. "You can argue there is a greater urgency to deal with the deforestation issue in our model," he said. Source: Reuters
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