Amazon rainforest deteriorating too fast for species, climate to adapt

Already, 17% of the rainforest has been impacted by disturbances like logging, fires and road expansion, and 14% of it has been replaced with pasture or cropland

Two new scientific review articles by international teams of researchers paint a bleak picture of the state of the Amazon rainforest: The critical ecosystem is being damaged at an unprecedented pace, they warn, which may usher in “a qualitatively different global climate regime” with grievous effects on biodiversity and human welfare. 

The papers, both published in the peer-reviewed journal Science on Thursday, summarize research on deforestation and landscape degradation in the Amazon to deliver a sharp message. The region that is key to the world’s climate system “is now perched to transition rapidly from a largely forested to a