Name: Will We Lose Oxygen If We Lose the Amazon Rainforest?
Uploaded: 2020-04-05T17:21:50.000Z
Duration: 10 min 1 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

The Amazon Rainforest is big news right now as fires continue to consume its lush landscape.

It's essential to our planet's climate, ecosystem, and more.

If we do nothing, the Amazon could be gone within 100 years.

A lot of the ingredients in our modern medicines come from the plants of the Amazon.

These include the most important medications, such as essential vaccines.

Many of the plants of the Amazon are still being studied today with the hope of finding

ingredients that will cure some of our most serious diseases.

If all the plants are wiped out, we could lose our chance at advancing our field of

The economy of South America would be ruined.

The Amazon Rainforest covers about 40% of South America, covering 8 countries.

If it was suddenly gone, a lot of South America's exports and businesses would disappear with

Millions of people depend on the Amazon basin for their income.

It would certainly be devastating for South American people; it would also seriously damage

the global trade route, which would impact the whole world!

The Amazon is referred to as “the planet's lungs” for a reason.

Our planet gets 20% of its oxygen from this Rainforest, due to its massive size.

If the fires continue, not only will we lose that huge oxygen source, but extra pollution

Fires cause carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, and other nasty gases and toxins to run rampant

Normally, all the Amazon's trees would do the cleanup for us, given that all trees convert

But without them, we'd be at the mercy of those toxins.

Covering just over 2 million square miles, the Amazon is home to 30% of our planet's

It's also home to some animals that can't be found anywhere else.

We'd be losing important biodiversity, which refers to the variety of life in an ecosystem.

It prevents extinction and allows plants and animals to keep evolving and adapting.

If there's no biodiversity, it could wipe out an entire ecosystem.

Fires are actually normal in the Amazon during the dry season—they've just never been

To cope with the fires of the dry season, the Rainforest came up with its own toxin

storage system, helped along by the huge number of trees.

If all the trees were gone, that storage system would no longer work, and those toxins would

This would disrupt the atmospheric circulation, placing that heat where it's not supposed

to be; like in the Arctic, melting glaciers.

The Rainforest would become a carbon source.

Let's unpack that storage system a little more.

The Amazon's trees absorb carbon dioxide, a primary greenhouse gas.

Greenhouses gases are able to trap and reflect the sun's radiation back to Earth.

Scientists say that about 86 billion tons of carbon dioxide are embedded in the Amazon.

If all the trees are burned, instead of storing carbon dioxide, it'll be released, affecting

the climate, atmosphere, and air quality on a global scale.

There would be a loss of natural resources.

In addition to oxygen and medicinal plants, we'd also lose a substantial supplier of

As far as minerals go, we'd lose a primary source of gold, silver, tin, copper, and zinc.

As for that essential water, the Amazon River provides 20% of the world's fresh water

And, if you love your hot cup of coffee in the morning?

Well … If the Amazon were destroyed, you can kiss your morning joe goodbye, in addition

to fruits, rice, and CHOCOLATE, just to name a few.

Soil Erosion We don't usually give soil a lot of thought,

but it can actually cause a lot of damage when it moves around!

Soil is held in place by plants; mainly by the roots of trees.

If there are no trees to hold it in place, storms and winds can push it around, polluting

water, and even causing dangerous mudslides.

The soil could also clog irrigation structures, causing a big problem for farmers.

And it could potentially cause a loss of electricity.

We could start seeing a cycle of more fires.

The Rainforest can repair itself and grow again after a normal forest fire, given that

But if the saplings don't survive, the smoke and other gases from the fire will dry the

Also, a healthy Rainforest can produce its own rain, making any burned and damaged areas

If the compromised Amazon can no longer do this, coupled with the dry air, fires will

pop up everywhere, even long distances away.

There won't be anything to naturally stop the fires or repair the damage, as evolution

Unpredictable drought and rainfall patterns.

Science has shown that rainforests, in general, influence the climate both globally and locally.

If we get into this scary, unending cycle of the Amazon Rainforest not being able to

generate rain, getting dry, and causing widespread fires, droughts would be inevitable.

It would still rain, but it'd be less often, and without help from the Rainforest.

It would be difficult to estimate when the next rain will come, making life unpredictable

I've talked a lot about fires and droughts, so this one might not make sense, but stay

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Will We Lose Oxygen If We Lose the Amazon Rainforest?

essential

compromise

evolve

atmosphere